What is synthetic phonics?
Synthetic phonics teaches reading by starting with the smallest sounds in English and showing children how those sounds combine into words. A child learns that the letter c says /c/, the letter a says /a/ and the letter t says /t/, then pushes them together: c, a, t, cat. Reading goes from sound to word, and spelling runs the same path in reverse.
Two words you will hear a lot are blending and segmenting. Blending is merging sounds to read a word. Segmenting is pulling a word apart into sounds so you can spell it. Synthetic phonics practises both, usually in the same short lesson.
English has around 44 sounds but only 26 letters, so many sounds are written with two or more letters: sh, ai, igh. Synthetic phonics teaches those combinations explicitly rather than leaving children to spot them.
What happens in a synthetic phonics lesson?
A lesson is short, brisk and follows much the same shape each day, so children know what is coming. Most lessons last around 15 to 20 minutes and move quickly through sounds the class already knows before introducing something new.
- Revisit: quick-fire practice of sounds and words taught earlier.
- Teach: one new sound, with the letter or letters that spell it. Many programmes start with s, a, t, p, i, n because those letters make plenty of simple words.
- Practise: read words containing the new sound by blending, then write a word or a sentence by segmenting.
- Apply: read a sentence or a very short text that uses only the sounds learned so far.
The order is planned, not random. That is what people mean by a systematic programme: sounds are introduced in a set sequence, and each lesson assumes the ones before it.
What do phoneme, grapheme and digraph mean?
A phoneme is a single unit of sound, and a grapheme is the letter or letters that spell it. These three terms come up constantly in phonics homework, so they are worth knowing.
- Phoneme: the smallest sound in a word. Cat has three: /c/ /a/ /t/. Sheep also has three: /sh/ /ee/ /p/.
- Grapheme: the written form of one sound. It might be one letter (b), two (sh) or three (igh).
- Digraph: two letters making one sound, such as sh, ch, th, ai or ee.
- Split digraph: two letters that work as a pair with a gap between them, as in cake (a and e) or bike (i and e).
- Trigraph: three letters making one sound, such as igh in light or ear in hear.
When you blend with your child, use the pure sound rather than adding an uh to the end. Say a short /c/, not cuh, or cat becomes cuhaTuh.
How is synthetic phonics different from other approaches?
The main contrast is with analytic phonics, which starts from whole words and asks children to spot the shared sound: hat, house, hill, all begin with h. Synthetic phonics works the other way round, from the sound to the word, and teaches the blending step directly and early.
Many classrooms also use good quality stories read aloud, talk about vocabulary, and plenty of reading for pleasure. Phonics builds the decoding engine; understanding what a sentence means still depends on words the child already knows and on hearing rich language at home and at school. The two work together rather than competing. If you want to see why repetition and play matter so much here, benefits of learning through play covers the evidence in plain terms.
How can I help my child at home?
Keep it little and often. Five or ten minutes of playful sounding out beats a long formal session, and stopping while it is still fun is a good rule.
- Ask your child's teacher which sounds they are learning this half term, so you practise the same ones.
- Play sound games in the car: say a word slowly and ask your child to squash the sounds together. Or swap the first sound: cat becomes hat, then mat, then sat.
- When your child is stuck on a word, wait a moment, then prompt: which sounds can you hear? Give the word after a few seconds if they are still stuck, so the story keeps moving.
- Read aloud to them every day, including books well above the level they can decode themselves. That builds vocabulary and a love of stories.
Try this: write six letters on small squares of paper, choosing sounds your child knows. Say a word slowly, such as mop or pin, and ask them to slide a coin or counter under each letter as they hear each sound, then sweep the counter along to blend the word. Swap the letters round for a new word. No screen needed, and it makes the invisible idea of blending visible.
What about words that break the rules?
Some common words do not follow the sounds taught so far: said, was, the, come, some. Schools often call these tricky words or common exception words, and children are taught to recognise them by sight while using phonics for the parts that do work.
As children move up through school, phonics gives way to spelling patterns, syllables and word parts. Our guides to English spelling rules and Greek and Latin roots pick up where the early sounds leave off, and they are aimed at the parent reading over a shoulder as much as at the child.
How does Wordsmith practise phonics?
Wordsmith is our iPhone spelling and phonics game, and it follows the same build-it-up idea as a phonics lesson. Players construct words from sounds, word parts, spelling-rule tiles and Latin and Greek roots, with British or American voices, 360 levels across 12 worlds and a Daily Word. Up to 4 players can play on one device, which suits siblings taking turns.
It is practice and support, not a replacement for a teacher's phonics teaching or assessment. Think of it as a way to keep sounding out feeling like play between lessons. You can read more on the Wordsmith page.
Common questions
At what age do children start synthetic phonics?
In England, most children begin systematic synthetic phonics in Reception, when they are four or five, and progress is checked with a phonics screening check towards the end of Year 1. Children who start school later or who are learning English as an additional language often move quickly through the early sounds.
Is synthetic phonics the same as systematic phonics?
Not quite. Systematic describes the order: sounds are taught in a planned sequence rather than picked up by chance. Synthetic describes the method: children blend sounds to build words. Most school programmes are both systematic and synthetic.
Should I teach letter names or letter sounds first?
Letter sounds first, because blending needs them: a child who knows /c/ /a/ /t/ can read cat, while knowing the letter names does not help with that step. Letter names still matter for the alphabet, for spelling a word aloud and for talking about letters, so they come alongside once sounds are under way.
My child reads slowly and sounds out every word. Should I worry?
Sounding out every word is a normal stage, and it usually fades as familiar words become automatic through repeated reading. Keep sessions short and praise the effort. If a child is still struggling well past the early years, or seems unhappy about reading, talk to their teacher in the first instance; they can advise on next steps and any extra support.
Does phonics stop once a child can read?
The daily blending lessons usually taper off, but the phonics idea carries on into spelling: patterns such as ay and a-e, doubling rules, syllables and word roots. That is why spelling support in later primary years often looks a lot like phonics for older children.