When should a phonics program be started?

[Janeway]

When should a phonics program be started? My son is only 4 yrs old, but he knows everything from letter sounds and can draw the letters. His pencil grip is horrible but he still makes good letters. He does not need a program to learn how to form letters. I am wondering if I should move forward with a phonics program or just keep working on solidifying pre-reading skills while he tries to get a better grip? By pre-reading skills, I am referring to recognizing syllables, first sound and last sound, cutting, gluing, etc. 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Janeway

[HomeAgain]

When they're ready and interested.
Our pre-reading checklist was this:

-could put together puzzles based on a picture (Day&Night, Wedgits, etc) or do part-to-whole puzzles (Beleduc, Montessori).
-could discriminate between similar sounds and decide if a pair was the same or different when heard from behind.
-could hear a word said very slowly (helllllliiiiiicoooooooopterrrrrrr) and speed it up mentally to know what it was.

When these were in place phonics went rather quickly. 
 

[sweet2ndchance]

My general rule has always been when they show an genuine interest or age 6 which ever comes first.

I really like Logic of English Foundations because it works on those phonemic awareness/pre-reading skills a lot especially in the early lessons. Foundations A is prefect for a 4 year old with at least some interest in doing lessons. Don't rush it or feel like you have to try to do a full lesson every day (split the activities over 2 or 3 days) but feel free to skip anything he already knows solidly or isn't completely ready for.

You can certainly do LOE Foundations while working on his grip and just skip the writing part. It is very slow and methodical to begin with so while he may know how to form the letters, it could be good practice for him to work on his grip. Or substitute other writing exercises or OT exercises for fixing his pencil grip.

[MeaganS]

I started all of mine at almost 4. My prerequisites were that they know their letter sounds and understand basic blending, so I work on that informally during "preschool." DD3 will start official phonics lessons in a few months. We do OPGTR and they all finished around 6yo.

[Syllieann]

Mine all started as soon as they knew their letter sounds and could blend.  One didn't really "get" syllables until he was reading around a 4th grade level.  They have all started phonics before turning 4.

[HomeAgain]

I realized I didn't really address your concern.  We taught reading and writing as separate skills, so I didn't keep one back because the other was not ready.  Eventually things evened out, but I let him progress with reading instruction first, and then when he was reading fluently we moved from pre-writing exercises to actual writing ones.

[Ellie]

On 9/2/2019 at 10:46 AM, Janeway said:

When should a phonics program be started? My son is only 4 yrs old, but he knows everything from letter sounds and can draw the letters. His pencil grip is horrible but he still makes good letters. He does not need a program to learn how to form letters. I am wondering if I should move forward with a phonics program or just keep working on solidifying pre-reading skills while he tries to get a better grip? By pre-reading skills, I am referring to recognizing syllables, first sound and last sound, cutting, gluing, etc. 

I don't know how recognizing syllables would be a "pre-reading" skill. o_0  And recognizing first sound and last sound is more of a sight-reading thing than a necessary phonics thing. Definitely not a "pre-reading" skill.

I do Spalding, so the *correct* writing of letters is an integral part of learning their sounds. With young children, that "writing" might be using a pointy finger in sand or with chocolate pudding. I could do this while the young children are developing their fine motor skills in other ways, so that when they're six-ish they can begin to do more formal writing and their letter shapes will be correct.

[barnwife]

When the child recognizes the letter sounds, I move on to oral blending. We play a lot of "say it fast" and "say it slow." I ask things like "if the first sound in top changes to the sound of h, what would it be?" When a child can do that easily, I start having him or her read a few CVC words written in all capitals on our white boards (or off a computer screen) each day. Soon we move on to Progressive Phonics  and OPGTR.

As for what age each of those steps happens? That's too child-specific to say. So I'll say that learning letter sounds would hopefully begin as a toddler/preschool kid in a fun/game/active way.

[goldenecho]

I'd start him on a phonics program, but just not work on writing until later.   But because of his age I would be prepared to step back if he balked at all at the program. 

[MerryAtHope]

On 9/4/2019 at 11:59 AM, Ellie said:

I don't know how recognizing syllables would be a "pre-reading" skill. o_0  And recognizing first sound and last sound is more of a sight-reading thing than a necessary phonics thing. Definitely not a "pre-reading" skill..

Actually those don’t relate to sight reading, those are phonological awareness skills. She doesn’t mean visual recognition of those things, but auditory recognition.

[HomeAgain]

On 9/22/2019 at 6:51 PM, kpgjme said:

Check out Reading HeadStart. Its amazing for my 2, 4 and 8 year old. There are worksheets and activities and her system is like no other. Its amazing. You can try it for $1. Im not sure for how long but I really recommend this! 😉

I'm more than 10 minutes into the video you cannot bypass on the site.  It has just now gotten to talking about phonics and not about how amazing the method is or her qualifications or a warning that "schools don't want you to know this".  I'm 15 minutes in at least, now, and have no idea what her method is beyond explicit phonics.

I don't care if her method is fabulous, her delivery needs work.

[Janeway]

7 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I'm more than 10 minutes into the video you cannot bypass on the site.  It has just now gotten to talking about phonics and not about how amazing the method is or her qualifications or a warning that "schools don't want you to know this".  I'm 15 minutes in at least, now, and have no idea what her method is beyond explicit phonics.

I don't care if her method is fabulous, her delivery needs work.

I just cannot buy in to something that says "schools don't want you to know this." I listened for a while too and never got beyond that.