There are a number of good reasons to introduce the ‘Alphabet Letters’ of the alphabet – both capital and lower case (as they are both ‘code’ for the same sounds) – BEFORE embarking on a full, planned, systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme.
Compare the number of components of an ALPHABET with an overview, ALPHABETIC CODE CHART.
A full SSP programme introduces the 42 to 44 ‘sounds’ (at phoneme level – the smallest, practical identifiable sounds of speech) and a number of both consonant letters and vowel letters as code for the sounds at an early stage. A common ‘order’ of introducing the letter/s-sound correspondences, for example, is: s /s/ a /a/ t /t/ i /i/ p /p/ n /n/. The ‘sounds’ are shown in the slash marks. This approach enables a really early introduction of words in print for decoding (reading purposes) and a significant range of spoken words for encoding (spelling purposes). The issue can be, however, that there are TOO MANY words and sentences that can be introduced at the early stages of a full SSP programme which could be too much, too soon, too fast. Many SSP programmes set off introducing the very fast pace of four new letter/s-sound correspondences per week for beginners (my approach is generally half that speed). This is not a problem if the children are of an age to deal with, and absorb, such a rapid introduction to code, words, sentences and texts. In fact, one could argue they are quickly empowered in the wonder of reading, spelling and writing which soon liberates them for independence in these foundational literacy skills (some faring better or quicker than others). BUT, some children get left behind at the get-go with such a fast pace of introducing the code of the English spelling system. They might then be labelled and perceived as ‘special needs’ when this need not be the case!
There are zillions of resources in the world made for toddlers – and three to four year old children – featuring the letters of the alphabet (sometimes as their ‘sounds’ and sometimes as their ‘letter names’ – sometimes conflated). It is already popular and established practice to introduce children to letters of the alphabet at nursery age – whether in the home, or in nursery settings. In other words, there is already an expectation that children as young as three (or perhaps younger in the home) are already being introduced to letter shapes focused on ‘the alphabet’ (as different from ‘the alphabetic code’) whether by ‘sound’ and/or ‘letter name’. It’s all a bit of an overwhelming muddle to be honest.
Add to that, there are many countries with different languages and DIFFERENT SCRIPTS from Roman alphabet letters where parents and teachers are choosing to teach English as an additional language – and some may want their children to get off to an early start in English. Arguably, in such contexts, it can be beneficial to focus on the alphabet letters and early phonics simply as an ‘introduction’ – distinguishing the Roman alphabet letters used for reading and spelling in the English language – making it clear that these letters are different from the mother tongue script of their country all around them.
Nursery, pre-school, pre-kindergarten phonics in the home and in early years settings ‘Teeny Reading Seeds’:
A colleague and good friend (a literacy advisor and ex-headteacher), Rachel Hornsey, urged me to create phonics resources based on the alphabet letters for three year olds at a time when she was supervising a nursery setting. To be honest I was reluctant at first. Rachel went on to write literacy plans, including suggestions for wider activities, and she told me about her 30 pre-schoolers (three to four years old) ALL writing with the tripod grip after only once-a-week specific practice with holding a pencil and traced letter formation – and, somewhat hesitant, I went on to create various paper-based content activities as pdfs (printable/projectable) made available online as FREE resources. These became the ‘Teeny Reading Seeds‘ resources – FREE to this day which you can access HERE.
What was important to me, however, was establishing the RATIONALE underpinning these introductory nursery resources: ‘Exposure, experience and NO expectation‘ therefore delivered pressure-free for all. You can read about this rationale via the preschool website. Children at a tender age will pick up and learn what they are capable of and frequently exposed to.
[Please note: No matter how many of the alphabet letters teenies recognise, and sounds they can link to the letters correctly, always start at the beginning of a full, quality SSP programme for all of them when the time is considered ‘right’ – in England, fully-planned SSP programmes start in Reception for the four to five year olds.]
‘Phonics and Talk Time’:
I went on to create two consecutive activity books for introducing alphabet letters – upper and lower case – also introducing in a ‘drip drip’ way the phonics sub-skills and core skills. The two books are entitled ‘Phonics and Talk Time‘ Book 1 and Book 2. Currently, these are available as free pdfs to print and/or project and also as ‘hard copies’ to buy. Phonics International Ltd (our company) then went on to provide a FREE ebookshelf of a ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ Frieze – and also hard copies of a Frieze and Flash Card set to buy. We then created some fabulous ‘Alphabet and Phonics Matching Cards’ with full instructions. The ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ resources feature some of the reasoning for use of capital letters (for character names and the beginning of sentences) to compare with lower case letters for ordinary words such as ‘apple’, ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘dig’. You can access all this information and the FREE and ‘to buy’ resources HERE.
[PLEASE NOTE: Just to be clear, the short sentences on the ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ Frieze and Flash Cards are to introduce the notion of words and sentences in print which tally with the spoken words and sentences. They are not intended for the children ‘to read’ by themselves – they are for explanation and modelling.]
And just like my underpinning rationale of ‘Two-pronged systematic AND incidental phonics teaching and learning‘ for my SSP programmes (Floppy’s Phonics, Phonics International and No Nonsense Phonics), the letters of the alphabet and their sounds can be introduced ‘incidentally’ and with the ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ resources – ‘systematically’.
And HERE is our catalogue page of all our hard copy resources created and published by Phonics International Ltd.
I’m super pleased with all these developments (over many years) and delighted to be able to provide both free resources for children age 3+ to adults and fantastic ‘hard copy’ ready-made resources to buy!
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As an aside…19th April 2026: I just found a very old post on our Phonics International forum describing some super practice and findings in a nursery setting. I think it’s such a lovely description that I’m adding a link to the post here – perhaps this will inspire other nursery practitioners to experiment with an early and gentle introduction to letters and sounds:
https://www.phonicsinternational.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2893#p2893