Alphabetic Principle

The alphabetic principle is that letter symbols have sounds and words are made up of letter symbols.

Thus, the student must know the sound/symbol association.  For reading, when a child sees a symbol or a group of symbols, the student must be able to say the sound or blend the sounds to form a word.  For spelling, the child needs to write the symbol or a group of symbols sounds that he/she hears.  Thus, phonemic awareness plays a critical role in spelling.

However, in the American English language, not all words can be sounded out and must be learned as sight words.  Also, several letters, such as c and g, make several sounds.  The vowels (a, e, i, o, u) make multiple sounds, based on their visual pattern.

Categorization is very important.  Can the student:

In Table 1, the green and red highlighted visual components indicate that these letters are common in both the initial and final positions.  That is, nine visual components (the first fifteen out of eighty one) are the same in both the initial and final position.  MyBreakfastReadingProgram focuses on those components in the early lessons.

The Medial Positions columns with the yellow highlights indicate that 12% of words do not have a medial visual component (so, at) and that approximately 70% of medial patterns are comprised with a one or two vowel patterns.  Based on these patterns, the student should be able to quickly categorize the vowel sound as long or short.

Like the consonant sounds, My Breakfast Reading Program focuses on both the long and short vowel sounds early in the program.

Another observation from the chart that adults may relate to, is the analogy of a traffic light.  The green can represent the initial sound as you need to "GO" when sounding out a word.  The red can represent the final sound, as you need to "Stop" when you complete the sounding out of a word.  For children, you can also use the Green-Go and Red-Stop analogies.

The yellow light warns that you have to make a decision when approaching an intersection. While driving, you have to determine if you accelerate or break when you see the yellow light.  Is someone tailgating, are you to close to the intersection, are you to far from the intersection, is there a police car near by or a traffic camera.  As adults, we have to make this split second decisions many times a day.  However, where I live, yellow always means accelerate.

Just like approaching a word, determine the medial sound first, as the vowel sounds change, based upon the visual pattern.  When you see the vowel pattern, you have to determine if the sound is long or short.  Is there only one vowel, or two vowels?   Is there an "r" after the vowel?    All joking aside, a spilt decision has to be made.  The vowels should be the yellow light.  Find them first.  Yellow means caution - look and think. 

As you use the materials, you may notice that many interactive activities are green-yellow-red colored coded.  Also, the color coding concept is used in the Dominoes for manipulative activities.

The following Phonemic Awareness link shows the importance of the alphabetic principle. 

                               
Initial Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total		   Medial Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total		   Final Position Visual Patterns
Sorted by Total
 
