• The Research Behind Phonics Hero
• ‘Synthetic’ vs Analytic Phonics
• Spelling & Synthetic Phonics
• Dyslexia and Synthetic Phonics
• The 5 Reading Skills
• Pronounce the Sounds

Synthetic Phonics & Spelling

The beauty of synthetic phonics is; as it teaches reading it also teaches spelling! Reading involves breaking words into separate sounds and blending them together to read the word. Whereas spelling is the opposite; listening for the sounds in the word and representing them with a letter. In Phonics Hero a child learns to read a bank of words, and then learns to spell these same words.

The Spelling Code:

Spelling difficulties are rife in the English speaking word – it’s a tricky language. However, when a child is taught the logic of spelling and explicitly taught the phonics code, it gives them a solid spelling foundation. Synthetic phonics will teach a child:

• That spoken words are composed of sounds, and that letters represent these sounds.
• That spelling involves listening for the sounds in words and representing it with a letter or letters.
• That there are different ways each sounds can be represented. For example, the sound /ay/ as in ‘apron’ can be spelled: ‘ay’ like in ‘pay’, ‘ai’ like in ‘paid’, ‘a’ like in ‘apron’, ‘eigh’ like in ‘eight’ and so on.
• To try the spelling choices for a word and decide which one looks right. Like this:

It sounds out as ‘birthday’ but it doesn’t look right!