How to Teach a Baby Phonics

Phonics is the skill to transform the written word to letter sounds. From birth onward, the baby starts to learn language as his brain develops. Babies can learn a language easily and they can decode the phonics in their own way. Usually, babies try to imitate the sounds that his/ her mother makes.

An infant acquires the first lessons of language from womb, through his mother’s voice. The mother cooing and singing, and holding the baby teaches him the first lessons of language. At this stage, they are most often attracted to high pitched voices. Cry is the first way of communication, smile comes next as a positive sign. Later, he starts cooing, to express contentment. At five months the child starts ‘babbling’ with the use of his lips and tongue. Use funny facial expressions while communicating with the child at this age.

• Frequent conversation is the best way to introduce him to the world of phonics. Talk to your baby looking into his eyes so that he can imitate the movement of your mouth and simultaneously learns to imitate sound. Talk with him while you are dressing, feeding and getting him ready to sleep, for example, "Momma is going to cook for you," or "Does my baby need milk," and so on. Frequent use of words can introduce him to the world of phonics and language.

• It is easier for an infant to make the sounds of ‘b ,d, p, m, n, t, and vowels in the earlier stage. Then he starts to sound g, k, ng, w, h, j, fv, th, sh, ch, s, z, r, l. After that he starts to pronounce blend sounds like tr, pl, br, st and sw.

• You should use clear and short words. While the baby babbles, repeat the sound or sounds. Show him a big colorful ball and pronounce the word after repeatedly stressing the initial letter ‘b’ sound. They will try to imitate it and will succeed.

• Teach the baby to make animal sounds as it is easy to imitate. Show him a toy cat and make the sound of its cry ‘meow, meow’ . it is easier for a baby to pronounce the letter ‘m’. He will also learn to pronounce the sound ‘k’ and the word ‘cat’. Likewise, show him a dog and make the sound of barking of dog ; ‘bow- bow’. Babies can pronounce the sound ‘d’ without much strain and hence he will learn the word ‘dog’. Similarly introduce him to the sounds ‘cow’ and ‘crow’ giving stress to the hard-c sound.

• A picture book containing big pictures of animals can do wonders in introducing your child to the world of sounds.

• As baby starts to pronounce the sound ‘m’ and ‘d’ encourage him to pronounce ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’.

• While going for a drive, make the sound pi- pi- pi, whenever you blew the horn. He will get fascinated and will easily inmate it producing the sound ‘p’. Play with your baby making sounds of vehicles. Unknowingly the child starts to make ‘r’, ‘t’, ‘ch’ and ‘s’ sounds.

• Whenever you want to keep him silent place your finger in your mouth and produce the sound ‘s, s, s,...’. Hold your child show him your eyes, mouth, ears and nose. You are not only teaching the phonics but also giving him an awareness about the senses.

• Small and beautiful rhymes which uses a letter repeatedly can be used to sing with your baby. He will try to pronounce the rhyming sounds like ‘la, la, la’, ‘ba, ba’ or ‘coo, coo, coo’.

• Babies can pronounce the vowels sound easily. As he reaches one year old he will be able to distinguish the two sounds for example ‘e’ as in ‘egg’ and ‘a’ as in apple. Sing the vowel sounds.

Flash cards of fruits, vegetables, vehicles, animals, birds and flowers are really interesting as children are usually get attracted to pictures. The newly acquired vocabulary can be reinforced by showing them regularly the images of those things. You can use DVD programs and computer games that teach phonics.

Source:

Mommy, Teach Me to Read!: A Complete and Easy-to-Use Home Reading Program By Barbara Curtis

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