In terms of "studying" Phonics, this is an area which definately benefits from an incremental approach, building from simple sounds and letters into more complicated combinations. But given that English has a notoriously inconsistent and "unphonetic" spelling system, it is almost impossible to exactly align studies of particular sounds/sound combinations with functional language in the order students learn or study it. For example "What’s your name?" (a first up item in any language learning syllabus) contains the digraphs "wh" and "ou" as well as a long "a/silent e" combination and a contracted "is" form. How could this be expected to match up and provide instant explanations for students studying the letters of the alphabet?
Students therefore benefit from learning sight words (the famous Dolsch wordlists that list the most common words used in English writing) as well as the building blocks of sound to create words. Knowing letters and sound values can help students to build words, but words themselves can help students to decode the sound/letter combinations, discover rules and exceptions to rules and then apply the knowledge to new words.
But returning to the main theme ("studying" Phonics), there is definately a general order and sequence to the elements to be studied, as can be seen in Phonics textbooks or courses focusing on reading or pronunciation issues. The list to the right provides a recommended list of what Phonics elements ought to be studied and in what order, though teachers should consider appropriate time frames according to the ability, needs and progress of their individual students/classes. While targeted elements are the focus of study, students should also be recycling previous elements and combining them to create words.
The downloadable Phonics Starter and Phonics Builder kits on this site can also help to give guidelines on what to study, to what degree and in what order.