If you’re feeling a little lost when it comes to teaching your child to read, you’re not alone. Most of us don’t remember how we learned to read and reading instruction has changed a lot since many of us were in school. If you haven’t had a crash course in the “science of reading,” all the new terms and teaching methods can feel overwhelming.
But here’s the good news: you don’t have to be a reading expert to support your child. You just need a little guidance and information.
In this post, we’ll walk through the most common phonics terms you’re likely to encounter as you help your child learn to read. We’ll provide you with simple, clear definitions that will help you feel more confident and prepared to support your child’s reading at home. Finally, I’ll leave you with a FREE Phonics Terms cheat sheet you can download and refer to as you support your child’s reading journey.
What is the Science of Reading?
Before we dive into phonics terms, let’s make sure we are clear on what the Science of Reading is and what it is not.
The Science of Reading (SoR) summarizes research that examines how we learn to read and what methods best help children learn to read. The research comes from a variety of disciplines including developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience. The science of reading has been documented around the world, in all languages and cultures.
The science of reading not a curriculum, a theory, or a philosophy.
The Science of Reading provides us information for how to teach reading most effectively.
Curious to learn more about the science of reading? Check out this post where I share break down the basics of the Science of Reading and give you simple, effective ways to support your child at home.
What’s the Difference Between Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics?
These terms sound very similar and often get used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Let’s take a closer look at each one and understand how they are connected…
Phonological Awareness – This is your child’s ability to hear and play with the sounds in spoken words. It includes skills like recognizing rhymes, clapping out syllables, and hearing the first sound in a word.
Phonemic Awareness – A more advanced skill within phonological awareness. It means your child can hear and manipulate individual sounds in words—like knowing that the word cat is made up of the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/.
Phonics – This is where we match sounds with letters. Phonics is all about connecting spoken sounds to the letters that represent them.
Common Phonics Terms Parents Should Know
Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, the word dog has three phonemes: /d/ /o/ /g/.
Grapheme
A grapheme is the letter (or group of letters) that represents a sound. Some graphemes are just one letter (like b in bat), while others use two or more letters (sh in ship).
Digraph
A digraph is two letters that make one sound. Examples: sh (as in ship), ch (as in chat), and th (as in thin).
Diphthong
A diphthong is when two vowel sounds blend together in the same syllable. Think of how your mouth moves when saying boy or cloud—the sound glides from one vowel to another.
Vowel Team
A vowel team is two or more letters working together to make a single vowel sound, like oa in boat or ee in tree.
R-Controlled Vowel (Bossy R)
When the letter r follows a vowel, it changes the way the vowel sounds—like in car (ar sound), bird (ir sound), and turn (ur sound).
Consonant Blend (or Consonant Cluster)
A blend is two or more consonants next to each other where you can still hear each sound, like bl in blue or str in street.
We’re just skimming the surface here! If you want to dive a little deeper, check out this post from Lead in Literacy where you’ll find concise definitions for the more phonics terms you will encounter when teaching phonics.
Key Reading Skills for Parents to Know
Blending – This is when your child strings sounds together to read a word. Example: /s/ /a/ /t/ → sat!
Segmenting – The opposite of blending! Your child breaks a word into its individual sounds: dog → /d/ /o/ /g/.
Encoding – This is just a fancy way of saying “spelling.” Your child listens to a word and writes the letters that match the sounds.
Decoding – The process of reading words by sounding them out.
FREE Phonics Cheat Sheet for Parents
I know this is a lot of information to remember! To help you, I’m happy to offer you a Free Phonics Cheat Sheet so you always have a quick reference! Drop your email below and we’ll immediately send it to your inbox!
Now that you know these key phonics terms, you’re one step closer to helping your child become a confident reader! The more you understand how reading works, the easier it will be to support your child at home.