{"id":8399,"date":"2017-04-24T05:49:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T05:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/?p=8399"},"modified":"2026-04-27T06:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T06:09:47","slug":"teach-child-read-using-phonics-20-vowel-sounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/teach-child-read-using-phonics-20-vowel-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"How to teach your child to read using phonics and the 20 vowel sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/thumb-aeiou.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 140%; color: #31849b; font-family: Trebuchet MS;\">Hi everyone. It\u2019s Liz Dunoon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 140%; color: #31849b; font-family: Trebuchet MS;\">Today I\u2019m going to be showing you how to teach your child to read and spell from home using the 20 vowel sounds and how you can use this information to teach your child to read from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 140%; color: #31849b; font-family: Trebuchet MS;\">As youngsters, my three children all experienced learning difficulties and I helped them to catch up at school and have great success. As a teacher who specialises in literacy and learning difficulties, I have since helped 100\u2019s of children to learn to read and spell from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><strong><span style=\"font-size: 140%;\">Watch the video here:<\/span><\/strong><\/center><br \/>\n<center><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HewgB4nRZQU?rel=0\" width=\"782\" height=\"440\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">What are 20 vowel sounds? Well\u2026 the vowels in the English language are the 5 letters that that are not consonants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%; padding-left: 15px;\">They are;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 140%;\">A E I O U<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">Before we go any further, I also want to highlight another letter of the alphabet that causes much confusion. It\u2019s the consonant letter \u2018<strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Y<\/span><\/strong>\u2019. It is very tricky because the letter \u2018<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Y<\/strong><\/span>\u2019 wants to be a vowel. In fact, it is a vowel, in many words like <span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u2018<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>t<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">y<\/span>p<span style=\"color: #808080;\">e<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u2019<\/span> and <span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u2018<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>g<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">y<\/span>ps<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">y<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">The <strong>short vowel sounds:<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a-<\/span>&#8221; &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e-<\/span>&#8221; &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i-<\/span>&#8221; &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o-<\/span>&#8221; &#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">u-<\/span>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">The <strong>long vowel<\/strong> <strong>sounds<\/strong>:<br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a&#8212;<\/span>\u201c \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e&#8212;<\/span>\u201c \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i&#8212;<\/span>\u201c \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o&#8212;<\/span>\u201c \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">u&#8212;<\/span>\u201c<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">These are the <strong>vowel combination sounds<\/strong>:<br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ew<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">oo<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">oy<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ar<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">or<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">er<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ear<\/span>\u201d \u201d<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">air<\/span>\u201d \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ow<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">We\u2019ve also got the <strong>lazy vowels<\/strong> or &#8216;<strong>schwa vowel<\/strong>&#8216;<strong> sound<\/strong>.<br \/>\nIt sounds kind of like \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">uh<\/span>\u201d or &#8220;<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">urgh<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">Now let me give you a word example to demonstrate each sound.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">We will start with the short vowel sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a-<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">a<\/span><\/span>ppl<span style=\"color: #808080;\">e<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e-<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">e<\/span><\/span>gg<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i-<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">i<\/span><\/span>ns<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e<\/span>ct<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o-<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">o<\/span><\/span>r<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a<\/span>ng<span style=\"color: #808080;\">e<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">u-<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">u<\/span><\/span>p<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">Now let\u2019s move onto the long vowel sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a&#8212;<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">a<\/span><\/span>pr<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i<\/span>c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o<\/span>t<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e&#8212;<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">ee<\/span><\/span><\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i&#8212;<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">i<\/span><\/span>sl<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a<\/span>nd<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o&#8212;<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">oa<\/span><\/span>t<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">u&#8212;<\/span>\u201c as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">u<\/span><\/span>n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i<\/span>f<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">or<\/span>m<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">Now we have the vowel sound combinations \u2013 here are some words to show you how these sounds can be heard in English words:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ew<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">m<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">oo<\/span><\/span>n<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">oo<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">oo<\/span><\/span>k<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ar<span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;<\/span><\/span>\u00a0as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">h<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">al<\/span>f<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">or<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">s<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">au<\/span><\/span>c<span