Banter Quick Tips: Teach beginners these consonant digraphs (not clusters or blends)!
We have a big problem in written English: we don’t have enough letters for all the consonant speech sounds!
So we represent some consonant speech sounds with two letters. These are called consonant digraphs.
A digraph = two letters representing one speech sound.
To read words, we should teach beginners these consonant digraphs:
BUT don’t confuse digraphs with consonant clusters or blends!
Lots of English words contain two or more consecutive consonants. These are not digraphs because the two letters represent two (or more) different speech sounds.
A cluster or blend = 2 (or more) consecutive consonant letters representing two (or more) speech sounds.
Don’t waste students’ time or memory teaching consonant clusters as single units. Instead, practice reading lots of real CCVC and CVCC words by blending each of the speech sounds together.
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
