Phonics have been around for a long time and are used to teach many languages, not only English.
But what is a definition of phonics? They are the sounds we speak everyday represented in the visual form of writing, so when we read the word it should sound the same way it is spoken.
Now the definition of phonics get complicated because the way we are taught to say the alphabet has very little relationship to the way words sound.
For example when we say the word 'cat' using the way we are taught to say the alphabet it will sound completely different from how we say the word 'cat' using phonics.
I personal think learning the alphabet, as we all do as kids, is a hindrance to learning to read as there is no relationship between the alphabet sounds and how we read words.
Maria Montessori got it right when she only taught her kids the 44 phonic sounds instead of, like we do, the 26 letters of the alphabet.
When you teach your child to read, keep away from the alphabet and just stick to the phonic sounds.
This way your child will understand that this letter or this combination of letters sounds like this.
The main problem with the definition of phonics is that the same phonic sound can be represented by many different letter combinations in words.
For example the phonic sound for /j/ can be used for these letters and letter combinations j, g, ge, and dge, and they are all pronounced the same way.
Like in the words 'j ' in jam, 'g' in giant, 'ge' in cage and 'dge' in bridge.
In those words the phonic sound /j/ is the same in all words even though the words are all spelt different.