Your Child Knows Letter Sounds—Why Can’t They Read Yet?

starsandbeyond5
6 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Imagine a child knows that m says /m/, a says /a/, and t says /t/. They know all three sounds, but if they don’t know how to blend those sounds together, they still can’t read the word mat. Reading isn’t just knowing sounds—it’s knowing what to do with those sounds.

This is actually a very common stage of learning. It doesn’t mean they aren’t ready, or they have a learning disability. In many cases, it means they need more practice with phonemic awareness—especially blending and segmenting. These skills help children connect the letter sounds they already know into complete words.

Three Foundational Skills for Learning to Read

There are three important foundational skills that work together to support beginning reading:

* Phonemic awareness (including blending and segmenting)

* Letter-sound correspondence (alphabetic principle)

* Practice applying both skills while reading words

Blending

Blending is the ability to take separate sounds and put them together to make a word. For example being able to take /c/ /a/ /t/ and blending those sounds to make the word cat. I love to teach this skill through playing games. My favorite game to teach this is a car game called Secret Word.

Segmenting

Segmenting is the reverse of blending. It is taking a word, and breaking it down into its basic sounds. For example the word cat can be broken into the individual sounds /c/ /a/ /t/. This helps the new reader understand how words are made and helps prepare them for spelling and writing. My favorite game to teach this skill is Sound Stomp.

Letter-Sound Correspondence

The final foundational skill is letter-sound correspondence, sometimes called the alphabetic principle. This is the understanding that letters represent sounds. If your child already knows their letter sounds, they have begun developing this skill. If not, there are many wonderful resources available. I especially enjoy using Zoophonics, Explode the Code, and Starfall. My own beginning reader series, Sam Learns to Read, is also designed to strengthen letter-sound correspondence through meaningful reading practice.

What If My Child Still Can’t Read?

If your new reader knows their letter sounds but still isn’t reading words, don’t panic. This is a very common stage of learning to read. With practice blending sounds together, segmenting words, and strengthening letter-sound correspondence, many beginning readers make rapid progress.

Best of all, these skills can be taught through short, playful activities that children enjoy.