Tric a Chlic is a Welsh synthetic phonics programme for children aged 3-7.

Learning the letter sounds helps the children with blending (building the sounds within words, for reading) and segmenting (breaking the sounds down, for spelling). The children will be able to recognise the sounds of the letters in these words different from the names of the letters e.g. ae in a cae.

The aim of Tric a Chlic is not to present the sounds of the letters but rather to present the sounds to create words to be read and spelled from the very beginning.

Following introducing the first sound in the programme which is “m”, another sound such as “a” must be chosen to move on and be able to blend the sounds to form the word m-a-m (mother). Therefore, having introduced just two letters, you can start building sensible words. This is repeated gradually when introducing other letters e.g. m-a-p (map) a p-a-m (pam). To understand more about the order of the sounds/letters look at …….

(Cam 1).

The books are not sold individually at the moment and are mainly aimed at school use. You may notice that they do not follow a story pattern. The main reason for this is that they reinforce the words that contain the sounds presented on that colour. This is a phonics programme and not a reading scheme. Once the children are able to read confidently, they will then move on to reading books with stories.

If your child attends a Welsh-medium school, then you could support your child by listening to the sounds of the letters in the resources section on this website. You can see the letter and listen to the sound together. We also have a selection of podcasts where you can listen to Eirian, the author, introducing the sounds as they appear in the books. Remember that the sound of the letters are the same in Welsh and English! If your child attends an English medium school, then they will have learned the majority of sounds when learning their English phonics.

The programme is divided into three stages (cam) and each stage (cam) contains different colours. The first stage focuses on 2-3 letter words. Yellow is the first color of Cam 1 where your child will be introduced to the first set of sounds.

We have Tric a Chlic Cam 1 and Tric a Chlic Cam 2 and 3 parent packs along with Tric a Chlic at home. Keep an eye out for updates to this website as we release new resources during the year.

Yes, go to the resources section! You can find audio clips, videos and much more for free!

The magnetic letters were very popular and we are currently planning the relaunch of the resource, so keep an eye out for updates on our website!

Both apps should work on most iOS devices newer than ~2018. Unfortunately they’re not available on the Google Play Store at the moment. Because of this we have made the apps available to anyone who wants to use them, until we can publish them again on Android: https://pth.cymru/tac-dros-dro