Reading is a systematic code for speech. It is systematic at the level of the rime, the part of a syllable that begins with the vowel and goes through the end (“ag” in “rag,” or “age” in “rage”). Any type of phonics or whole-word instruction that ignores rimes can make it hard for your child to “get with the system.”

Try to sound this word out without looking ahead:

B

BO

BOU

BOUG

BOUGH

BOUGHT

Words must be sounded out, but they can't be sounded out from left to right. Nobody can know what a particular vowel sound is until he or she knows the whole rime.

Reading the rime stops the guessing, the stumbling, the dysfluency. It puts the child in charge, because —

• reading the rime first tells your child in advance what the vowel is.
• reading the rime first stops the extra sounds introduced in blending: cuh + a + tuh does not make “cat” and never can.
• reading the rime first tells your child about other sounds that change (is it the “g” in rag, rage, right, rough??)
• reading the rime first helps your child see and use the patterns that make up the code.
• breaking the word at the rime is what children and adults do naturally

Credit from: Miriam Cherkes-Julkowski "find the vawol; Read the Rime, Learn to Read"