Phonics for Kids – The Difference Between Phonics and Phonetics

Language skills are the basis for a child developing as a fluent reader. Children with parents and caregivers who read and talk to them have an enormous advantage.

Learning how to spell (encode) and read (decode) words are simple skills to learn when taught properly. Children who are taught these skills early will most likely develop into fluent readers.

This article is about phonetics and phonics.

Phonetics is the name given to the scientific study of how speech sounds of all languages are produced. It is complex, scientific study of language.

Phonics is a method of teaching people to decode and encode words by correlating sounds with alphabetic symbols.

Phonetics is much more detailed than phonics which simplifies language for reading and spelling.

Phonics for kids in the early stages of reading is a necessary skill for a child to master. Phonics for kids needs to be taught systematically. It is very easy to confuse beginning readers.

The important organs of speech are:

• the tongue
• the hard palate
• the lips
• the teeth
• the soft palate
• vocal cords of the larynx

The sounds made by the organs of speech are divided into 2 categories -

Consonants and Vowels

There are consonant and vowels sounds in English.

All words must contain at least 1 vowel sound.

Consonants

Consonant sounds are made with a complete or partial stoppage of breath or audible(heard) friction stoppage. Consonant sounds are made using the lips , teeth and teeth ridge, front palatal and back palatal (palate)

The sounds are described as:

plosive- the air flow is first stopped by lips, teeth or palate and quickly released.

fricative- Sound made by breath in a small opening

nasal - soft palate is lowered allowing the breath to enter the nasal cavity.

lateral - produced by raising the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth.

rolled -  teeth and teeth ridge used for tongue to block air. the air  flows past one or both sides of the tongue.

glides or semi-vowels - the tongue is close enough to the top of the mouth and produces a slight turbulance.

The above are very broad distinctions but show how complex language is.

English Consonant Sounds are:  Digraphs are two letters that spell one sound.

/b/ bat    /c/ cat   /d/ dog   /f/ fog   /g/ got    /h/ hat    /j/ jump  /k/ kid    /l/ lid

/m/ man    /n/ not

/p/ pan     /r/ rat     /s/ sun     /t/ top     /v/ van     /w/ win     /z/ zip    /ng/ bring 

/sh/ shop     /th/ thin

/th/ then    /ks/(x) fix     /ch/ chip     /kw/(q) quit

 An interesting and enlightening activity is to make each consonant sound and notice how you make each sound.

Two  examples:

How the sounds /f/ and /r/ are made

/f/ – is pronounced by contact between the upper teeth and lip.

/r/ – is pronounced with the blade of the tongue against the ridge above the teeth.

Vowel Sounds

A vowel sound is one where there is no stoppage of breath or no audible friction blocking it on exhaling.

The English Vowel Sounds are shown on a table at the end of this article. 

Most English vowel sounds have multiple spellings. This makes English spelling less than straight forward. 

 Vowels differ from one another by the position the tongue takes when each one is produced. The tongue is either thrust forward or backward in the mouth. A vowel sound is ‘closed’ or ‘open’ depending on the arching of the tongue when it is spoken.

A dipthong is a double vowel sound. It happens when a speaker starts to pronounce 1 vowel and then proceeds immediately in the direction of another.

The chief dipthongs in English can be seen in the following words.

time    tame    boy    boil    now    house    yawn    know    here    air  

Listen to the sounds as you say them. The spelling sometimes contradicts. 

The lips are rounded in various positions when vowel sounds are spoken. 

Summary:

The term phonetics is used for the scientific representation of speech sounds by means of written symbols. There is a phonetic alphabet and to the lay person it can seem very complicated. Phonetic spelling is much more complicated than everyday spelling.

A way to ensure your child gets systematic phonics training is to look for programs that can be studIed at home. This will supplement the work done at school.

ClickN Kids Phonics is an online phonics program. It contains a three year phonics course. It is scientifically based and produced by a language professor.The lessons build upon one another and a child can work through each lesson at their own pace. The program has graphics that children relate to but the emphais is on serious learning. Children sense this. All work done can be reviewed and practiced until mastery.  

For more information click on the ClickN Read icon on this page. Some excellent testimonials are also published.

Phonics for Kids is a great way to ensure a child will become a fluent reader and speller.

The English Vowel Sounds

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