Building the Foundation of Reading: Phonemic Awareness

What is phonemic awareness? Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words. Children must first understand that words are made up of separate speech sounds that can be blended together to make words before they can make sense of using the alphabet to read and write. Research has identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as the best two indicators of how well a child will learn to read during the first two years of school (National Reading Panel 2000). Children who develop strong phonemic awareness skills at an early age are more likely to become fluent readers and better spellers than children who do not.

Here are some phonemic awareness activities to support the development of these skills at home:

· Identify whether words rhyme (hat, mat; sun, bug)

· Provide a word that rhymes with another (“Tell me a word that rhymes with sun?”)

· Blend syllables into a word (cup-cake “cupcake”; m-a-p – “map”)

· Clap or count syllables in a 1 to 3 syllable word

· Segment sounds in a 2-3 phoneme word (“Tell me the sounds in ‘hat’. Child: /h/ /a/ /t/)

How can I help my child develop good rhyming skills?

· Read books and poems that focus on the rhythm of language and rhyme. Books such as “Hop on Pop” or “Sheep in a Jeep” help children pay attention to sounds in words.

· Give your child a noisemaker (such as a whistle). Tell your child to make noise if you say two words that rhyme (cat, cup; sit, mitt)

· Play word games such as “Guess My Word.” “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with_________? Can you guess my word?”

Other phonemic skills to work can be - clapping out syllables (parts of words) and identifying the sounds in beginning, middle and end of words (remember not the letter name, have them provide the sound that they hear).

Your Phonemic Awareness Team,

Michelle Goldberg, Speech and Language Pathologist & Holly White, Special Educator

We recommend that you check out this website for phonological activities.

Scholastic

We recommend that you check out this website for this article:

Phonological Awareness: What it is and How it Works

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