Digraphs
For today’s phonics post we are going to be exploring consonant digraphs! Digraphs is a fancy word that is used to describe a grapheme that is made up of two letters. They can occur at the beginning, middle or end of a word. In English we have the following consonant digraphs:
CK, CH, SH, TH, WH, NG, QU, PH, GH
Once a student has learned single letter graphemes, digraphs are an important next step. We start introducing digraphs quite early in our programs.
CK – back, pack, Jack
QU – quest, quick
CH – chair, child, march
SH – cash, fashion, fish
TH – thank, anything, bath
WH – what, when, why
NG – sang, song, sing, sung
PH – phone, graph
GH – laugh
While these are sometimes considered digraphs, we teach them as 'ghost digraphs':
These are also introduced later on in our scope and sequence.
GH – (silent h) ghost
KN – (silent k) knee, knew
WH – (silent w) who, whole
MB – (silent b) thumb, climb
Important Teaching Tip
Digraphs are two letters working to make just one sound. You should NOT try to sound out a digraph. For example, /k/ + /h/ = /ch/. Instead students should learn that ‘ch’ is ONE grapheme making one phoneme/sound, /ch/.
If your child is learning digraphs, we have a fun games and stories that we utilize during tutoring sessions to help your child. We would love to support your family!
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