Example Phonological Awareness Tasks

Syllables - "How many syllables does the word banana have?" Clap out the syllables.

Rhyme - "Do ring and king rhyme?" "Can you tell me a word that rhymes with cat?"

Alliteration - "Do mop and sat start with the same sound?"

Onset-rime Segmentation - Show child a picture of a hat. Child says the onset (/h/) and then the rime ("at").

Initial Sound Segmentation - "What's the first sound in the word dog?"

Final Sound Segmentation - "What's the last sound in the word dog?"

Blending - "What word does this make? B - E - S - T?"

Segmentation - "What are the sounds in the word jump?" Child says each sound separately.

Manipulation - "Say bake but instead of the /b/ sound say it with a /t/." (take)

Activities that Support Phonological Awareness Skills

• Nursery Rhymes - Reading nursery rhymes to children builds their phonological awareness skills. Think classics like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jack and Jill, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

• Build Words with Blocks - You can use legos or blocks. Use one block to represent each syllable. You can also use this with individual sounds in words. See a thorough explanation of this activity HERE.

• The Alphabet Game - This one is a favorite road trip game in my family. We choose a category such as food, animals, dog breeds, etc., and go through the alphabet. Each person has to say something in the category that starts with a letter, and we go through the whole alphabet. A variation of this would be to pick one speech sound and try to name all of the things in a particular category that you can think of for that sound (e.g. for animals that begin with /g/ - goat, gecko, goose, etc.)

• Word Games - Make games out of any of the phonological tasks in the above section. If you show enthusiasm for the "game," chances are that they will too! To be sent a list of words to use with any of the phonological awareness tasks, please contact me!

Websites for Phonological Awareness

• Abracadabra - This free website from Concordia University offers online games and activities targeting phonological awareness, language, and reading.

• Sightwords.com - This site is full of resources for both reading and phonological awareness - including games! It's geared toward parents, so every lesson and activity is explained clearly.

• Florida Center for Reading Research - Center Activities - This is an incredible resource full of FREE lessons and materials to work on a wide variety of phonological awareness skills. You can print materials right from the site or use their lesson plans to learn how to work on each skill.

• Auditory Discrimination (Zaner-Blosser) - Use these activities for children who need help distinguishing between different sounds in the environment. This would be a precursor to the skills shown in the above graphic.

• Phonological Awareness (Zaner-Blosser) - Use these activities to support early phonological awareness skills: rhyming and syllable segmentation.

• Phonemic Awareness (Zaner-Blosser) - Use these activities for children who are ready to work on distinguishing individual sounds in words. There is also a great guide at the end that explains how to pronounce each speech sound.

More Resources

I have lots more where this came from! I have many resources that I just can't legally share on this public site. To request more materials for your child's specific goals, contact me! I will email them directly to you.