Separating Words by Syllables Can Help a Child Sound Out Words

When a more than one syllable word comes up in a story a child is reading you can teach a child to use phonics rules for each syllable in the word. An adult helping a child read can show the first syllable of the word. Then the child can attempt to read the first syllable using phonics rules.

I've taught the students I tutor some simple phonics rules. When a more than one syllable word comes up in a story a student is reading I've been tapping or clapping the number of syllables. I don't do this for every word. My goal is to have these children take words apart by syllable and use phonics rules to give sounding out longer words a try.

Separating words by syllables and making the sounds that follow the rules gives a new reader a starting point to sound out a word. I've taught the students I'm tutoring phonics rules. I've taught them to be flexible when reading:
vowel sounds can change,
sometimes letters work together to make new sounds,
some letters are silent,
but letters can't be added that aren't there.

Teach and practice some phonics rules, check if a child can hear how many syllables in a word and give reading longer words by syllables a try.