Phonemes and syllables: How to teach a child to segment and blend words, when nothing seems to work

13 September 2023

There is no doubt that the foundation of a good education, with reading at its core, sets children up for later success. The importance of phonics is enshrined in education policy in England and lies at the heart of teaching children to become confident, fluent readers. However, young children are not naturally predisposed to hearing the smallest sounds of language (phonemes). Rather, they process speech as syllables strung together as meaningful phrases.

Phonemes are more difficult for some children to detect than syllables, and they particularly struggle with learning to read, as they are unable to detect the boundaries between individual words and syllables. Schools are expected to give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life and to pay special attention to the children who need to improve their reading (the lowest 20%).

Phonemic awareness and the ‘alphabetic principle’ need to be explicitly taught until they become automatic. And yet, unlocking stubborn barriers to phonemic awareness can take years, if relying upon conventional approaches. However, a simple solution - a segmenting and blending game, can support teacher effectiveness, thus enabling these children to access phonics teaching. And it can be used right from the start! This strategy may also protect them from falling behind their classmates. Read on to learn this playful approach and practise it with a FREE downloadable word list.

What is segmenting?

Segmenting is a skill that breaks sounds down, by drawing attention to them and allowing awareness of the smaller units of language to emerge. Words can be segmented into syllables, and syllables can be segmented into phonemes. Mastering this skill involves holding a word or a syllable in mind and then breaking it down into smaller sounds. Thus, a word such as ‘seashell’ can be initially segmented into two syllables, which are, ‘sea’ and ‘shell’.

Taking this to the next level in terms of detail, each syllable can be segmented into the smallest sounds of language, which are phonemes. There are two phonemes in ‘sea’, which are:

• the first sound /s/
• the vowel sound /ea/.

However, there are three phonemes in ‘shell’, and these are:

• the first sound, /sh/
• the vowel sound /e/
• the final sound /ll/.

So, if we take the word, ‘seashell’ as a whole, we have segmented the word into five phonemes, which are: /s/ea/sh/e/ll/.

Some phonics methods use ‘onset and rime’ to develop the skill of segmenting. This approach is designed to sharpen children’s sensitivity towards the boundaries within syllables, whilst retaining a sense of the syllable as an individual sound unit.

When teachers use the ‘onset and rime’ method, they segment a syllable into only two parts:

• its first sound, - (also known as the ‘onset’)
• all the remaining sounds, (which make up the ‘rime’).

Using onset and rime, ‘seashell’ would be taken syllable by syllable. Each syllable would be segmented into two parts.

• the ‘onset’ of ‘sea’ is /s/ and the ‘rime’ is /ea/.
• the ‘onset’ of ‘shell’ is /sh/ and the ‘rime’ is /ell/.

What is blending?

Blending is the skill that involves building words up, either from syllables, or individual phonemes.

What’s the difference between segmenting and blending?

There is one simple difference. Segmenting involves breaking a word down into smaller units of sound, whereas blending is a reversal of the process.

• The two syllables, ‘skate’ and ‘board’ can be blended together to make one word, ‘skateboard’.
• The phonemes, /c/a/t/ can be blended together to form the word ‘cat’.
• Using ‘onset and rime’ /b/ and /ell/ can be blended together to form the word ‘bell’.

Is it better to teach blending or segmenting first?

The two approaches can be taught side by side. Both segmenting and blending skills are necessary for decoding longer words and shorter words. Let’s take a shorter word, ‘then’.

‘Then’ using a purely phonemic strategy would be segmented as /th/en/ and these sounds, if blended together make the word ‘then’.

Teachers need to guard against a visual strategy (in which the reader has visually decoded ‘the’ as a familiar word that they recognise mainly by its shape) as it wastes a lot of time.

‘Then’ using a partly visual strategy would be segmented as /the/n/ and these sounds, if blended together could make a nonword that would almost rhyme with ‘fern’.

Children need to recognise that /th/ on its own is a phoneme that can be blended with many other sounds.

In the onset and rime approach, /th/ can be blended as follows:

• /th/ blended with /at/ makes ‘that’
• /th/ blended with /en/ makes ‘then’
• /th/ blended with /is/ makes ‘this’
• /th/ blended with /us/ makes ‘thus’.

What about longer words?

