Subtle Touch Tutoring

All About the /sh/ Sound

The teaching of phonics sounds/spellings can be largely categorized into a simple code and a complex code. The simple code is fairly simple and straightforward where one letter represents just one sound. For example, letter B makes the /b/ sound. The complex code is where letter(s) can make multiple sounds, and multiple spellings making the same sound. For example, CH makes the /ch/, /sh/, and /k/ sounds (chop, chef, school). The /sh/ sound has multiple spellings including "sh", "ch", "ti", "ci", and "si/ssi". (Note: slashes / / denote the sound made.)

CH - /ch/, /sh/, /k/ (chop, chef, school)

/sh/ - "sh", "ch", "ti", "ci", "si/ssi" (shop, chef, potion, special, vision, mission)

Complicated huh? You bet. There are many other examples, but I won't list them all here. We're going to discuss the /sh/ sound and it's different spellings here.

You will likely confuse a young child if you tried teaching all of these at the same time. There's no simple way of going about it, so what I typically do is I teach the spellings that have higher frequency of occurrence in words. For the /sh/ sound, I would start teaching the "SH" spelling. If I have an older G1 or G2 student, and if I'm comfortable with their ability/progress, then I may make them aware that "CH" can also make the /sh/ sound, and sometimes - not often - I will introduce the additional spellings of "ti", "ci", and "ssi".

I find it much better to wait until a student has a solid grasp of the "SH" spelling for the /sh/ sound before introducing the others, and I also find it easier to teach the additional spellings to students as they come across them during reading sessions.

The nice thing about the "ti", "ci", and "si/ssi" spellings is that you'll notice that they tend to have similar endings. I'll give some examples below:

ti

potion
motion
portion
action
cautious
nutritious
ambitious
partial
substantial
potential

The "ti" spelling for the /sh/ sound typically end with:

tion
tious
tial

ci

artificial
facial
social
magician
technician
physician
delicious
spacious
precious

The "ci" spelling for the /sh/ sound typically end with:

cial
cian
cious

si

fusion
vision
decision
tension

ssi

passion
mission
compression
discussion

"si" and "ssi" spellings will end with "sion" or "ssion".

Another interesting thing to note in these endings is that the vowels in these are typically a schwa. What's a schwa? Well, that's another topic that we'll have to explore some other time.

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Good afternoon everyone, Please let me know if you guys know any scholars who may be struggling with reading. I am certified through the Ohio Ace program as an ELA tutor, and because of summer I have some openings.

If you are a parent who is under this program and maybe interested please do reach out. Thanks everyone and have a beautiful day!!



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