Not Sure Where to Start with Phonics? Start Here.
A simple, parent-friendly guide to UK phonics beginner stages (ages 3–5).
Follow this simple phonics roadmap to support early reading at home.
Step 1. Listening and Sound Awareness
Before your child learns letter sounds, they need to build a strong foundation in hearing and identifying sounds in general.
In Step 1 they first develop the ability to:
- Hear different sounds in the environment
- Recognise patterns like rhythm and rhyme
- Blend and segment spoken words
Children first learn to notice sounds in the world around them — footsteps, voices, everyday noises.
As they begin to play with and explore these sounds, they become more aware of how sounds work.
They start to realise that words are made up of sounds too. This prepares them to link sounds to letters.
This step is usually called Phase 1 in UK Phonics and learned in Nursery and early Reception.
Step 2. Learning Letter Sounds
Step 1 is all about listening to sounds, Step 2 is where children start linking sounds to actual letters.
UK school phonics programmes don’t start with A-Z in alphabetical order. Instead, they introduce the most useful letter sounds* first, so children can start building and reading many simple 3-letter words straight away.
In what order:
Jolly Phonics: s,a,t,i,p,n,c,k,e,h,r,m,d,g,o,u,l,f,b,j,z,w,v,y,x
Read Write Inc: m,a,s,d,t,i,n,p,g,o,c,k,u,b,f,e,l,h,r,j,v,y,w,z,x
Letters and Sounds: s,a,t,p,i,n,m,d,g,o,c,k,e,u,r,h,b,f,l,j,v,w,x,y,z
*only single letter sounds have been included above for ease of reference. Please click on the links to see the full order where digraghs, trigraphs etc are included.
This step is usually called Phase 2 in UK Phonics and learned in Reception.
Step 3. Blending to Read Words
UK school phonics programmes usually introduce letter sounds in small groups or sets. As each new set of sounds is learned, children are encouraged to use their knowledge to sound out and blend simple words.
For example, the first 10 single-letter sounds introduced in Read Write Inc. are:
m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o
Once children know these sounds, they can begin blending them to read simple words such as:
mat, sat, sad, mad, map, tap, nap, pan, man, sit, pin, sip, tip, pot, top, mop
They can also start reading simple sentences such as:
- Sam sat.
- Sam is sad.
- Sam sat on a mat.
This early success helps children build confidence and understand how sounds work together to make words.
This step is usually part of Phase 2 in UK Phonics and learned from Reception onwards.
So where should you start with your child?
Take this quick phonics check
Starter/Step 1
If your child:
- Enjoys rhymes & songs
- Can hear sounds around them
- Not learning letter sounds yet
Early Reader / Step 2
If your child:
- Recognises some letters
- Beginning to learn sounds (s, a, t, p)
- Not blending yet
Beginning to Read / Step 3
If your child:
- Knows many letter sounds
- Starting to blend words (cat, dog)
- Beginning to read simple books
If you’re still not quite sure where your child fits in their phonics journey, understanding the phonics phases can help make everything feel clearer.