Should I teach letter names or letter sounds first?

Teach sounds first, and keep names out of decoding practice. Names are worth knowing, since you need them to spell aloud and to talk about print, and most children absorb them from alphabet books and songs without direct teaching. But a name cannot be blended, so a child who has names only will read m-a-t as three names rather than a word. Once the sounds are secure, using both together does no harm.

What order should I teach the letters in?

Not A to Z. Start with high-use letters that build real words immediately — m, s, a, t, p and n — so your child can read and build mat, sat, tap and man in the first fortnight. Then add the rest of the common consonants and the remaining short vowels, keeping at least one vowel in every working set. Rarely used letters such as q, x and z can wait until the end.

My child knows a sound one day and forgets it the next. Is that normal?

Yes, in the early weeks. A sound is secure only when it comes quickly, in random order, in an unfamiliar font, on a day you have not practised it. Until then it will come and go, and that is what a small working set is for. The remedy is fewer letters, not more: cut back to three or four and add a new one only when the small set is instant several days running.

How do I stop “buh” and “tuh”?

Clip the stop sounds. Say /b/ as briefly as you can, with almost no voice left after it, and let your child watch your mouth while you do it. Try it against a finger snap, so the sound lasts no longer than the snap does. Then stretch /mmmm/ for three seconds and show that /b/ cannot be stretched at all; the contrast teaches the difference faster than correcting the error does.

How to Teach Letter Sounds — Readiness, Practice, Mastery

A letter sound is the noise a letter stands for inside a word: /m/, not “em”. Teach it by showing one letter, saying its sound, and having your child say it back, five to eight minutes a day. Work on four or five letters at a time, and expect all twenty-six to take months rather than weeks.

Sound first, name second, and why the order matters

Letter names are useful for spelling aloud and for talking about print, but a name cannot be blended. A child who reads m-a-t as “em-ay-tee” has three names and no word. So point at the letter and ask “what sound?” rather than “what letter?” Names arrive on their own, from alphabet books, fridge magnets and songs, without being drilled.

Say the sounds cleanly, because your child will copy exactly what they hear. Continuous sounds such as /mmm/, /sss/, /fff/ and /lll/ can be held and stretched, which is what makes them the easiest to blend later. Stop sounds such as /b/, /t/, /k/ and /p/ end the instant they start, so clip them rather than saying “buh” and “tuh”. A trailing “uh” on every consonant turns cat into cuh-a-tuh, and that has to be untaught before printed words will work.

A seven-minute routine you can run every day

Run the same four parts in the same order every day, so the only new thing in the lesson is the new letter. Do it early, while your child still has attention to spend, because letter work asks for concentration and gives very little back until the sounds start making words.

Keep the review pile honest. Any letter that needed a hesitation goes back on the pile and is asked again at the end; a letter that has landed on the pile three days running comes out of the working set until the others are firm. Stopping while your child is still answering easily is what makes tomorrow's review quick.

Review, two minutes: flash every letter taught so far, in random order, asking for the sound. Anything slower than about three seconds goes on the redo pile.
Teach one letter, two minutes: show it, say the sound three times, and have your child say it back three times while tracing the shape with a finger.
Find it, two minutes: lay out four or five known letters, say a word such as sun or mat, and your child touches the letter that word starts with.
Write, one minute: your child writes the new letter three times, saying its sound each time and never its name.

What to use before you print anything

Fridge magnets, a shoebox lid holding half an inch of dry rice for finger-writing, a hand mirror, index cards and a marker make a complete kit. The mirror earns its place: several of the confusions at this stage are mouth confusions rather than eye confusions, and a child who can see that /f/ is lip against teeth while /v/ is the same shape with the voice switched on stops swapping the two.

Order of introduction matters more than materials. Begin with high-use letters that combine into real words quickly — m, s, a, t, p and n — so that within a fortnight your child can build mat, sat, tap and man and see what the sounds are for. Keep a vowel in every working set. Leave q, x and z until last; they cost as much to teach as m and buy far less reading.

When it is working, and when it is not

You can call a letter known when the sound comes without a pause, when it is a sound rather than a word that begins with it, and when it is still right in a new order, on a different day, in a different font. Recognising a letter on the fridge, in the same spot as always, is not knowing it, and neither is getting it right immediately after being told.

