Spanish Phonics Resources for Bilingual Kids
When the time came to begin teaching my bilingual children to read in Spanish, I was at first daunted by the task. I learned Spanish as an adult, so I didn’t learn the phonetic system of Spanish the way it is taught to children. Over the years, I’ve experimented, tried a number of resources, and grown in my confidence in teaching my English-dominant bilingual children to read in their minority language.
In this blog post, I want to share resources that might be helpful all along the learning-to-read journey. First of all, the child needs to learn the Spanish alphabet. The good news is that most of the Spanish letters make just about the same sound in Spanish as they do in English. With a bilingual child, you can simply explain or point out those letters that make different sounds in each language (h and j, for example).
123 Andres on Youtube has a fun music video for each letter of the alphabet! These videos are fantastic for exposure and practice.
We have also created Aventuras del Abecedario, a “letter of the week” style Pre-K curriculum for mastering the Spanish alphabet. This curriculum includes simple printable activity pages as well as book and activity suggestions. Find a free sample of this curriculum here. Throughout this curriculum, we recommend playing flashcard games every week to help with alphabet mastery. We offer free Spanish Alphabet flashcards here as a PDF that you can print and use for a variety of games.
Once your child has mastered the sounds of each letter, it’s time to begin mastering the sílabas. Don’t rush past this step! Take your time, allowing your child plenty of practice to master identifying the sílabas and pronouncing them correctly. We’ve used several different resources at this stage. Nacho is a well-known and much-loved reading Primer.
I found that my children needed more interactive work with sílabas than was offered in the Nacho reading primer, so I created Trabajando con Palabras, Volumes 1 and 2, to offer a systematic way to progress through mastering the sílabas necessary for reading in Spanish. These simple workbooks offer many opportunities to practice identifying syllables, building words, identifying meaning, reading in context, tracing, and spelling words in order to build confident reading skills.
Volume 1 is for the brand-new beginner reader. Some students will progress faster or slower than others. Review and repeat as much as necessary as your child gains mastery. Volume 2 introduces more challenging sílabas and longer words that are more difficult to decode, and includes a reading passage with comprehension questions in every unit.
A free, online resource for systematically practicing syllables can be found in a playlist of videos on the Youtube channel Aprende a Leer. A child who has made good progress with Nacho and/or with Trabajando con palabras will be able to begin decoding beginner readers. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck with finding affordable, easy-to access Spanish readers that have a systematic phonics progression. The “Leyendo a Pasos” series has a number of Step 1 and Step 2 readers that are engaging and have a small amount of words per page, but do be aware that some of the words will still be quite challenging for beginner readers. When we bump into one of these longer words, we pause, write out the word and break it up into syllables to decode it.
We also very much enjoy the Elefante y Cerdita series (25 books), they make excellent beginner readers especially because they use so many common, familiar words.
As your children grow in their decoding ability, you can begin challenging them with books that have more words on the page. There are several books in the Rafi y Rosi series that are more challenging than the Leyendo a Pasos books listed above.
There are also translations of classic early readers in English, such as Sapo y Sepo or Osito (Little Bear) that make good Spanish readers (although be aware that the translation sometimes means that these books include some longer words that are challenging to decode for a beginner reader).
Many children also enjoy the graphic novel style, so as fluency grows, you can look for some beginner graphic novels that are fun and motivating for practicing reading. My son has really been enjoying the Narval y Medu series.
The thought of teaching a child to read in two languages need not be overwhelming. Lessons should be consistent, but they can be short and fun. Focus on building the skills of accurate, fluent reading with comprehension, and enjoy your time learning together. You are giving your child a gift that will benefit them for a lifetime.