Five best tips to help your child improve their English phonics.

As a phonics teacher, I try to go back to my childhood to remember how I learnt how to read and spell. Did I attend any phonics classes? Was I sounding out words? What about memorising the phonemic alphabet? The only thing I remember and still use to this day is the alphabet song!

Why are phonics important and how can I help my child use phonics for spelling? What are the tips to help my kids with English phonics? Singapore is a bilingual country. This fact alone makes learning advanced phonics manipulation a challenge for students. English tuition centres are plentiful and they all seem to offer the same phonics classes, why should I choose one over the other?

Here are five tips we utilise at the centre and that can be used at home too.

1) Pronounce last sounds. At the cost of being pedantic, a child needs to be corrected if they pronounce a word wrongly. It is “elephanT”, not “elephan”!

2) Memorise each phonemic sound using flashcards. Yes, certain letters may have different sounds but most tend to be consistent so it is important to do so!

3) Stress the first sounds and open your mouth. Students tend to mumble therefore overemphasizing sounds really does help them pronounce words better.

4) A/E are different sounds! The more a student is reminded of this, the easier it will be to spell.

5) Blending consonant clusters. Most students learn quickly how to blend a consonant and a vowel, blending 2 or 3 consonants however is the most challenging part and one where memorisation can be of great help.

Call 87983129 today for a free diagnostic assessment for your kids. See you soon!