The signs it has not landed: the sound arrives only after your child sings part of the alphabet under their breath; b, d and p swap places depending on the day; the answer to “what sound?” is “ball”; or an “uh” is attached to every consonant. Letter reversals are ordinary in the early years and are not, on their own, a sign of a reading difficulty.

When your child is stuck, shrink the set

Cut the working set to three or four letters and hold it there until every one is instant, even if that takes a fortnight. Adding a sixth letter to a shaky five is the commonest way this stage stalls, and the fastest route out is almost always fewer letters practised more often.

If b and d keep trading places, keep them out of the same session. Teach one of the pair for three days on its own, anchor it to a single word your child chose, and give the pair a shape to lean on: write the word bed in lower case and show that the b and the d are the head and the foot of the bed, with the mattress between them. Bring the second letter back only when the first is answered without thought.

If your child cannot hear the first sound in a spoken word at all, the difficulty is in the ear rather than the eye, and more letter drill will not touch it. Spend a week on listening with no print in the room: does sock start like sun, or like moon? Clap the syllables in your child's name. That listening work is the ground floor of oral blending, which is the next skill on this path.

How long this normally takes

With five to ten minutes a day, most children hold all twenty-six single-letter sounds after several months of steady work rather than several weeks, and the last handful take longer than the first handful because they are the rare letters that turn up in nothing your child reads. Children who start younger take longer on the calendar and no longer in practice time. Keep a dated list of which letters are in the mastered pile; the list is the only reliable way to see progress this slow.

If a year of daily work has produced no growth, stop adding letters and get another pair of eyes on it — hearing and vision first, then someone who can watch your child work. For practice, faithschooling.com/worksheets/ holds letter-sound sets, and the first three sheets of every set are open to everyone; the Kindergarten year of Phonics, Decoding and Early Fluency introduces these sounds in the order that the reading which follows them needs.

First, your child should already…

Nothing — this is a starting point on the path to reading.

What your child is learning

The child learns the individual sound each letter stands for — not the letter name, the sound. This is the bedrock of decoding: before a child can read a word, they must reliably turn each letter into its sound.

Signs your child is ready

Recognizes and names most letters
Hears the first sound in a spoken word (“what does sun start with?”)
Enjoys rhyming and sound play

The common stumbling point

Confusing the letter name with its sound (saying “bee” for b instead of /b/), and mixing up visually similar letters like b/d/p.

Practice this skill

Worksheets and decodable practice for Letter Sounds are in the library.

Grade 1 — Two Letters, One Sound 216 worksheets
Kindergarten — Letter Tracing and Printing 108 worksheets
Grade 2 — The AW & AU Sounds 252 worksheets
Grade 3 — Silent Letters: mb 216 worksheets
Grade 4 — Silent Letters: bt 216 worksheets
Grade 5 — Silent Letters: sc 216 worksheets

Every set opens its first three worksheets to everyone; the rest are included with All Access.

Browse the whole practice library

How to know it’s mastered

Shown letters in random order, the child produces the correct sound for at least 24 of 26 letters within a few seconds each.

Common questions

Should I teach letter names or letter sounds first?: Teach sounds first, and keep names out of decoding practice. Names are worth knowing, since you need them to spell aloud and to talk about print, and most children absorb them from alphabet books and songs without direct teaching. But a name cannot be blended, so a child who has names only will read m-a-t as three names rather than a word. Once the sounds are secure, using both together does no harm.
What order should I teach the letters in?: Not A to Z. Start with high-use letters that build real words immediately — m, s, a, t, p and n — so your child can read and build mat, sat, tap and man in the first fortnight. Then add the rest of the common consonants and the remaining short vowels, keeping at least one vowel in every working set. Rarely used letters such as q, x and z can wait until the end.
My child knows a sound one day and forgets it the next. Is that normal?: Yes, in the early weeks. A sound is secure only when it comes quickly, in random order, in an unfamiliar font, on a day you have not practised it. Until then it will come and go, and that is what a small working set is for. The remedy is fewer letters, not more: cut back to three or four and add a new one only when the small set is instant several days running.
How do I stop “buh” and “tuh”?: Clip the stop sounds. Say /b/ as briefly as you can, with almost no voice left after it, and let your child watch your mouth while you do it. Try it against a finger snap, so the sound lasts no longer than the snap does. Then stretch /mmmm/ for three seconds and show that /b/ cannot be stretched at all; the contrast teaches the difference faster than correcting the error does.

What comes next

Once this is solid, move on to:

Oral Blending →