style=\"color: #808080;\">e<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">er<\/span>\u201d as in<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> b<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">ir<\/span><\/span>d<\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ear<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">d<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">eer<\/span><\/span><\/span><br \/>\n\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">air<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">p<span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">ea<\/span>r<\/span><\/span><br \/>\nand \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ow<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">ow<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">Lastly let me introduce you to the laziest vowel of all, the<strong> lazy vowel<\/strong> or <strong>schwa vowel<\/strong>. These are the vowels which become lazy because of the way we pronounce them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; font-size: 130%;\">Here are some examples. Let me use light green to show the lazy vowels.<br \/>\nHere is \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">uh<\/span>\u201d as in <strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">doctor<\/span><\/strong>. Is it \u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">d<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o<\/span>c-t<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">or<\/span><\/span>\u201d or \u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">d<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">o<\/span>c-t<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">uh<\/span><\/span>\u201d? How do you say it?<br \/>\nHere is \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">uh<\/span>\u201d as in <strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">the<\/span><\/strong>. Is it \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">th<\/span>e&#8212;<\/span> \u201c or \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\">th<\/span>uh<\/span>\u201d? How do you say it?<br \/>\nHere is \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">urgh<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>giraffe<\/strong><\/span>. Is it \u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">g<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ir-a<\/span>ff<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e<\/span><\/span>\u201d or \u201cg<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">urgh<\/span>-r<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a<\/span>ff<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">e<\/span><\/span>\u201d? How do you say it?<br \/>\nAnd lastly \u201c<span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">urgh<\/span>\u201d as in <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>rabbit<\/strong><\/span>. Is it \u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">r<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">a<\/span>b-b<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">i<\/span>t<\/span>\u201d or \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ra<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">bb<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">&#8211;<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">urgh<\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">t<\/span><\/span>&#8220;?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-8427 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/the-letter-y.png\" alt=\"the letter y\" width=\"147\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/the-letter-y.png 520w, https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/the-letter-y-163x300.png 163w, https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/the-letter-y-81x150.png 81w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 147px) 100vw, 147px\" \/>Lazy vowels<\/strong> cause a lot of confusion and frustration for the struggling\u00a0learner. Each English accent has their\u00a0own\u00a0lazy vowels and we must consider them when we are helping a learner to spell new words based on the way that we say them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">So\u2026 That is the 20 vowel sounds in the English language. It is important to start by teaching your child the 26 letters of the English alphabet, but then get straight into teaching the 46 consonant and vowel sounds they can make in words. This is when you teach children to truly decode words using phonics and phonemic awareness. You can see me talking about the 26 consonant sounds <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/teach-child-read-using-phonics-26-consonant-sounds\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>here<\/u><\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%;\">If you like this blog post, make sure you leave a comment below and if you&#8217;ve enjoyed the video you can subscribe to my <strong>Youtube channel<\/strong> by clicking on the link below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC5OEgpDyHGRYn34aB5ii17A\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17761321_120300002931073370_764033946_o.png\" alt=\"17761321_120300002931073370_764033946_o\" width=\"1000\" \/><\/a><\/center><center><strong><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC5OEgpDyHGRYn34aB5ii17A\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #fe0000;\">Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\">If you want <strong>more information<\/strong> on how to teach your child to read and spell and find out how to access posters with this information on it and many more educational resources to help your child catch up at school fast\u2026. Join me on my <strong>free webinar<\/strong> by clicking the link below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/webinar\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/banner-dark.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" \/><\/a><\/center><center><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/webinar\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #fe0000;\"><strong>Click here to register for the FREE webinar<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/center><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\">Now a question for you. Have a guess which of the vowel sounds has the most spelling variations? Leave a comment below right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\">Wishing you and your child every success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.5 !important;\">Liz Dunoon<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi everyone. It\u2019s Liz Dunoon. Today I\u2019m going to be showing you how to teach your child to read and spell from home using the 20 vowel sounds and how you can use this information to teach your child to read from home. As youngsters, my three children all experienced... <br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/teach-child-read-using-phonics-20-vowel-sounds\/\">Continue reading...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":15976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading-spelling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8399"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8635,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions\/8635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dyslexiadaily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}