[senco-forum] a definition of synthetic phonics.

First there was the 'word' ie the series of orchestrated grunts that signified a particular idea.  The first attempt to record these ideas was ideographic. Then came written symbols to represent particular sounds - phonetics.  The methodology was established and over time, proved more popular than the use of ideograms.

There is no need to justify synthetic phonics - it is its own justification because phonics is the writing code.  Decoding (recreating 'words' from text) is the 'retrieval' component of reading and comprehension is the 'assimilation' component. 

Synthetic phonics is nothing more than a teaching strategy which involves learning the sounds that the letters represent, singly and in combinations, and then blending these into 'words.'  

Keep it simple.

Eddie C.