Traditional Alphabet Or Phonetic Alphabet? Technically, your child doesn’t have to learn the alphabet in its original form, but instead learn the phonetic alphabet. The phonetic alphabet is comprised of 44 phonemes, this includes the sounds of letters blended together, such as: sh, ch and ee. To simplify the meaning, your child will not learn the letters of the alphabet, but instead learn the sounds the letters make. How You Can Help At Home When you are helping your child at home with their phonics, you should make sure you use the phonetic alphabet rather than say “A, B and C”. But instead use the sounds they make /a/, /b/ and /c/. The Forty Four Phonemes - Sounds of a Literacy Foundation Grouped alphabetically they are: s, a, t, i, p, n c k,e,h,r,m,d g,o,u,l,f,b ai,j,oa,ie,ee,or z,w,ng,v,short-oo, long-oo y,x,ch,sh,voiced th, unvoiced th qu,ou,oi,ue,er,ar These 44 Phonemes comprise all of the sounds in the English Language.