How Children Can Learn Phonics Through Interactive Apps

What phonics is, and why it matters

Phonics is a way of teaching reading that starts from sounds. Spoken English is made of small units of sound, and written English uses letters, or groups of letters, to stand for them. Phonics teaches children these letter–sound correspondences directly, so that when they meet a new word they can work it out instead of guessing.

Many schools teach reading with synthetic phonics. Children learn a set of letter sounds, then put those sounds together to read words. Once a child knows the sounds s, a, t and p, for example, they can already read sat, tap, pat and at. Each new sound unlocks more words, which is very motivating for a beginner.

The building blocks of phonics

Letter sounds

The first step is knowing the most common sound of each letter. It helps to say pure sounds: “mmm” for m and “sss” for s, not “muh” and “suh”. Pure sounds are much easier to blend, because there is no extra vowel to remove. Letter names (ay, bee, see) are useful too, but children use the sounds to read.

Blending

Blending means saying the sounds of a word one after another and pushing them together until the word appears: c-a-t, cat. It takes practice, and children often hear the word suddenly after several tries. Short words with two or three sounds are the best place to start.

Segmenting

Segmenting is blending in reverse: hearing a word and splitting it into its sounds, which is what children do when they spell. If a child can say that dog is d-o-g, they can write it one sound at a time.

Digraphs and tricky words

Later, children learn that two letters can make one sound, such as sh, ch, th and ck, and that some common words, such as the and was, do not follow the patterns they know yet. These come once single letter sounds are secure.

How interactive apps help children learn phonics

Letter–sound knowledge needs a lot of repetition. A child has to see a letter and hear its sound many times before the link becomes automatic. Interactive apps are well suited to this part of learning, because they can repeat a sound as often as the child wants, without the adult getting tired of it.

• Hearing the same clear sound every time: a recorded sound does not change from day to day, which helps children who are still learning to hear the difference between sounds.
• Seeing and hearing together: the letter is shown large while its sound plays, so the shape and the sound are linked.
• Choosing and checking: games where the child hears a sound and finds the letter ask them to recall what they know, which strengthens memory more than simply looking.
• Instant feedback: the child knows straight away whether the answer is right and can try again.
• Learning at their own pace: a child can stay on a difficult letter as long as they need, or move on quickly.

What to look for in a phonics app

Not every app that shows letters teaches phonics. When you choose one, listen to it first.

• Pure, clear sounds: the app should say the sound of the letter, not only its name, and without an extra “uh”.
• Capital and small letters: children meet both in books, and most text is in small letters.
• Easy-to-read letter shapes: some fonts draw letters, such as a, differently from the way children are taught to write them.
• Short, simple games: a few focused activities are better than many distracting ones.
• No ads and no internet needed: practice stays on the letters, and the app works anywhere.
• A child lock: younger children can play without leaving the app by accident.

Phonics Parrot: one example

We built Phonics Parrot, a letter sounds app for early readers , around this first step of phonics. A child picks one of the 26 letters, sees it on a large card with the capital and small letter together, and taps “Hear it” to hear its common English sound, recorded for the app. In the Listen game the app plays a sound and the child finds the letter that makes it; in the Match game the child finds letters that match.

It is free, has no ads, works offline and has a child lock that a grown-up turns on with a double tap. It teaches letter sounds rather than full blending or spelling, so it works best as short daily practice next to a book or a school phonics programme.

For the next step, spelling, we made Spelling Bee, a spelling game for kids : the child hears a word and spells it in one of three games, and words they miss come back for practice.

Making phonics practice work at home

An app is a tool, not a teacher. Children learn phonics best when an adult helps them use the sounds in real words. A few simple habits make a big difference:

• Keep sessions short: a few minutes of focused practice is plenty for a young child, and daily practice beats a long weekly session.
• Say the sounds together: when the app plays a sound, say it too, and ask your child to repeat it.
• Play sound games away from the screen: “I spy something beginning with sss” trains the same skill as the app.
• Blend real words: once your child knows a few sounds, write short words such as sat or pin and blend them together.
• Read every day: share books, point to letters your child knows, and let them read simple words they can decode.
• Follow the school’s order: if your child’s school teaches sounds in a set order, practise the same sounds at home.