Those who ascribe to the benefits of whole word believe that children learn best by allowing children to “read” and to learn unfamiliar words by figuring them out in context of a sentence.

This method instructs children to skip those words they do not know and attempt to gain an understanding of the entire context and not simply read each and every word.

Those who ascribe to the benefits of learning phonics believe that children read best when they understand the correlation between the sounds of the spoken language and the symbols that make up our alphabet. Phonics emphasizes the relationship between the alphabet and sounds of our language.

Many educators now utilize a combination method in teaching reading as there are benefits in both methods. Learning to read is more easily achieved when children understand the relationship between sounds and letters, thus the emphasis on phonics. Learning phonics begins to create a solid foundation that is so critical to a child gaining confidence in reading.

I know that when my children were first learning to read, they were taught a combination of both the whole word and phonics method. They quickly had success with learning to read because of that combination approach. That early success led to them wanting to read more and so the circle continues.

Teaching your child to read by learning phonics or teaching your child to read using the whole word method, the option is up to you. Perhaps like our family, you will find the best success when you teach your children using a combination of both methods.