How to use simple syllables to teach your kids to read

At The Academic Gym our unique approach focuses on teaching children how to analyze and spell spoken words and word parts. This method equips them to read printed words automatically and accurately, a crucial skill for literacy.

Engaging children in analyzing and spelling spoken words and word parts hones their auditory skills and fosters phonemic awareness, a foundational skill for literacy. This approach enriches their oral vocabulary and builds a rich mental dictionary of sounds and spellings for orthographic mapping.

As they listen attentively and learn to dissect the sounds and structures of syllables in words and words in sentences, students develop the ability to distinguish individual speech sounds, a skill known as phonemic awareness. Mental spelling, or phonemic analysis, allows them to segment spoken words into individual phonemes and label each phoneme with the alphabet symbol that spells (or matches) that sound. Phonemic analysis, in turn, helps them create a mental spelling dictionary of word parts and words, enabling them to recognize and decode words instantly and accurately by mapping (or matching) the sounds and spellings in their minds to printed words. This mental spelling dictionary enables them to read fluently and write fluidly and accurately.

The most effective way to analyze and spell spoken words is to segment them into syllables. Syllabic segmentation is analytical spelling at its finest. Therefore, our analytical spelling program begins by teaching students to analyze and spell spoken syllables. Syllabic spelling forms the bedrock for their phonemic awareness skills, setting a strong foundation for their literacy journey.