Why does it not find the digraphs itself?

Because English will not let it. "ea" is one sound in bread and two in react; "ow" is one thing in cow and another in snow. A guess would be wrong in front of the class often enough to be worse than no guess, so the sounds are marked by the person who knows the word.

How do I mark a split digraph, like the a and e in cake?

You cannot join letters that are not next to each other, and that is honest: a split digraph is two letters with another sound between them. Put a dot under each of the three letters and say what the a and the e are doing together, which is what the split in split digraph means.

Can I use capital letters?

No. Phonics is taught in lowercase, and to a child who has not met capitals a capital S is a different shape rather than the same sound. Anything typed is lowercased.

Why is the whole letter the target rather than the gap between letters?

Because a gap is a couple of millimetres wide on a board and a finger is not. Tapping the letter means joining it to the one before, which is the same decision made in an easier place.

Sound Buttons

English · Reception–Year 3

Type a word and tap the letters to mark the sounds in it.

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About the sound buttons

The dots and dashes a teacher draws under a word so a class can blend it. A dot under a letter that is one sound, a dash under the two or three letters that are one sound together. "shop" is four letters and three sounds, and the buttons are what stops that being a contradiction.

Type the word, then tap a letter to join it to the one before it. Tap the h in shop and sh becomes one sound with a dash underneath. Tap it again and they split. Split all puts every letter back to a sound of its own, which is where every word starts.

Nothing here tries to work out where the graphemes are, and that is deliberate. English spelling makes it a research problem rather than a rule: ea is one sound in bread and two in react, and a tool that guessed would be confidently wrong in front of a class several times a lesson. The teacher marks the sounds, which is what they would do with a pen.

The word is always lowercase, because phonics is taught in lowercase and a capital letter is a different grapheme to a child who has not met one yet. The on-screen keyboard in this tool does not offer one.

How to use it on your whiteboard

1Tap Word and type the word. Letters only, up to twelve.
2Tap a letter to join it to the letter before it, so the two are one sound.
3Tap the same letter again to split them apart.
4Split all goes back to one sound per letter.
5Count hides how many sounds there are, so the class can work it out.

Questions

Why does it not find the digraphs itself?: Because English will not let it. "ea" is one sound in bread and two in react; "ow" is one thing in cow and another in snow. A guess would be wrong in front of the class often enough to be worse than no guess, so the sounds are marked by the person who knows the word.
How do I mark a split digraph, like the a and e in cake?: You cannot join letters that are not next to each other, and that is honest: a split digraph is two letters with another sound between them. Put a dot under each of the three letters and say what the a and the e are doing together, which is what the split in split digraph means.
Can I use capital letters?: No. Phonics is taught in lowercase, and to a child who has not met capitals a capital S is a different shape rather than the same sound. Anything typed is lowercased.
Why is the whole letter the target rather than the gap between letters?: Because a gap is a couple of millimetres wide on a board and a finger is not. Tapping the letter means joining it to the one before, which is the same decision made in an easier place.