 to promote some confusion with some of the letters. For the letter 'i', the children are shown a picture of a mouse, whose name is 'inky', this is however, confusing for the children as when they picked out the letter 'i' from the box, the majority of them picked up the toy mouse. When asked, they knew it began with an 'm' but they instinctively went for that toy, perhaps influenced by the image of 'inky' the mouse. The Letters and Sounds, another phonics programme, avoids this issue and does not use pictures or 'actions' in the same way that the Jolly phonics system does.
Letters and Sounds is a programme used by many educational settings for the teaching of phonics. It gives a lot of guidance on how to teach the letters. The main idea is to teach the letters in a multisensory way. That letter formation should be taught from the start and as children learn a new letter sound they should also learn how to form it, starting by making movements in the air and then attempting it on a whiteboard or paper. By learning the visual appearance of the letter, the movement used when writing it and the sound of the letter all at the same time, it helps the child to remember it. The Letters and Sounds: Notes of Guidance says that mnemonics have proved to be beneficial in helping children to remember letters. It also says that teachers need to take care that children understand that the mnemonic and multisensory activities are not an end to learning letters or reading. It is important that they stay focussed on the role of letters in reading and spelling words.
The Letters and Sounds system offers further advantages. Due to the way the document is laid out it is very easy to use. It shows a break down of each of the phonics phases and what stage of reading and forming letters children should be at for each phase. Letters and Sounds is also a very multisensory programme and offers a large range of ideas and activities to do for each phase. The activities are interactive in order to keep the children motivated and engaged.
Due to the layout of Letters and Sounds it offers great continuity and progression throughout the teaching of phonics.
By using a multisensory system to teach phonics the children are able to gain a more solid learning experience. Some people feel that the multisensory approach is only useful when teaching children who have special educational needs. Research has shown, however, that nearly all students are able to gain some benefits from this style of teaching. Research has also shown that by meeting the needs of all the children's learning styles, through a multisensory approach, it can be ensured that all the children have been catered for. The main advantages for using a multisensory method when teaching phonics include the children being more engaged with their learning; the children being able to generate a better capacity for learning; it encourages the children to take on more knowledge; it improves the children's attitudes towards learning phonics as they are enjoying themselves and the children generally achieve more. Future implications would be that due to the results of previous studies and through some personal experience, it seems that teaching phonics through a multisensory system is the best and most enjoyable way for the children to learn their letters and sounds. Based on this multisensory teaching of phonics appears the best way forward.
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