The process is a little like knowing the different sounds in a song, so we know how to sing it. The pronunciation of each letter is clear and distinct without adding any additional sounds.
Historically we were taught to say the letter with an ‘uh’ sound after it, meaning the /s/ sound might be heard as “suh” instead of “ssss”.
Phonics encourages the learning of ‘pure sounds’ to ensure children can then use their learned sounds to sound out most of the words.
Look at the following example, where the word sounds totally different if we use those ‘uh’ letter sounds instead of our pure ones.
This might seem simple to us as we know what the words say, often by sight, but for a child learning to decode these words it can be the difference between recognising a word and not!
First steps to learning pure sounds...
Try to work with your child to focus on the the sounds each letter of the alphabet makes before they learn the names of the letters.
For example, the letter “S” makes the sound “ssss” (like a snake) and it’s name is pronounced “es”.
This will help your child with their development of speech and reading as it avoids confusion when learning phonics.
Choose simple words like “sun” and emphasise each sound when saying the word. Use this video as a framework to assist the learning and to also make it fun!
Home Learning Task
Check out our video on the /s/ sound...
Our YouTube and social media accounts have lots of example videos of how each sound is pronounced. Have a look at them for clear examples to guide you and your child on how each sound is pronounced and where it is found in words.