Early Phonics readers™SERIES
PHONICS, SIGHT WORDS & SHORT VOWEL WORKBOOKS
These workbooks help emerging readers decode (read) words using a phonics-based approach (“sounding out” words). They are unique because ALL the words in these workbooks only use short vowel sounds, with pictures to help the child remember these vowel sounds. Matching activities in these worksheets help children build their vocabulary while reading and understanding the meaning of each word. So these workbooks help a child learn to read, comprehend and build vocabulary. Plus, children love the cute pictures!
CHOOSE YOUR SET
If you are looking for a fun way to have your child develop reading AND comprehension, click on "For All Learners" below.
If your child is being tutored using Barton Reading & Spelling System, click on "For Barton Students" below.
These workbooks help emerging readers decode (read) words using a phonics-based approach (“sounding out” words). They are unique because ALL the words in these workbooks only use short vowel sounds, with pictures to help the child remember these vowel sounds. Matching activities in these worksheets help children build their vocabulary while reading and understanding the meaning of each word. So these workbooks help a child learn to read, comprehend and build vocabulary. Plus, children love the cute pictures!
CHOOSE YOUR SET
If you are looking for a fun way to have your child develop reading AND comprehension, click on "For All Learners" below.
If your child is being tutored using Barton Reading & Spelling System, click on "For Barton Students" below.
For Barton StudentsONLY for parents and tutors using the Barton Reading & Spelling System
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For All Learners (K-2)For all parents, teachers and reading tutors
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HOW PHONICS WORKS & WHY SHORT VOWELS?
Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual phonemes or sounds is called Phonemic Awareness. This is the first skill that should be developed (before children can move into Phonics) as there are no letters involved, only sounds. Usually phonemic awareness is a skill that develops automatically. Young children enjoy playing oral word games where they find words that match a given initial sound or finding words that rhyme. Playing games like “say cat without the first sound and the child says “at”. These are different examples of phonemic awareness.
However if the child has difficulty learning language or a learning difference (like dyslexia), Phonemic Awareness does not come automatically and must be explicitly taught. Once a child has mastered phonemic awareness and can identify and manipulate sounds in his head (no letters), he is ready to move on to Phonics.
Phonics and the importance of Short Vowel Sounds:
Phonics teaches a child how to match individual sounds to the letters of the alphabet. Children now learn that the sound “a”, the first sound in “apple”, is represented by a symbol – the written letter “a”. Children learn the corresponding letter sounds for each letter of the alphabet, and slowly start “sounding out” words. The sounds of /mmm/ /aaaa/ /tttt/ combine or blend, to form the word “mat”. The vowel sounds taught at this stage are short vowel sounds. (A for apple, e for elephant, i for igloo, o for olive, u for umbrella). If the child has no struggles with language development, phonemic awareness comes easily, and phonics is mastered easily. They are exposed to long vowel sounds (where the vowel says its own name - a, e, i, o, u), and the child can effortlessly pick up when to read a word with a long vowel sound, and when to use a short vowel sound.
However this process does not come automatically for children with learning differences. They need explicit instruction in Phonemic Awareness, and when it is time for phonics, most specialized language instruction programs (Orton-Gillingham-based programs) focus on short vowel sounds, because research shows that one of the greatest sources of confusion that leads to guessing while reading is confusion with the many sounds vowels can make! So first, the child must master the 5 short vowel sounds, and start reading putting those sounds together with other consonants. They start with simple CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant) patterns in words like rat, beg, sit, nut, hop, getting used to the sounds of each vowel and the other letters of the alphabet.
Children are then introduced to digraphs, two letters making one sound, like sh, ch, th, ck. These are harder for children to master and this stage requires practice till the child remembers that the two letters together make one sound in words like rash, chip, back, sock.
With practice, children start to sound out more complex words. They move on to consonant blends in words like belt, must, gift, mask. The blends can be at the beginning of the word as in black, trip, flag. The next logical step is to increase complexity by adding blends on both sides of the word: flask, trust, spend, and moving on to adding three consonant blends and digraph blends into the word as in strap, struck, squelch, drench.
