If you’ve ever looked at your child’s phonics word (or even our logo!) and spotted little dots, lines, or dashes under the letters, you’ve already met sound buttons!
They’re a wonderfully simple tool used in early reading to help children break words into phonemes (the individual sounds) and blend them together.
Sound buttons turn a written word into something visual, structured, and easier to decode – especially for new readers who are not familiar with how the letters in a word might group together to make certain sounds.
What exactly are Sound Buttons?
Sound buttons are small marks placed under each grapheme (letter or group of letters) in a word. They help children:
- See which letters contribute to which sound within a word
- Identify how many sounds are in a word
- See where each sound sits
- Blend those sounds smoothly from left to right
There are two main types of sound button that you will see underneath letters, with a third one occurring occasionally.
● Dots underneath single-letter sounds: a dot goes under a single-letter grapheme that represents one sound
____ Dashes underneath digraphs (2-letter sounds) and trigraphs (3-letter sounds): A line or dash goes under a digraph (two letters) or trigraph (three letters) that make one sound.
Dashes or arches between the two letters of a split digraph: The third one is usually shown as a dash or arch between the two letters of a split digraph, with a space for another letter between them.
These simple symbols give children learning phonics a clear guide as to whether a letter (or letters) make one sound or are part of another one. For example, with a single sound button dash underneath ‘igh’ in the word ‘night’ we are able to see that it isn’t three separate sounds, but one long /igh/ sound!
How do we use sound buttons?
As well as being a visual aid for identifying sounds, children are also encouraged to ‘touch’ the buttons to help them identify and read each one.
If the button is a dot, they tap it whilst saying the individual sound. If it’s a dash, they move their finger along the dash whilst saying the sound those letters make.
Once they have done this for each sound button in the order they appear, they blend the sounds together to make the word!
See the video below for a quick example of how this works!
Tips for Parents and Teachers
- Use highlighters, stickers, or coloured pens for extra engagement.
- Encourage children to tap or stroke each sound button as they read.
- Try adding sound buttons to tricky words to check how many regular sounds they contain.
- Show children words with and without sound buttons, ask them to remember where the buttons went and what each sound is.
- For home learning, let children draw their own sound buttons under printed or handwritten words.
Check out our free resources to help with sound buttons...
