Phonics Activities for Struggling Readers

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

What phonics teaching is

Ask the school for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name. That means teaching letters and their sounds in a planned order. The sounds are not left to be picked up from reading. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction significantly improves reading achievement.

One review looked at 22 trials of help for children with reading disabilities (Galuschka and colleagues, 2014). Phonics teaching was the only approach it confirmed for reading and spelling. The other approaches had far fewer trials. So their results are partly thin evidence, not proof they do not work.

One review looked at parents trained to help with reading at home (Sénéchal and Young, 2008, as reported in Higgins and Katsipataki, 2015). Some parents were taught specific reading activities to use. Their children gained more in reading than children whose parents only read aloud. The summary we hold does not name the activities. In Sénéchal and Young's review, gains were smaller, but still real, for children with difficulties.

Three words come up when teachers describe phonics teaching. Here is what each one looks like.

• Explicit. The teacher says the sound and shows it. Your child is not left to work it out from books.
• Systematic. There is a written order of letter patterns. Simple ones come before harder ones.
• Cumulative. Old patterns keep coming back. New ones are practiced next to them.

In our view, a school that teaches this way can show you its order. Here is a simple check. Ask what your child was taught this week. Was the answer a book title, not a sound or a pattern? In our view, that is worth a second question.

The order we work in

The order below is our working model, not a measured finding. Children still work on several steps at the same time. It is not a set of gates your child must pass.

1. Hearing the sounds in spoken words. This is done by ear, with no letters. Teachers reason that letters have little to attach to without hearing the sounds in words. Our page on phonemic awareness activities covers this step.
2. Matching sounds to letters. Teachers start with the common, reliable ones.
3. Blending. Knowing each sound is one skill. Running them together into a word is another. Teachers teach the second one on its own.
4. Reading words in text your child can sound out. That way the new skill gets used.
5. Accuracy before speed. Teachers put accuracy before speed. Their reason is that chasing speed first rewards guessing.

Suppose reading words in books is not working. In our view, check the earlier steps before you reach for easier books.

The activities

The home routines on this page are ours. We hold no home study that names these routines. The National Reading Panel reviewed studies of phonics teaching itself.

Each activity below can be played as a game. To us, that is how they get done often. A child who feels tested often stops answering.

Say the sound, not the letter name: /m/, not "em." Keep each sound as short as you can. Say /k/, not kuh.

Sound cards. Write one letter, or one letter team like sh, on each card. Show a card. Your child says its sound. Mix a few old cards in with the new ones.

Build a word. Use letter tiles, magnetic letters, or letters on small squares of paper. Build cat, and your child reads it. Swap the c for h to make hat. Then swap the a for o to make hot. Change only one sound at a time.

Read short words. Write five or six words with the pattern your child is learning. Your child sounds out each one, then says the whole word. Then write one short sentence using those words, like Sam had a fat cat.

Write it from its sounds. Say a word with the same pattern. Your child says its sounds, then writes the letters for each one. Then they read back what they wrote. In our view, reading and spelling the same pattern belong together.

Quick review. Start each sitting with a few patterns from before. In our view, old patterns should keep coming back.

Tricky words. Some words do not follow the patterns your child knows. In our view, those are taught as whole words, alongside phonics. Keep only a few new ones going at once.

How to correct a mistake

When your child misreads a word, point back to the sounds. Do not just say the word. Teachers correct this way. We hold no study of this correction on its own.

Here is how it can go. Your child reads hot as hat. Point to the o. Ask what sound it makes. Then ask them to sound out the word again.

Stay calm and keep it quick. In our view, one fix at a time is enough.

Getting the level right

Pick words with a pattern your child has been taught. Aim for a level where your child gets most of them right. A few should take some thinking.

Suppose your child misses most of them. Then the pattern is too hard. Go back to one they know well. In our view, practice on a pattern not yet taught mostly repeats the mistake.

For books, the same idea holds. In our view, most of the words should be ones your child can read. A few should take some work.

Guessing, and why it matters here

Some children guess a word from its first letter and the picture. To us, that is not cheating or laziness. In our experience, children often guess when sounding out is too slow and too hard. Guessing works on early books, where the pictures tell the story. It stops working when the pictures stop.

Cover the picture. You will see quickly whether the sounding out is there.

In our view, a decodable book is a useful tool. It uses only the letter patterns your child has been taught. So the only way to the words is sounding them out. Keep reading richer books aloud to your child as well.

Phonics is not the whole answer

Phonics is necessary. In our view, it was never the whole answer.

Some words do not follow the patterns your child knows. In our view, those are taught as whole words, alongside phonics. Reading also means knowing what words mean, and following the story.

How much, how often

Our position is that short, frequent sessions do more here than long, rare ones. In our view, stop while it is still going well.

We cannot say how long progress takes for your child. In our view, watch the practice, not the calendar.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.