Blending for reading
Blending for reading is the process of smoothly combining individual sounds (phonemes) together to form words. Blending helps children form previously segmented words. Blending and segmenting are crucial skills that new readers develop, this helps them form full words and recognise individual sounds within words.
How are children taught to blend?
1. They Learn Sounds: Children learn the sounds that each letter/letter combination makes. For example, the letter ‘s’ makes the “sss” sound.
2. Blending Sounds: Children practice putting these sounds together to smoothly read words. For example, they will blend /d/ /o/ /g/ to read “dog”.
3. Practicing Words: They will start with easy words and move onto harder ones, practicing blending each sound to read the full word. Practice makes perfect!
4. Keep Practicing: They then keep practicing over and over until they can blend lots of words easily, becoming better readers step by step.
There are lots of ways you can support your child’s phonics learning journey. You can read their favourite books together, pointing out words to segment and blend. Play phonics games such as ‘I spy’ to help solidify the letter-sound relationship. Create flashcards with simple CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words like ‘cat’ to then practise segmenting/blending the sounds in the chosen word. You could go on a word hunt around the house or outdoors, ask your child to look for a specific item starting with the /b/ sound for example.
We have plenty of handouts/resources on our website, with new ones being uploaded weekly! Click the button on the left to take you straight there.