Universal Similarities in Structured Synthetic Phonics Sequences

While there is no single universally agreed-upon phonics sequence, effective systematic phonics programs share a similar, research-based progression that moves from simple initial code to advanced and complex code. The universal philosophy is to teach the most common, high-frequency letter-sound relationships first, and this enables children to read words quickly.

The Standard Systematic Phonics Sequence

1. Phonological and more specifically phonemic awareness: Training the ear to hear sounds (initial phonemes, onset-rime, blending, and segmenting) before connecting these sound units to letters.
2. Alphabetic code: Introducing common, easily blended consonants and short vowels (e.g., s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d).
3. CVC words first (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant): Blending the initial letters to read simple words (e.g., sat, nap, pig).

Key Principles of Evidence-Based Sequences:

• Simple to Complex: Start with single-letter sounds before blending two or more letters. Single letters and sounds first before moving to digraphs, trigraphs and quadgraphs.
• More useful grapheme-phoneme correspondences are introduced first:  For example, s, a, and t are more useful than x, z, j, and q.
• Teaching one sound per week is not sustainable: Grapheme-phoneme correspondences should be introduced at a rate of about 3 –6 per week, but this should ultimately be determined by student performance.
• Systematic & cumulative: New learning must build upon prior knowledge, with regular review.

While sequences vary slightly, they all follow this general, evidence-based path. Given the largely universal nature of many evidence-based SSP phonics progressions, this blog outlines how PLD’s decodable reading book series can be applied to other SSP phonics programs.