Phonemic Awareness

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language. These skills are at a listening/auditory and spoken/verbal level – NO print! Phonological Awareness requires ears only! As phonological awareness skills develop, children will begin to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate (segment/blend) words and sounds at these levels or chunks:

- Sentence
  - Understanding that the sentence they hear, “The cat is fat” is composed of four separate words “The cat is fat”.
- Syllable
  - Understanding the word “cat” as one syllable; the word "table" is two syllables (ta-ble).
- Word
  - Understanding the words “cat” and “fat” rhyme.
  - Understanding two words become one in a compound word: cat + fish = catfish.
  - Counting sounds in words: e.g. “cat” has three sounds.
  - Isolating and discriminating individual sounds: e.g. "The first sound in cat is /k/; the last sound in cat is /t/."

Activity 1: Games to Play

Here are a few ideas for some simple games to play while children wait in line:

Sentence game: say a sentence, “The cat is fat”. Tap the first 4 children on the head as you say each word of the sentence. Ask, “How many words?”, four! Repeat the sentence, or say a different sentence.
Rhyme game: Say a few words that rhyme, “cat, fat, bat”. Prompt your child to join in the game. You may need to prompt by saying some initial sounds: /p/ - at, /s/ - at, etc. Include silly words (/z/ - at) and blends (/th/ - at)!
My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game: ("My Turn") Model clapping/stomping/tapping the syllables for objects you see around you (Ceil-ing, floor, ta-ble, com-pu-ter). ("Your Turn") Prompt children to imitate you. Ask after each word, “How many syllables?”
Repeat the beginning sound game: /c/ - /c/ - cat, /c/ - /c/ - cake, /c/ - /c/ - car. Prompt children to join in with other words.

Try these fun ideas!

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