Teach Your Child About Digraphs with These Free Resources
Please enjoy this Digraphs Flashcard Digital Download to help you teach your child more complex sounds! Digraphs are tricky because they are two letters that come together to form one single sound. When children don’t know about digraphs, it can make sounding out words like phone and them very difficult. When you explicitly teach digraphs, however, it takes the mystery away! You may not even be familiar with all of the digraphs, and that’s okay. It’s totally fine to learn alongside your child!
About These Flashcards
- Print from a Chrome Browser to make sure the margins are correct, and make sure “fit to page” is not selected. You may have problems getting the correct margins if you use the Edge browser.
- Print on card stock and laminate.
Tips and Tricks for Using My Digraphs Flashcards
- Introduce your child to these flashcards by reading the word and looking at the picture without pointing out the spelling pattern.
- After your child is familiar with the word and picture, explain that digraphs are two letters that come together to make a single sound and trigraphs are three letters that come together to make a single sound.
- The /th/ sound is tricky because it can be voiced (meaning that you use your voice to make the sound) as in the word these, or it can be unvoiced (meaning that you don’t use your voice to make the sound), as in the word three. Notice how with the voiced /th/ sound, it kind of tickles your tongue. Have your child practice making both sounds to see the difference.
- Point out digraphs when your are reading quality literature together.
Tips and Tricks for Using My Digraphs Video
- Start watching when your child knows one sound for each letter of the alphabet (including short vowels) really really really well.
- As your child is introduced to the video, repeat some of the things that are said so they hear your voice along with the video. Say the chant along with the video and comment where appropriate. (“What is that animal called? What is Elliot wearing?”)
- This video is almost like a cheat sheet for parents so that when you’re reading together, you can point out digraphs that you encounter in your day to day life.
For More Information
- For a simple overview for how to teach your child to read, check out my blog: Teach Your Child to Read in 5 Simple Steps, and for a more in depth look at teaching reading, check out my: Teach Your Child to Read Blog Series.
- Check out my Free Reading Resources page to access all of the flashcards, posters, and video digital downloads you’ll need to teach your child how to read.
Follow These 5 Simple Steps to Teach Your Child How to Read:
I created these resources to help any parent (or teacher) teach their child/children to read in a fun and back to basics kind of way. If you follow these steps and fill learning time with lots of love and cuddles, your child will learn how to read easily and naturally just like my own five children did.
- Language Rich Environment: Use oral language at the child’s level (Get down on the floor and play together!) and help them memorize vocabulary words. (Tell them the names of things!)
- Phonemic Awareness: Teach one sound for each letter of the alphabet. (Start with short vowels and the hard c and g.)
- Phonics: Tap out sounds in three letter words to teach how sounds come together to form words.
- More Complex Phonemic Awareness: Introduce long vowels, digraphs, other vowel sounds, and other consonant sounds.
- Reading Comprehension Strategies: Use quality literature to interact with books and ask questions before, during, and after reading to make sure your child is understanding what you’re reading.
Start young! It’s better to do a little bit over a long period of time rather than try to cram it all in before preschool or kindergarten starts. Read more about how to teach your child to read in my blog: Teach Your Child to Read in 5 Simple Steps.
Teach Your Child to Read Blog Series
For a more in depth look at teaching your child to read, follow my blog series. In this series, I divide learning how to read into nine layers that build off from each other to create strong and confident readers. In each blog, you’ll find additional resources and information that will give you a deep understanding for how children learn how to read.
- #1-Oral Language Development Lays the Foundation for Learning to Read
- #2-How Engage Your Baby or Young Child with Reading
- #3-Learning How to Read Begins with the ABCs
- #4-Memorizing Words Before Sounding Them Out Leads to Reading
- #5-Building Vocabulary with Numbers, Colors, and Shapes
- #6-Teaching Phonics with Three Letter Word Families
- #7-Unlock the Final Stages of Reading with Advanced Phonemic Awareness
- #8-Reading Comprehension Strategies Lead to Independent Readers
- #9-Reinforcing Reading with Writing
