Letter Sounds or Letter Names First? A Guide for Beginning Readers

A letter name labels a symbol: bee names B. A letter sound helps a reader use that symbol in a word: /b/ is the first sound in bat. Beginning reading depends on understanding that printed letters and letter groups represent sounds in spoken words, so sound–symbol connections deserve early, explicit attention.

Why sounds are productive for reading

To decode a simple word such as map, a child identifies the sounds represented by m, a, and p, then blends them. Reciting the names “em, ay, pee” does not produce the spoken word. This is why phonemic awareness and phonics are foundational: they help children hear, connect, and combine the units an alphabetic writing system represents.

Letter names are still useful

This is not a case for hiding letter names. Children use names to talk about spelling, follow instructions, and distinguish letters. Research also shows that English letter names can help children learn sounds when a name contains the relevant sound—for example, /b/ at the beginning of bee. That relationship is less helpful for a letter such as W, whose common sound is not in its name.

Letter-name and letter-sound knowledge develop together, and both are associated with later literacy. The evidence does not support a universal rule that every child must master all sounds before hearing names. It does support giving early teaching time to the sound–symbol connections that make decoding possible.

Phoneme, grapheme, and phonics

• Phoneme: a smallest contrastive sound in spoken language, such as /m/.
• Grapheme: a letter or letter group representing a sound, such as m or sh.
• Phonemic awareness: hearing and manipulating phonemes in spoken words.
• Phonics: learning how graphemes relate to phonemes and using those relationships to read and spell.

A practical way to introduce a letter

1. Show its lowercase and uppercase forms.
2. Say a common early sound cleanly, without adding “uh” when possible: /mmm/, not “muh.”
3. Connect it to a familiar spoken word and notice the target sound.
4. Invite the child to find, sort, draw, move, or squish other examples.
5. Name the letter too: “This is M; it often represents /m/.”
6. Once a few correspondences are secure, blend them in simple words.

Avoid making English look simpler than it is

English has more speech sounds than single letters, and many sounds can be spelled in several ways. Letters can also represent different sounds in different words. Start with common, useful correspondences and expand systematically. “This letter often represents…” is more accurate than “This letter always says…”.

Playful practice can still be explicit

Explicit does not have to mean a long drill. Sort toy animals by their first sound, make a silly alliterative sentence, slide counters together while blending phonemes, or hunt for one grapheme in a favorite book. The adult keeps the goal clear while the child stays active. Read more about balancing play-based learning and flashcards.

When to slow down or seek support

Children develop at different rates, and multilingual learners may be working with sound contrasts that differ across languages. If you are concerned that a child is persistently struggling to hear sounds, remember correspondences, or blend despite clear instruction and practice, share what you have noticed with their teacher, a reading specialist, a speech-language professional, or a pediatric clinician. They can look at the whole picture with you and help decide what support would be useful.

Sources and further reading

• National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness and phonics reports
• Treiman and colleagues: how letter names can support letter-sound learning
• Share: evidence for a causal connection between letter names and sounds