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Phonics and Whole Language Terms

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If your child's school teaches phonics you may hear phrases like:

  • Skills-based learning
  • Vowels
  • Consonants
  • Blends
  • Diagraphs
  • Souding out
  • Alphabetic Code
  • Decoding
  • Traditional methods
  • Bottom-up approach
  • Foundation skills
  • Letter-sound relationships

If your child's school takes a whole-language approach to reading, you may hear phrases like:

  • Look-Say
  • Holistic teaching
  • Literature-based curriculum
  • Process-oriented
  • Word method
  • Key word
  • Invented spelling
  • Immersion in literature
  • Writing as reading activity
  • Top-down approach
  • Using context clues to guess unknown words

Many educators recommend a balanced and individualized approach to teaching reading. Listen for clues that your child's teacher uses a variety of methods and styles to teach reading.

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