Let’s take a longer word such as ‘umbrella’- there are three syllables here and seven phonemes.

• A child skilled in phonics, would immediately sound out the individual sounds, /u/m/b/r/e/ll/a.
• A child skilled in ‘onset and rime’ would segment the word into syllables, /um/brel/la.

As this is a longer word, segmenting at the syllable level would be a more successful strategy. When a child segments at the phoneme level, each phoneme has equal emphasis. However, in the English language, longer words have unequal emphasis - with some syllables assigned a little more energy (in terms of intensity) vocal stress, and length (in terms of duration). IN the word ‘umbrella’, it is the second syllable that carries vocal stress.

Segmenting at the syllable level allows the child to hear more easily where the stress may fall in the word. The assignment of stress is very important for recognising a word and immediately understanding the meaning of the word in context. For example, the word ‘record’ carries the stress on the first syllable when it functions as a noun (first bullet point) and on the second syllable when it functions as a verb (second bullet point). The vowel /e/ is also subtly different.

• Here is a change to his hospital record.
• They record their music in a studio.

When segmenting and blending aren’t working

Communicative approaches such as drawing attention to letters and sounds in early reading, combined with teaching effectiveness are strong predictors of pupils’ progress throughout school. And yet, for some children, a weak working memory means that manipulating sounds in real time is difficult because attention fades, before the child has:

• understood the task,
• attempted the task,
• completed the task.

And there may be a deeper resistance in the breaking down of words. A two syllable word, such as ‘sunshine’ represents a concept, vital for life, that is associated with similarly important one syllable words, such as ‘light’ and ‘sun’. For some children, who are more literal in their approach, segmenting a word may, for them, symbolise breaking down their experiential knowledge.

Although many children may enjoy pulling words apart and rebuilding them, there are some who may feel that a word cannot be segmented without being permanently ‘damaged’. For these children, the playfulness of segmenting and blending needs greater emphasis.

But fundamentally, this is not a trivial matter. If a child cannot read, they will not be able to access the curriculum and will be seriously disadvantaged. Phonemic awareness needs to be explicitly taught until it becomes automatic. So, here’s how to unlock blocked phonemic skills, that are vital for the development of blending and segmenting.Blending and Segmenting Game

This is a technique that has worked with mainstream children aged from five to seven years, as well as with older children in special schools, who are not progressing with phonics.

Blending and Segmenting Game

First start with blending:

• think of a two-syllable word that will appeal to the child, such as ‘football’.
• point to the ceiling using your left index finger (level with the child’s face) and say ‘foot’
• point to the ceiling using your right index finger (level with the child’s face) and say, ‘ball’
• bring the two index fingers side by side and say, ‘football’
• ask the child to copy and then join in with you - exaggerate the syllables with a playful voice.
• practise with other words until the child can do this independently.

Now segmenting

• bring your two index fingers side by side, exactly as before and say, ‘foot…ball’,
• make the right index finger ‘disappear’ into the right fist and say “Take away ball”
• flex the left index finger a little and say, “What’s left?”
• if they followed the game, they will say, “Foot”.
• if they are confused, say, “Let me show you again…” and repeat the process exactly
• once this technique has been understood, explore taking ‘foot’ away.

This ‘game’ helps children to:

• understand that breaking and building sounds is playful and that words are malleable.
• regard word games as similar to counting games - their fingers can help them.
• develop an effective visual aid which allows greater stability in a weak working memory.
• self-regulate any associated subconscious emotional responses, when breaking down words.

Would you like to have a list of two syllable words to use while playing this game?

Click here to receive a pdf of the Blending and Segmenting Game and a Wordlist.

Did you enjoy this post?

Continue reading about the fascinating world of phonological processing.

When rhythm and phonics collide - discover the confusable features of certain phonemes and why rhythm brings clarity to this issue.

When rhythm and phonics collide part 2 - explore rhythmic and prosodic differences between consonant and vowel sounds

Conversations, rhythmic awareness and the attainment gap - a rhythm-based perspective on the influential Hart & Risley study of the ‘word gap’ between affluent and disadvantaged families.

Rhythm and probability underpin implicit language learning - this is about information processing in the first eight months of an infant’s life.

Tags: Syllables , phonics , phonemes , segmenting words , blending words

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