Eventually, once the child is no longer confused by short vowel sounds and can read longer words using short vowels, the introduction of long vowel sounds and eventually multi-syllable (longer) words is much easier to grasp, than if these were introduced at an early stage with short vowel sounds.
Since there is very limited reading material focusing only on short vowel sounds, I have created these workbooks and also Easy Readers, storybooks that include basic sight words and short vowel words. I sincerely hope that parents, tutors and teachers enjoy using these storybooks and workbooks with their children.
Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual phonemes or sounds is called Phonemic Awareness. This is the first skill that should be developed (before children can move into Phonics) as there are no letters involved, only sounds. Usually phonemic awareness is a skill that develops automatically. Young children enjoy playing oral word games where they find words that match a given initial sound or finding words that rhyme. Playing games like “say cat without the first sound and the child says “at”. These are different examples of phonemic awareness.
However if the child has difficulty learning language or a learning difference (like dyslexia), Phonemic Awareness does not come automatically and must be explicitly taught. Once a child has mastered phonemic awareness and can identify and manipulate sounds in his head (no letters), he is ready to move on to Phonics.
Phonics and the importance of Short Vowel Sounds:
Phonics teaches a child how to match individual sounds to the letters of the alphabet. Children now learn that the sound “a”, the first sound in “apple”, is represented by a symbol – the written letter “a”. Children learn the corresponding letter sounds for each letter of the alphabet, and slowly start “sounding out” words. The sounds of /mmm/ /aaaa/ /tttt/ combine or blend, to form the word “mat”. The vowel sounds taught at this stage are short vowel sounds. (A for apple, e for elephant, i for igloo, o for olive, u for umbrella). If the child has no struggles with language development, phonemic awareness comes easily, and phonics is mastered easily. They are exposed to long vowel sounds (where the vowel says its own name - a, e, i, o, u), and the child can effortlessly pick up when to read a word with a long vowel sound, and when to use a short vowel sound.
However this process does not come automatically for children with learning differences. They need explicit instruction in Phonemic Awareness, and when it is time for phonics, most specialized language instruction programs (Orton-Gillingham-based programs) focus on short vowel sounds, because research shows that one of the greatest sources of confusion that leads to guessing while reading is confusion with the many sounds vowels can make! So first, the child must master the 5 short vowel sounds, and start reading putting those sounds together with other consonants. They start with simple CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant) patterns in words like rat, beg, sit, nut, hop, getting used to the sounds of each vowel and the other letters of the alphabet.
Children are then introduced to digraphs, two letters making one sound, like sh, ch, th, ck. These are harder for children to master and this stage requires practice till the child remembers that the two letters together make one sound in words like rash, chip, back, sock.
With practice, children start to sound out more complex words. They move on to consonant blends in words like belt, must, gift, mask. The blends can be at the beginning of the word as in black, trip, flag. The next logical step is to increase complexity by adding blends on both sides of the word: flask, trust, spend, and moving on to adding three consonant blends and digraph blends into the word as in strap, struck, squelch, drench.
Eventually, once the child is no longer confused by short vowel sounds and can read longer words using short vowels, the introduction of long vowel sounds and eventually multi-syllable (longer) words is much easier to grasp, than if these were introduced at an early stage with short vowel sounds.
Since there is very limited reading material focusing only on short vowel sounds, I have created these workbooks and also Easy Readers, storybooks that include basic sight words and short vowel words. I sincerely hope that parents, tutors and teachers enjoy using these storybooks and workbooks with their children.
App for iPhones & iPads
The Picture Sight Words™ program is now available worldwide as an iOS interactive App with audio & visual features and self-learning mode
INTERACTIVETry it today on iPads & iPhones as a free download from the Apple App Store with free sample flashcards
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VOICE-ENABLEDEach sight word and its sentence has recorded audio pronunciation
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SELF-LEARNINGChildren can self-learn and practice; parents/tutors can track their performance from one level to the next
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A perfect app for children in K-3, homeschool, for learning differences like dyslexia and English Language Learners (ELL/ESL)
