Ehri's Phases of Word Recognition

Ehri's 4 Phases of Word Recognition Development

• Phases include: Pre-alphabetic, Partial Alphabetic, Full Alphabetic, and Consolidated Alphabetic.

Pre-alphabetic Phase

• Knowledge of the alphabet is absent; recognition is based on context rather than sound-symbol relationships.
• Example: Young children can "read" logos of familiar brands through visual recognition instead of letter understanding.
• Activities for intervention include:
  • Cutting out familiar logos from magazines and labeling them.
  • Locating logos in the classroom to highlight initial letters/sounds.
  • Using phonic faces to enhance connections.

Partial Alphabetic Phase

• Initial connections between written words and their pronunciations form, relying on some knowledge of letters and sounds.
• Limited phonemic awareness leads to partial connections; for instance, recognizing "spoon" as "skin."
• Activities for intervention include:
  • Creating CVC words on sentence strips and manipulating sounds.
  • Identifying words with shared initial or final sounds.
  • Using phonic faces to strengthen sound-letter associations.

Full Alphabetic Phase

• Establishes complete connections between letters in spelling and sounds in pronunciations, leading to accurate reading.
• Sight words are stored fully in memory, reducing confusion with similarly spelled words.
• Example of complete awareness: recognizing "S-W-EE-T."
• Activities for intervention include:
  • Introducing and decoding sight words, CVC, and multisyllabic words.
  • Working on blends to enhance decoding skills.
  • Utilizing phonic faces for understanding short and long vowel relationships.

Consolidated Alphabetic Phase

• Children learn a larger set of sight words, allowing recognition of words as complete units.
• Example: The word "sweet" may be processed as two units: "sw" and "eet."
• Activities for intervention include:
  • Introducing more advanced sight words appropriate for grade level.
  • Demonstrating morphological changes to words for tense or meaning alterations.
  • Showing how word forms can change, facilitating deeper understanding of language structure.