Phonemes are the smallest units making up spoken language.

Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. (The English language consists of about 44 phonemes.) The ability to identify and manipulate these phonemes in spoken words is called phonemic awareness. It lays the foundation for understanding and using phonics.

Building Phonemic Awareness

· Auditory discrimination (Ability to hear discrete sounds)

· Recognizing rhymes (e.g.,"Do these words rhyme?"cat/shoe; man/ran)

· Creating rhymes ("Say a word that rhymes with . . .")

· Segmenting words in a sentence (one clap for each word)

· Blending syllables (e.g., pan da)

· Segmenting syllables in a word (one clap for each syllable. e.g., re frig er a tor)

· Deleting syllables (e .g., “Say the word ‘strawberry.’ Now say it without saying ‘straw.’”)

· Identifying sounds in words (e.g., “What sound do you hear at the end of ‘tulip’?”)

· Blending sounds (e.g., “Put these sounds together to make a word. ‘d-oo-r.’”)

· Segmenting sounds (e.g.,“Say each sound you hear in the word ‘cat.’”)

· Deleting sounds (e.g.,“Say ‘chair.’ Now say it without the ‘ch.’”)

· Adding sounds (e.g.,“Say ‘cook.’ Now say it with ‘e’ at the end.”)

· Manipulating sounds (e.g., “Change the ‘s’ in ‘sad’ to a ‘d,’ and say the new word.”)