Phonemic Awareness

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds (phonemes) that make up words. Phonemic awareness does not utilize visual letters. Children must first understand that words are made up of separate sounds that can be blended together to make words before they can make sense of using the alphabet to read and write. It is done completely  through listening and speaking, and gets stronger with lots of practice. 

The National Reading Panel's research found that phonemic awareness is one of the BEST PREDICTORS of future reading success. Strong phonemic awareness skills will enable your child to become a better reader and writer for many years to come!

Click on the link to see a chart that shows the developmental sequence that occurs in Phonemic Awareness: 

Developmental-Stages-of-Phonemic-Awareness.pdf 

Rhyme

Rhyming words are words that have the same middle and ending sound.  Learning to rhyme is important because it helps children develop phonological awareness.  Rhyming is important because it means your child can understand the differences among individual sounds (or phonemes).  Playing with rhymes trains your child’s ear to hear the differences and similarities in how words sound.  Rhyming makes reading, writing and spelling easier for children.  One of the best predictors of how easily a child will learn to read is their ability to rhyme.  Keep in mind that rhyming is a developmental skill and will emerge over time.  Some ways you can help your child with rhyming is to read nursery rhymes.  When you come to the rhyming word in the book stop and let your child fill in the rhyming word.  Repetition is key to learning to rhyme so continue to read the same books over and over.  Play a rhyming game while driving in a car or waiting for an appointment.  A fun game is “I’m going on a trip and I’m packing a ____”  You start the game and your child has to pick a rhyming word with what you're packing.  An example could be you’re packing a dog and your child would say they are packing a log.  Another fun car game is you say a word and your child will say a word that rhymes with your word.  You go as long as you can, the words can be real words or nonsense words.  An example is, “Can you think of a word that rhymes with sun? Then they would say bun, fun, run”.  Check out the video below of a fun rhyming game that involves cvc words (consonant, vowel, consonant words) and movement.  Be sure to choose short activities, no more than five minutes long.  You want to make sure it is fun for your child.  

Student Videos

Syllables

Syllable Information-Reading Rockets

Syllable Types

Parents, below you will find some ideas for syllable games that you can play at home with your child. 

Student Videos

Syllable Games for Students

https://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/syllables.html 

Phonemes

Phoneme Teaching Tips for Parents 

Student Videos

Phoneme Games for Students 

Phoneme Manipulations

Phoneme Substitution

Student Videos

Phoneme Manipulation Games for Students