What is Phonics?

Phonics is a method of learning to read. It was the normal method for many years until the whole word method was brought in about 30 years ago. Using the whole word approach, children are asked to look at a whole word and become familiar with its spelling. The aim is that they will recognise it in future reading, and hopefully be able to spell it when they write it.

The phonic approach, on the other hand, starts with the sounds of the alphabet. Children are exposed to simple words first, such as cat and picnic. They sound them out, letter by letter. Then they are gradually introduced to the sounds of the typical letter-patterns of English, such as ch and aw and tion.

This approach opens their eyes to a vast vocabulary from an early age. They can read, for themselves, many words in the world outside of school. This is rewarding and motivating for them. We at Fitzroy Programs have received many messages of thanks from teachers and parents. We are often told that a child's reading confidence has been restored.

The vast majority of English conforms to phonic rules. But there are some common (mostly short) words which need to be learned by sight - not sounded out. This complication is handled differently by other phonic approaches. We believe ours to be the most efficient. We simply call these special words and learn a few with each of our 70 Reader stories.

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Other Phonic Approaches

Some schools, still basically using a whole-word approach, have only an unsystematic smattering of phonics. Children still get lost and confused.

(Some children, having been introduced to phonics, work out many of the sounds and rules for themselves. But if you want to be sure of confident reading and writing, an ability to decode new words, and accurate spelling, it is advisable to use the systematic phonics approach as we do with the Fitzroy Materials.)

There are some older phonic methods which laboriously try to make a rule for every unusual spelling of the English language. We judge this to be too much theory for little people. Yes, children do like rules and guidelines: but they can cope with a small proportion of exceptions too.

The problem with the whole-word approach is that every word is like an exception. There are no rules. It is an "immersion" approach. Many children do not take to this form of learning. For many children, the long haul of immersion before they can read a book for themselves wears out their reading confidence.

Some older phonic methods require the children to learn all the digraphs and patterns before they start to read. This delays the satisfaction of reading for oneself for far too long. In the Fitzroy Method, the early Readers have a very restricted vocabulary. Then, (after the first few of our very simple stories) we add a new sound (letter-pattern) to each story and a few special words (like the and said - words we don't try to sound out). This phonic start with a whole-word approach to the special words proves to be the most efficient way to establish reading confidence and accuracy from the start.

Fitzroy Range

• Alphabet Book
• Alphabetics game
• Answer Books
• Audio CDs
• Fitzroy Files
• Fitzroy Sounds
• Phonics Readers
• Phonics Software
• Teacher's Guide
• Word Families
• Word Skills