what is phonic

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write by matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken words. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech. Phonics is important in the very early stages of reading and writing as students learn letter names, sounds, and symbols. It stays important as readers grow; more advanced readers need phonics lessons about more complex spelling patterns, like vowel patterns, and skills like using syllable types to read and spell longer words.