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A Comparison of Popular Phonogram-Based Reading Programs
When my son tested at the sixth grade level at age 7 on the Stanford Achievment Test as a homeschooled student. This I owe to providing plenty of reading aloud and and fascinating books for him to read independently and teaching him to read using Spell to Write and Read. This started with learning the 70 basic phonograms at age 5.
How phonograms help children understand reading and spelling
A phonogram is a written symbol that represents a sound.
A phonogram may be one letter, such as:
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m in map
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a in apple
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t in top
It may also be a group of letters working together, such as:
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sh in ship
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ch in child
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ee in feet
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igh in night
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tion in nation
The word phonogram comes from words meaning “sound” and “written symbol.” In modern reading instruction, it usually refers to a letter or letter combination that represents one or more sounds in spoken language.
Many parents first encounter phonograms when their child begins a structured reading or spelling program such as Spell to Write and Read, the Spalding Method, Logic of English, All About Reading, or All About Spelling.
Although these programs differ, they share an important idea:
Children need to understand how the sounds of spoken English are represented in writing.
How phonograms help with reading
When a child reads an unfamiliar word, the child must connect the printed symbols with spoken sounds.
Consider the word night.
A child who recognizes only individual letter sounds may try to sound out every letter separately:
n-i-g-h-t
A child who recognizes igh as a phonogram can analyze the word more accurately:
n – igh – t
That does not mean every word can be solved by naming phonograms alone. Children also need phonemic awareness, blending, knowledge of syllables, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
But phonogram knowledge gives them useful units for decoding words instead of relying on pictures, context, or the first letter.
How phonograms help with spelling
Spelling requires the child to work in the opposite direction.
When reading, the child moves from print to sound:
written phonogram → spoken sound
When spelling, the child moves from sound to print:
spoken sound → written phonogram
For example, when spelling ship, the child must hear three sounds:
/sh/ /ĭ/ /p/
The child then chooses the phonograms:
sh – i – p
Programs such as Spalding and Spell to Write and Read place strong emphasis on this sound-to-symbol process. The child hears a word, repeats it, analyzes its sounds, chooses the needed phonograms, writes it, and reads it back.
Spalding describes its method as integrating speech, spelling, writing, and reading. Its spelling lessons teach students to apply phonograms and language rules while pronouncing, spelling, and analyzing words.
A brief history of phonogram-based instruction
Teaching written symbols as representations of speech sounds is not new.
Early alphabetic reading instruction naturally involved connecting letters with sounds. Over time, however, reading programs differed in how explicitly and systematically they taught those relationships.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, educators and researchers developed more organized systems for teaching English spelling patterns, word frequency, handwriting, and sound-symbol relationships.
One important influence was neurologist Samuel Orton, who studied children with serious reading difficulties. Orton emphasized direct teaching of the connections among spoken sounds, visual symbols, and written movements.
Romalda Spalding studied Orton’s ideas and developed the approach later published as The Writing Road to Reading. Her method brought together phonograms, handwriting, spelling dictation, reading, composition, and literary study.
Spalding’s official program now describes The Writing Road to Reading as explicit, systematic, multisensory phonemic instruction for spelling, reading, and writing.
Wanda Sanseri later developed Spell to Write and Read, drawing heavily from the Spalding tradition while reorganizing and expanding materials for home educators, tutors, and classroom teachers.
Other modern programs, including Logic of English and All About Reading, also teach phonograms systematically, though their lesson structure, terminology, manipulatives, and treatment of spelling differ.
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