My child knows all the letter sounds but still can't read words. What's missing?

Almost always blending. Knowing sounds in isolation and pushing them together into a word are separate skills, and the second one needs its own practice. Sessions spend most of their time on blending and segmenting out loud.

Can phonics really be taught by voice without seeing the page?

A large part of phonics is oral — blending, segmenting, hearing the difference between /e/ and /i/, spotting rhymes. For the reading-aloud portion, you can use any decodable book or word list you have at home, or the words the tutor gives, and the child reads while the tutor listens and corrects.

What's the difference between phonics and sight words?

Phonics words are sounded out using the code. Sight words like 'said', 'come' and 'the' don't follow the usual patterns and are learned by recognition. Both matter; this topic covers the decoding side.

How much should we do each week?

Short and frequent works better than long and occasional at this age. Two or three sessions a week, plus a few minutes of reading aloud at home most days, is a reasonable pattern for a K-2 reader.

Phonics & Reading

Elementary (K-2) · English Language Arts

Phonics is the part of early reading where a child links letters to the sounds they make and blends those sounds into words. In K-2 this moves from single consonant and short vowel sounds, to blending three-sound words like 'mat' and 'sun', to digraphs (sh, ch, th), blends (str, cl), silent-e words, and common vowel teams. Because Evelyn Tutor works by voice, sessions are built around the child saying sounds and reading aloud, with the tutor listening and correcting in the moment — which is exactly how decoding gets stronger.

Start a session on Phonics & Reading

What this covers

Producing accurate letter sounds, including the short vowels a/e/i/o/u that are easiest to confuse
Oral blending and segmenting: hearing /c/ /a/ /t/ and saying 'cat', then breaking 'cat' back into its three sounds
Reading CVC words, then adding beginning and ending blends (stop, hand, brush)
Consonant digraphs sh, ch, th, wh, ck and why two letters can make one sound
Silent-e words (hop/hope, tap/tape) and the shift from short to long vowel
Common vowel teams and r-controlled vowels (ai, ee, oa, ar, or) at the Grade 2 end
Decoding two-syllable words by chunking them into parts (rab-bit, mag-net)

Where learners get stuck

Saying letter names instead of letter sounds when sounding out — 'see-ay-tee' for cat: Most children learn the alphabet song and letter names first, so names are the stronger habit. The tutor asks specifically for the sound, not the name, until the two are separate in the child's mind.
Confusing b and d, and p and q, when reading aloud: These letters are mirror images, and young children spend years learning that an object stays the same when you flip it. Reading requires the opposite rule. Consistent verbal cues and a check word help more than repeated correction.
Blending sound-by-sound but losing the word by the end — reading /s/ /u/ /n/ and then guessing 'snow': Working memory is full by the third sound. Practising continuous blending (stretching the sounds together rather than stopping between them) and re-reading the word once smoothly fixes this faster than more drilling of individual letters.
Reading a silent-e word as if the e were spoken, or ignoring the e entirely: Children apply the reliable rule 'every letter makes a sound' and silent e breaks it. Contrasting word pairs out loud — cap/cape, kit/kite — makes the job of the e audible.

What a session looks like

A session runs about 20-30 minutes and is mostly the child talking. The tutor might start with quick sound warm-ups, then move to oral blending games where the tutor says sounds and the child says the word, then have the child read a short set of words and a few sentences aloud while the tutor listens for specific errors. When a word breaks down, the tutor slows it to individual sounds and rebuilds it rather than supplying the answer. Sessions end with one target pattern the child can practise at home.

Helpful to know first

Knows most letters of the alphabet by name, or is actively learning them
Can hear and repeat sounds spoken aloud and speak clearly enough to be understood
For pre-readers: rhyming and clapping syllables is enough to begin — decoding starts from there

Questions

My child knows all the letter sounds but still can't read words. What's missing?: Almost always blending. Knowing sounds in isolation and pushing them together into a word are separate skills, and the second one needs its own practice. Sessions spend most of their time on blending and segmenting out loud.
Can phonics really be taught by voice without seeing the page?: A large part of phonics is oral — blending, segmenting, hearing the difference between /e/ and /i/, spotting rhymes. For the reading-aloud portion, you can use any decodable book or word list you have at home, or the words the tutor gives, and the child reads while the tutor listens and corrects.
What's the difference between phonics and sight words?: Phonics words are sounded out using the code. Sight words like 'said', 'come' and 'the' don't follow the usual patterns and are learned by recognition. Both matter; this topic covers the decoding side.
How much should we do each week?: Short and frequent works better than long and occasional at this age. Two or three sessions a week, plus a few minutes of reading aloud at home most days, is a reasonable pattern for a K-2 reader.