How to Teach Schwas (+ Downloadable Quick Guide)

Maybe you haven’t heard of schwas before, or maybe you’ve heard of them but are wondering how to teach schwas to your children. If so—read on! By the end of this post, I hope to have helped you make sense of the schwa.

The schwa is a muffled vowel sound that is heard in countless English words. Say the following words aloud and listen for the sound of the underlined vowel.

See how the underlined vowel doesn’t say one of its normal sounds? Instead, depending upon the word, it says a muffled /ŭ/ or /ĭ/ sound. Also, do you notice how the schwa appears in an unaccented syllable? That schwa is what makes these words trickier to read and spell.

In All About Reading and All About Spelling, we don’t use the term “schwa” with the student. Instead, we teach several strategies to help children deal with words that have muffled vowel sounds in the unaccented syllable. Here are some of my favorite strategies for teaching schwas.

Teach your child to “pronounce for spelling.”
When learning to spell words that contain schwas, it really helps to “pronounce for spelling.” This is a simple technique in which we “over-pronounce” all the syllables, allowing us to clearly hear the vowel sounds. Take the word cabin, for example. Since the second syllable is unstressed, the letter I takes on the schwa sound, making it unclear which vowel to use for spelling. When we over-pronounce the word as “cab-IN,” it becomes clear that the letter I is used.

Here is how this works in practice:

1. “Spell the word support. I’ll pronounce it for spelling: SUP-port.”
2. The student repeats the word, pronouncing for spelling.
3. The student spells the word, and then reads the word normally: “support.”

Use All About Spelling Word Banks to build visual memory.
Have your student read through the Word Banks to become familiar with seeing the correct spelling. Then, when your student hears a muffled vowel sound and isn’t sure how it should be spelled, she can try “scratch paper spelling” to help determine the correct spelling.

Encourage your child to think of related words.
If a child can’t remember how to spell the word definition (def-uh-ni-tion), he can think of the root word (define) and use it as a clue for choosing the vowel that is making the /uh/ sound in the word.

When reading, be prepared to “say it like a word.”
If you read the word button with a short o sound in the second syllable, as in /bŭt-tŏn/, you’ll sound like a robot and listeners may have a hard time understanding you. Since there is a schwa in the second syllable, we have to be prepared to make slight adjustments in order to “say it like a word.”

Here’s how to lead your student through the “say it like a word” activity:

1. Choose a word that is in your child’s oral vocabulary, such as the word problem.
2. Say the word as if you were a robot, without using the schwa sound: /prŏb—lĕm/.
3. Have your child “say it like a word” by repeating the word in normal speech.

Once your child is proficient at repeating the words using the schwa sound, you can remind him to use this activity as he reads to help decode unfamiliar words. Soon you’ll be able to remind your student to “say it like a word” and he’ll correct himself.

Has the schwa sound caused problems for your child? Which of these techniques do you think will be most helpful?

Oh wow. thank you for the insight

You have brought insight into the muffled vowel sounds.

This is really helpful. I’m learning right along with my first grader.

This is very helpful

We love ALL ABOUT READING! Have one in Level 2 and one in Level 3. We only wish we had found it sooner.

Great materials to learn from, well structured and easily to be understood. Hardly waiting to dig dipper more into it

This program has been great for my reader that was struggling with another program!

This program has been great for my reader that was struggling with another program.

Great tips. My son leaves out the vowels all the time. English is my first language but now that I’m helping my son learn to read I can see how difficult it is. The y stealing the e and i sounds specifically is extremely frustrating for him.

Great info!!!!

I just found your curriculum! It was recommended to me through a blog talking about how it helped her son with dysgraphia. I’ll be starting the spelling curriculum in a couple of weeks with my middle schooler who has dysgraphia.

Nice info!

I thought number 5 was a great tip! Thank you!

I wish I had this method as an option to learn spelling when I was a kid! I can’t wait to use this program with my youngest!!

This has been so helpful for me with teaching my son. He hated learning how to read this year until we switched curriculums. All About Reading has held his interest and he started to understand the value of being able to read!

Interesting! Thanks for the help!

We just started Level 1 and I’m already seeing improvements with my struggling reader. I was a middle school reading teacher for years and I have very little knowledge with phonics. I appreciate the detailed explanations for the “teacher”. Im learning all this too!

I am re-learning so many things alongside my student. This program is fantastic. Thank you.

We love this program. It has done an excellent job with all the details. Thanks!

I have heads this is a good program

Very interesting!

I love the tip to pronounce for spelling! Super helpful!

I can’t wait to teach my 7yo about schwas…she’s going to have such fun just saying the word that she’ll never forget what it is!! 😊

Such useful information!! Thank you!

I’d heard about schwa but didn’t understand it until I read this, thank you.

I always knew this was a thing, but had no idea it had a proper term!

This is very helpful!

Such a great point!

Thank you so much for this I didn’t know this at all! Thank you for the printable as well!

I enjoyed drawing the upside down “e” when I was in elementary school but I don’t think I got the concept until much later