Phonological Awareness

Before learning to read, kids have to develop mastery of how our language works - based on sounds alone. This includes many things we take for granted, such as knowing when one word ends and a new one begins when someone is speaking.

Phonological Awareness is anything sound based and connected to language that does not involve printed text. Rhyming is a great and commonly known example! Sight word flashcards, on the other hand, would not be connected to phonological awareness since they rely on printed words.

Phonemic Awareness is a subcategory of phonological awareness. It also focuses on sounds in language, but primarily on individual sounds within words rather than rhyming and syllables.

Phonological skills are ideally taught to our youngest learners around preschool age, but we typically screen students in Kindergarten and 1st grade for these skills.

What can I do to help my child with this important skill?

Actually, you can do quite a lot! And the best news is that these types of activities take only minutes...and kids often enjoy the silliness that comes with word play!

Below are specifics and examples of types of phonological awareness activities for you and your child. Click on a task for more examples!

Simplest Phonological Awareness Tasks...
















Most Challenging Phonological Awareness Tasks...

  • Example: "The cat is brown" has 4 words.
  • Example: "pen....cil" makes the word "pencil"
  • Example: "pencil" has two syllables, "pen" and "cil"
  • Example: "Do 'man' and 'can' rhyme?"
  • Example: "What is a word that rhymes with 'bat'?"



  • Example: /m/ is the first sound in "man"
  • Example: /th/ is the final sound in "with"
  • Example: "What sound is in the middle of the word 'rock'?"
  • Example: "/c/..../a/.../t/" creates the word "cat"


  • Example: "cat, the sounds are /c/ /a/ /t/"
  • There are many ways to do these types of tasks...
      • Syllables - "Say chalkboard. Now say it again but don't say 'chalk'. What is left?" (board)
      • Sounds - "Say 'man'. Now say it again but don't say /m/. What do you have left?" (an)