Vowel Diagraphs for Children with Special Abilities

Written by: twhatley • Edited by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch
Updated Nov 21, 2011 • Related Guides: English Language | Vowel | EA

Continuing the theme of developing a spelling program, vowel diagraphs add to teaching a child about sounds. In this article, we will learn how to incorporate vowel diagraphs into your spelling program.

Basic Vowel Sounds

To learn how to correctly spell using the English language, you must understand the common sounds. Diagraphs are a combination of two letters to create those sound and are broken down into short, long and R-controlled groupings.

Vowel sounds in the English language outnumbers the letters available. Vowels must be combined to represent them all. First we will go over the basic vowel sounds which should be introduced into the spelling program first, and the child should be able to master them before moving onto the diagraphs. Below you will find the basic 5 short, 6 long and 3 R-controlled vowel sounds.

5 Short Vowel Sounds

Short a: and, as, after
Short e: send, pen, when
Short i: it, is, in
Short o: mop, top, flop
Short u: cup, upper, under

6 Long Vowel Sounds

Long a: lake, wake, make
Long e: feet, meet, seek
Long i: tie, sigh, lie
Long o: moat, boat, toe
Long u: Rule, cruel
Long oo: few, blew, shoe

R-controlled Vowel Sounds

Ur: blur, her, hurt
Ar: lark, dark
Or: pork, fork

Vowel Diagraphs

Practice with your child the above vowels and the sounds they make. Move onto diagraphs when the child has confidently grasped the basic sound groups. Start off slow and don’t try to cover too much material at once. Only pick a couple of the below combinations at a time as to not overwhelm the child.

AI: train, mail, maid, aid, aim, fail, main, paid, pain, paint
AY: play, pray, say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, ray, way
A-E: age, cake, pale, gate, game, frame, fame, whale, wake
EE: queen, agree, wheel, keep, weed, sheep, sheet, seen
EA: eat, lead, lean, mean, wheat, steal, easy, east
EY: valley, monkey, donkey, alley, key
E-E: here, mere, scene
IE: die, pie, lie, fries, fried, tried, tries
Y: by, deny, sky, shy, try, why
IGH: high, night, sight, fright, sigh, thigh
I-E: dime, bike, side, tide, pine, mine, wine, time
OA: road, load, goal, toad, goat, loan, moan, soap
OW: throw, bow, glow, crow, flow, snow
OE: woe, to, goes, hoe, toe, doe
O-E: bone, woke, hose, joke, nose, mole, rode
EW: few, view, stew, dew, grew, flew
UE: blue, sue, gruel, glue, flue, rue
U-E: cube, tune, tub, tube, sure, rude

Other Helpful Hints

Make or buy some vowel diagraph flash cards. To ensure success with any part of a spelling program, start off with words that the child knows or is familiar with first. Continue to increase in difficulty as the child learns. When the child can effectively sound out diagraphs, give them unfamiliar words to read and encourage them to sound them out based on what they’ve already learned. Eventually, this technique will be the building blocks to improving reading and spelling skills in your child.