What is the science behind how the brain learns to read?
Current research on how the human brain learns to read shows that the brain is hardwired to speak but is not hardwired to read and spell. Think about a baby learning to create sounds by mimicking their parents and caregivers. Eventually, the baby will learn to say words such as da-da and ma-ma. Later as a toddler, the child will move from single words and phrases to speaking in complete sentences. As the child grows and develops the speaking vocabulary will develop as well. However, the child's speaking oral language and reading/spelling development is not on the same stage. The child will not be able to read and spell all the words that are used when speaking. This is where phoneme grapheme mapping becomes an important instructional practice.
Why is phoneme grapheme mapping important to teach?
English may seem tricky especially since there are 44 phoneme speech sounds and 26 graphemes or letters. You may be thinking, "English is so irregular. No wonder my sweet kiddos are struggling." What if I told you that is not the case? In fact, what if I told you that English is about 96% predictable! The secret to your students' success is explicit structured literacy instruction. Explicitly teaching kiddos phoneme grapheme mapping or sound to symbol correspondence will increase their reading and spelling skill set.
What is a phoneme and a grapheme?
Why is phoneme-grapheme mapping important? It is crucial for a reader to understand that words are made up of phonemes or sounds. Phonemes are the sounds we hear in a word. Each phoneme is represented by a grapheme(s). A grapheme consists of the letter or letters that spell the given phoneme. In fact, some phonemes are spelled with up to four graphemes. If a child doesn’t understand the sound to symbol connections, the child will struggle with reading and writing words. For this reason, students must be explicitly taught the sound to symbol correspondences. For example, did you know /k/ is spelled three different ways: c, k, and -ck.
Reading and spelling development will strengthen with explicit instruction on sound to symbol correspondences. Phoneme Grapheme Mapping combines phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) instruction. This activity supports the pathways within the brain that connect the phonological process and the orthographic processor. These pathways are needed within the brain to help students with reading and spelling skills. The more practice students receive the better and these pathways will develop into permanent memory within the brain.
Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping YouTube Video
Boom Cards for Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping
