16/08/2026
After teaching letter sounds, don't rush straight into memorising whole words. The next stage should help the child understand how sounds work together to form words.
A good teaching sequence is:
Sound recognition
Show a letter and ask for its sound.
Example: m → /m/, s → /s/
Oral blending
Say the sounds separately and let the child blend them.
/s/ /a/ /t/ → sat
Do this orally before expecting the child to read lots of printed words.
VC words
Begin with two-sound words:
am, an, at, in, it, on, up
CVC words
Move to:
cat, mat, sit, pin, dog, sun, bed
Segmenting
Teach the child to break words into sounds for spelling.
dog → /d/ /o/ /g/
Word families
at: cat, bat, hat, mat
an: man, fan, pan, can
ig: big, dig, pig, wig
CV combinations
ba, be, bi, bo, bu
ca, ce, ci, co, cu
These can help children become comfortable combining consonants and vowels.
Tricky/common words
Introduce words that cannot always be decoded regularly, such as the, was, said, one—but teach them explicitly rather than encouraging guessing.
Simple sentences
Once the child can blend confidently:
The cat sat.
A dog is big.
Sam can hop.
Decodable reading
Give the child short texts containing patterns and sounds they have already learned.
The key progression is:
Letter sounds → oral blending → VC words → CVC words → segmenting → word families → simple sentences → decodable books
And remember: letter sounds alone do not make a child a reader. The crucial bridge is teaching the child to blend those sounds together.
