For some education theorists, an explicit form of teaching, rather than an implicit form, is needed. This means the teacher or parent should explicitly state the word and its associated sound to the student. Phonics rules are important, but according to Scholastic, phonics application is more important than learning phonics rules. After the teacher or parent explicitly states the word, the child should begin a reading exercise with the word or words taught independent of the parent or teacher. This ensures the child grasps the material and is able to utilize phonics while reading.
Decoding is a process by which the child logically connects relationships between words. One way decoding works is for the student to sound out each letter in a word. If a child sees a stop sign, he can sound out each letter that makes up the word to develop proper phonics skills. Parents can help their children by pointing out words and letters to them, like the stop sign example. Parents can also encourage children to write out sentences while sounding out each word and letter.
Rhyming strategies are also an important tool to help with phonics. A parent can craft a fun nursery rhythm the child can complete when the parent says it aloud. The website Cengage Learning has an example of a rhythm. The parent would say, "I went to the circus in town, to see a funny..." and the child would finish the sentence with clown.
It is important for a child to understand how mouths form words and letters. One phonics strategy is to have the child say words in front of a mirror. While looking in the mirror, the child can notice the way the tongue and mouth moves when pronouncing a word. The parent or teacher can discuss with the student later how mouth movements create the sounds necessary to pronounce a word.