  Count of Printed Word           Count of Printed Word           Count of Printed Word      
Rank IVC -
Initial
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %   Rank MVC -
Medial
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %   Rank FVC -
Final
Visual Component		 Total % Cum %
1 b 118 5% 5%   1 (blank) 294 12% 12%   1 t 201 8% 8%
2 l 110 5% 10%   2 i 272 11% 24%   2 n 191 8% 16%
3 p 105 4% 14%   3 a 266 11% 35%   3 d 159 7% 23%
4 h 102 4% 18%   4 u 215 9% 44%   4 p 128 5% 29%
5 m 102 4% 23%   5 o 163 7% 51%   5 m 108 5% 33%
6 r 101 4% 27%   6 e 162 7% 58%   6 l 103 4% 37%
7 t 91 4% 31%   7 a-e 138 6% 64%   7 k 91 4% 41%
8 s 87 4% 34%   8 i-e 112 5% 68%   8 g 81 3% 45%
9 f 82 3% 38%   9 ea 88 4% 72%   9 ll 76 3% 48%
10 d 81 3% 41%   10 o-e 82 3% 75%   10 ck 74 3% 51%
11 c 73 3% 44%   11 ee 75 3% 79%   11 st 64 3% 54%
12 w 68 3% 47%   12 oo 66 3% 81%   12 b 62 3% 56%
13 st 66 3% 50%   13 ai 47 2% 83%   13 ch 60 3% 59%
14 g 54 2% 52%   14 ow 46 2% 85%   14 ng 58 2% 61%
15 sh 51 2% 54%   15 ou 34 1% 87%   15 s 57 2% 64%
16 sl 51 2% 56%   16 oa 33 1% 88%   16 nk 51 2% 66%
17 ch 50 2% 59%   17 ar 32 1% 89%   17 nt 50 2% 68%
18 fl 49 2% 61%   18 or 32 1% 91%   18 nd 44 2% 70%
19 br 48 2% 63%   19 u-e 27 1% 92%   19 v 39 2% 71%
20 cr 47 2% 65%   20 ie 22 1% 93%   20 mp 38 2% 73%
21 gr 47 2% 67%   21 al 21 1% 94%   21 sh 36 2% 75%
22 cl 45 2% 68%   22 aw 16 1% 94%   22 c 34 1% 76%
23 sp 44 2% 70%   23 ir 15 1% 95%   23 ss 29 1% 77%
24 tr 43 2% 72%   24 oi 15 1% 96%   24 ay 26 1% 78%
25 n 42 2% 74%   25 au 13 1% 96%   25 ow 25 1% 79%
26 bl 41 2% 76%   26 e-e 12 1% 97%   26 ff 22 1% 80%
27 j 39 2% 77%   27 ur 12 1% 97%   27 ght 22 1% 81%
28 dr 38 2% 79%   28 u-e  11 0% 98%   28 ld 22 1% 82%
29 pr 30 1% 80%   29 ow-e 10 0% 98%   29 lt 22 1% 83%
30 pl 29 1% 81%   30 er 7 0% 98%   30 are 18 1% 84%
31 fr 28 1% 83%   31 er-e 7 0% 99%   31 ear 18 1% 85%
32 sw 26 1% 84%   32 ee-e 6 0% 99%   32 ft 18 1% 85%
33 str 25 1% 85%   33 ea-e 5 0% 99%   33 dg 16 1% 86%
34 gl 24 1% 86%   34 ou-e 5 0% 99%   34 ore 16 1% 87%
35 th 24 1% 87%   35 ai-e 4 0% 99%   35 th 16 1% 87%
36 sc 23 1% 88%   36 ar-e 3 0% 100%   36 z 16 1% 88%
37 v 23 1% 89%   37 ei 3 0% 100%   37 y 15 1% 89%
38 sn 22 1% 90%   38 ur - e 3 0% 100%   38 f 14 1% 89%
39 k 20 1% 90%   39 ue 2 0% 100%   39 tch 14 1% 90%
40 qu 19 1% 91%   40 ui-e 1 0% 100%   40 x 14 1% 90%
41 wh 19 1% 92%     Grand Total 2377       41 aw 13 1% 91%
42 kn 17 1% 93%               42 lk 12 1% 91%
43 sk 15 1% 93%               43 ar 11 0% 92%
44 sm 14 1% 94%               44 ee 11 0% 92%
45 y 14 1% 95%               45 ew 10 0% 93%
46 wr 13 1% 95%               46 sk 10 0% 93%
47 scr 11 0% 96%               47 r 9 0% 94%
48 tw 11 0% 96%               48 ue 9 0% 94%
49 thr 9 0% 96%               49 eer 8 0% 94%
50 a 8 0% 97%               50 oo 8 0% 95%
51 spr 8 0% 97%               51 sp 8 0% 95%
52 squ 8 0% 97%               52 (blank) 8 0% 95%
53 z 7 0% 98%               53 air 7 0% 96%
54 shr 6 0% 98%               54 nc 7 0% 96%
55 a-e 5 0% 98%               55 nch 7 0% 96%
56 i 5 0% 98%               56 ie 6 0% 96%
57 ar 4 0% 99%               57 ire 6 0% 97%
58 ea 3 0% 99%               58 oy 6 0% 97%
59 gn 3 0% 99%               59 ea 5 0% 97%
60 o 3 0% 99%               60 kt 5 0% 97%
61 dw 2 0% 99%               61 mb 5 0% 98%
62 e-e 2 0% 99%               62 o 5 0% 98%
63 gu 2 0% 99%               63 oe 5 0% 98%
64 spl 2 0% 99%               64 pt 5 0% 98%
65 u 2 0% 99%               65 ey 4 0% 98%
66 ai 1 0% 99%               66 igh 4 0% 99%
67 air 1 0% 99%               67 ir 4 0% 99%
68 al 1 0% 99%               68 ur 4 0% 99%
69 au 1 0% 99%               69 gh 3 0% 99%
70 chr 1 0% 100%               70 ier 3 0% 99%
71 e 1 0% 100%               71 lp 3 0% 99%
72 ear 1 0% 100%               72 lth 3 0% 99%
73 ee 1 0% 100%               73 ns 3 0% 99%
74 gh 1 0% 100%               74 sm 3 0% 100%
75 i-e 1 0% 100%               75 ye 3 0% 100%
76 oa 1 0% 100%               76 oar 2 0% 100%
77 oar 1 0% 100%               77 tt 2 0% 100%
78 ou 1 0% 100%               78 hgt 1 0% 100%
79 ph 1 0% 100%               79 mg 1 0% 100%
80 sch 1 0% 100%                 Grand Total 2377    
81 u-e 1 0% 100%                        
  Grand Total 2377