Demonstrates difficulty with phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is necessary for learning the phonemic structure of oral language. Phonemic awareness for word sounds can be weak and faulty in children whose hearing, as measured by acuity tests, is within the normal range.

Strategies and Accommodations:

1. Place the following objects in four identical glass jars: wooden beads, glass beads, pebbles, and a spoon. The child is to watch as the teacher demonstrates the sound of each. The child turns his/her back and listens, and then tries to duplicate the sound he heard.

2. Tell the child he/she is to clap whenever he hears a sound, for example “f”. Utilizing both visual and auditory cues, have him/her perform sample exercises. Explain now that you’re going to try to fool him/her by mixing the sound with others, such as “b, m, f, s, th”. When trying to fool the student, the teacher should place a white card before her mouth to limit visual clues.

3. The teacher reads orally a silly sentence, for example, “Sally smiles sweetly at Sue.” Which word does not begin with the “s” sound? Initially, tell the children what to look for.

4. Teach discrimination of phonetic elements. Begin with consonants, then long vowels, blends, and short vowels. Have the children recognize the sounds, not the letters names. For example, say a series of short vowel sounds:

• “a-i-a-o-i-a-a”

Have the children raise their hands when they hear the “a” sound.

• “ai”; “o-a”; “a-a” Later: “hat-hit”; “hat-hat”

Have the children raise their hands if the pairs are alike in sound.

• “ab-ib-ob-ab” (nonsense)

Have the children raise their hands when they hear the “ab” sound.

• “ib-ab”; “ab-ab”

Have the children tell if the pairs alike. Later use short “e” and “u” sounds.

5. Show the child some pictures and ask him/her to mark the one that does not start with a particular letter.

6. Have the child sort pictures according to the sounds he hears at the beginning, middle, or end of the words.

7. Have index cards prepared with letter, dipthongs, blends, diagraphs, etc. When the child hears the sound, he/she holds up the index card with the appropriate sound.

8. When teaching words that have sounds that are alike, color code those sounds that are alike with the same color.

9. On a list of rhyming words, ask the child to circle the parts of the words that are alike. This draws attention to the point that rhyming words have parts that are said and spelling in a similar way.

10. Have the child make up a riddle whose answer begins with the last letter of the answer to the previous riddle. For example, “I say meow… …cat. I am the opposite of bottom… …top. I am a green round vegetable that comes in a pod… ...pea.”

11. Tell the child to listen for a specific sound in a word. Say a word and ask, “Is the sound at the beginning or end of this word?”

12. Read a sentence to the child with a missing word and ask the child to fill in the missing word with a word that rhymes with it. For example, “The bird was sitting on its _______. The word I’m looking for rhymes with vest.”

13. Pass blank papers to the children. A typical lesson might be: “I will say a word twice. After I say it twice, I want you to write… (1) the first sound (2) the long vowel (3) the beginning blend (4) the last sound (5) a rhyming word.

14. The children are to listen to a series of sentences and act out the one that is different. For example, “Touch your arm. Touch your arm. Wave your hand. Touch your arm.”

15. Use cards with symbols and pictures to help teach sounds. Have the child listen for a sound and then select a picture which represents the sound.