Letter-sound knowledge

Letter-sound knowledge is knowledge of the letters or groups of letters which represent the individual speech sounds in language.

Letters and letter patterns that represent speech sounds are also called graphemes, while the speech sounds of a language are also called phonemes.

For example, the grapheme "k" in the word "king" represents this phoneme:

…and the grapheme “n” in the word “nose” represents this phoneme:

…as does the grapheme "kn" in the word "knife":

Want to know more? Read an in-depth interactive guide to graphemes in Australian English here:

 Why is letter-sound knowledge important?

Letter-sound knowledge (also called 'graphemic knowledge') helps students to decode written language and teach themselves new words, since students can use letter-sound patterns to say the word, even if it is unfamiliar to them. Difficulties with these skills are hallmarks of the struggling reader.

Teaching methods that begin by explicitly teaching letter-sound relationships have been shown through research to be significantly more effective than other approaches to teaching reading, regardless of whether students do or do not have reading difficulties. Such an approach is called 'synthetic phonics'. The evidence is clear: letter-sound knowledge is crucial in learning to read and spell since it helps students to teach themselves new words!

Embedded mnemonics are scientifically proven to help with letter-sound knowledge! You can purchase flashcards with embedded ReadingDoctor® mnemonics here: