The Bedrock of Decoding: Why Phonics is Non-Negotiable for Students with Dyslexia

Welcome back to our series on "Decoding," aimed at helping teachers deepen their understanding of dyslexia. We've explored various layers of language, and today we're hitting a foundational element that is absolutely critical, especially for our students with dyslexia: Phonics.

You've likely heard the term countless times, but let's really unpack what it means, why it's so vital, and how a specific approach can make all the difference.

What Exactly is Phonics?

At its core, phonics is an approach to teaching reading (and spelling) that focuses on the relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and the printed/written symbols (graphemes – letters or letter combinations) intended to represent those sounds. It's about explicitly teaching children to connect what they hear with what they see on the page, and vice-versa.

Essentially, phonics provides learners with a "code" to unlock written words. As the insightful quote from Chall and Popp (1996, cited in Reid 1999) states:

“Through phonics children can get close to the sound of a word and through that to the meaning of the word.”

This highlights a crucial point: phonics isn't just about "barking at print"; it's a vital pathway to accessing meaning.

Why Phonics is So Crucial, Especially for Dyslexia

For all children learning to read, phonics provides an essential foundation. However, for students with dyslexia, whose brains are often wired differently when it comes to processing the sound structure of language (phonological processing), phonics isn't just helpful – it's absolutely essential.

Here’s why:

1. Addresses the Core Deficit: Dyslexia is primarily characterised by difficulties with phonological awareness (hearing and manipulating sounds in words) and rapid automatised naming. Phonics instruction directly targets the need to connect sounds to symbols accurately and efficiently.

2. Provides a System: English can seem like a chaotic jumble of letters. Phonics provides a systematic way to approach words, rather than relying on visual memorisation or guessing, which are often inefficient and unreliable strategies for students with dyslexia.

3. Builds Independence: When students have strong phonics skills, they are empowered to tackle unfamiliar words independently, rather than being reliant on someone else to tell them the word.

4. Supports Spelling (Encoding): Phonics is a two-way street. Understanding how sounds map to letters is just as crucial for spelling (encoding) as it is for reading (decoding).

The Power of Synthetic Phonics: Explicit, Systematic, and Sequential

As specialist teachers, we often find that the most effective phonics approach, particularly for early stage readers and for those needing remediation (like many students with dyslexia), is Synthetic Phonics.

"Synthetic" here refers to the process of synthesising or blending sounds together. With this approach:

• Children are taught letter-sound correspondences explicitly (nothing is left to chance or incidental learning).

• Instruction is systematic, following a carefully planned sequence, typically starting with the most common and reliable letter-sound links and gradually progressing to more complex patterns.

• Children are taught to blend these individual sounds together from left to right to read a whole word (e.g., hearing /k/-/æ/-/t/ and blending them to say "cat").

• They are also taught to segment words into their individual sounds for spelling (e.g., hearing "cat" and breaking it into /k/-/æ/-/t/ to write c-a-t).

This approach is powerful because it directly teaches the skills needed to decode phonically regular words and provides a strong foundation for tackling more complex orthography later on.

What Effective Phonics Instruction Looks Like for Dyslexic Learners:

• Direct & Explicit Teaching: Clearly explain and model each letter-sound correspondence and blending/segmenting strategy.

• Multisensory Methods: Engage multiple senses – seeing the letter, hearing the sound, saying the sound, writing the letter (perhaps tracing it, air writing, or using letter tiles).

• Systematic & Cumulative: New learning builds directly on previously taught skills. Concepts are reviewed regularly.

• Focus on Blending & Segmenting: These are the core skills. Provide lots of practice.

• Decodable Texts: Ensure students have ample opportunities to practice their developing phonics skills by reading texts composed primarily of letter-sound correspondences they have already learned. This builds confidence and fluency.

• Regular Assessment & Responsive Teaching: Monitor progress closely and provide reteaching and additional support where needed.

• Pacing: While systematic, the pace may need to be adjusted for students with dyslexia, allowing for more repetition and reinforcement.

While phonics is the indispensable bedrock for decoding, it's important to remember it works in concert with other developing literacy skills like phonological awareness, vocabulary development, fluency building, and comprehension strategies. But without a strong phonics foundation, accessing those other skills becomes incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for students with dyslexia.

By embracing explicit, systematic phonics instruction, we give our students with dyslexia the most powerful key they need to unlock the written word and begin their journey towards becoming confident, successful readers.