Helping at home

1. Saying sounds correctly
   This is really important when you are helping your child to learn the sounds. Just remember not to add an uh to the end of the consonant sounds.

2. Linking sounds to letters
   Encourage your child to make a link between the sound and the written letter shape. Start with the sounds in your child’s name and then look out for them in signs.

3. Sounds represented by more than one letter
   Some sounds are represented by more than one letter such as sh in ship, ch in chat, th in thin, qu in quick and ng in sing. Point out examples of these to your child too. You might see them in posters, signs, or leaflets.

4. Practise, practise, practise
   Build up a knowledge of the letters and sounds quite quickly with your child and keep practising so that it becomes automatic. Keep reminding ‘Do you remember when we were talking about the sound ch...?’, or ‘Oh look! There’s a big t (sound) on that poster.

5. Putting sounds together to read simple words
   Say the sounds c-a-t to read cat, sh-o-p to read shop and s-t-r-ee-t to read street. If your child gets stuck and is struggling to blend the sounds, say the sounds yourself, quickly, until your child can hear the word! Only beginner readers need to sound out every word as they read all the time. But, they will still need to work out new and long words.

6. Tricky words
   Some every day words in English have tricky spellings and can’t be read by blending. Imagine trying to read the word ‘said’ or ‘does’ by blending each letter! These are sometimes called high frequency words, tricky words, or red words. These words just have to be learned by sight and flashcard-type games are a good way to practise these.

7. Reading books
   We will send home decodable books. This means the books contain mostly words that children can read by sounding out to get them off to a good start with independent reading. After your child has read a page, you can read it aloud again, to make sure that the story is enjoyed and understood.

8. Using pictures
   Pictures are great for sharing and talking about a story (which is really important too!) but don’t encourage your child to use pictures to guess the words that they don’t already know.

9. Writing letters
   Teach your child how to write the letters as the letter sounds are learned. 

10. Common sense...

Lots and lots of books! Carry on sharing and reading lots and lots of stories and information books to and with your child. Praise and hugs! Most importantly, remember that your child will learn much faster with encouragement, praise and hugs.