Digraphs and vowel teams: sh, ch, th, ee, ai, oa, ou

One sound, more than one letter

Two terms help here. A phoneme is a sound you say. A grapheme is the letter or group of letters that writes it. England's Department for Education reading framework defines a grapheme as "a letter or group of letters that usually represents a single phoneme", and gives examples: one letter ("b" in "big"), two letters ("sh" in "ship", "a-e" in "make"), three ("igh" in "light") and four ("eigh" in "weight"). A two-letter grapheme is a digraph.

Consonant digraphs include "sh", "ch", "th", "ph" and "ng". Vowel teams include "ea", "oo", "oa", "igh" and "eigh" in the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, which also calls the two-letter ones vowel digraphs. Names vary from one program to another. Some say "split digraph" where others say "magic e" for the "a-e" in "late". Use whichever word your child's teacher uses.

This makes reading harder for a child who still reads letter by letter. The "s" and "h" in "ship" are not read as /s/ then /h/. Together they make /sh/. A digraph makes a single sound, and the practice guide says it must be taught as a unit. That is different from a blend like "st" or "cl", where each letter keeps its own sound and the child sounds out both.

Why they are taught one at a time

English writes about 44 sounds with 26 letters, and it does so inconsistently. The reading framework says the language has more than 70 common sound-to-letter correspondences and hundreds of rare ones. The vowel team "ou" alone is read differently in "out", "soup" and "touch". A letter or letter group often has more than one sound.

The practice guide's advice is to start with the most common sound for each letter or combination and introduce one at a time. This is why a lesson never shows every spelling of a sound. If your child asks why "boat" and "note" share a vowel sound but are spelled differently, "we'll get to that later" is a fine answer. Spelling is the harder direction, too: the framework points out that spelling "goat" is harder than spelling "dog" because the sound in the middle has several common spellings.

The usual teaching order

The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide (U.S. Department of Education) gives this sequence. First come consonants and short vowels written with single letters, for example /s/, /m/, /d/, /p/, /a/. Next are consonant blends (fl, sm, st) and common two-letter consonant digraphs (sh, th, ch). Then long vowels with silent e, and last the two-letter vowel teams, such as "ea" and "ou".

England's Year 1 phonics screening check (children aged 5 to 6) shows the same broad pattern. According to the government's description of the check, its first section includes the consonant digraphs "ch", "ck", "ff", "ll", "ng", "sh", "ss", "th" and "zz", plus the frequent and consistent vowel digraphs "ar", "ee", "oi", "oo" and "or". The second section adds "ph" and "wh", then the less frequent and consistent vowel digraphs, among them "ai", "au", "aw", "ay", "ea", "oa", "ou", "ow" and "oy", with split digraphs and the trigraphs "air" and "igh". That list shows what the check covers. It is not a lesson plan.

Programs differ, and the order your child's class follows is the one that counts. Ask the teacher which digraphs and vowel teams have been taught so far. The sound progression guide shows one typical sequence.

How to practice at home

Start from speech. Say the sound alone, then say words that contain it ("ship", "fish", "wash"), and ask your child where they hear it: at the start, the middle or the end. Say sounds crisply and without an extra "uh". The reading framework gives the example that /s/ /p/ /or/ /t/ is easier to blend into "sport" than "suh" "puh" "or" "tuh". When your child knows the sound, show the letters and cover the rest of the word so the group is read as one piece. Phonological awareness games build the same skill.

Then blend. The framework describes decoding as looking at the graphemes from left to right, saying each sound in turn, and blending them into the whole word. For "sheep" that is /sh/ /ee/ /p/, three sounds for five letters. Start with syllables or short words, then move to a short sentence. If a word is read slightly off, such as the "ai" in "mountain" said as a long sound, let your child say it again. The framework notes that a child who recognizes the word can then pronounce it more naturally.

Then spell. Say a word, say its sounds, and write one grapheme for each. The framework's example is "goat": /g/ /oe/ /t/, written g, oa, t. The practice guide suggests sound boxes: draw one box per sound, and put a whole digraph or vowel team in one box. "Ship" gets three boxes (sh, i, p), not four. Word sorting also helps: write words on cards, some with "oa" and some without, and sort them.

Where children slip

Some letter groups have more than one sound. The "th" in "thin" is different from the "th" in "that". The "oo" in "moon" is different from the "oo" in "book". "Ow" is one sound in "cow" and another in "snow". These cases usually come after the first sound has been learned well. When a word sounds wrong, ask your child to try the other sound for the letters, and say whether the result is a word they know.

A child may also mix up two close sounds, such as /sh/ and /ch/, or the vowels in "moon" and "moan". Go back to speech: say a pair of words that differ only in that sound ("ship" and "chip", "sheep" and "cheap"), have your child repeat them, and then return to the letters. If the confusion goes on for several weeks, tell the teacher.

Reading practice that matches the sounds taught

Pick books and texts that only use sounds your child has already been taught. The reading framework makes this point about school books: a book with the word "play" should not be given to a child until the digraph "ay" has been taught. The same applies at home. If a book is full of vowel teams the class has not covered yet, put it aside and read it aloud to your child instead.

Vowel teams come last in the usual order, so they need coming back to. In England, pupils who do not meet the standard on the Year 1 phonics screening check are checked again in Year 2, and the framework says spelling continues to be taught systematically in Year 2 and key stage 2. If your child is still unsure of a vowel team, that is useful information to share with the teacher, who can say what extra practice makes sense.