What is Phonological Awareness?
Not to be confused with phonics, phonological awareness is the understanding that sounds in the spoken language can be broken apart and manipulated into individual and groups of sounds (i.e. initial consonant sound, vowel teams, words & syllables). Phonemic awareness is a part of phonological awareness and refers to the ability to identify and manipulate the individual units of sound(phonemes). Mastery of these skills is crucial because they make up the foundation for learning to read and spell. There are several components to master in phonological awareness:
- Rhyme: the ability to hear rhymes read aloud as well as produce rhyming words
- Blending: the ability to hear a word spoken one sound at a time; “c-a-t” and be able to put the sounds together to make a word, “cat”.
- Segmentation: the ability to hear a word; “cat” and then verbally take that word apart one sound at a time; “c-a-t”
- Manipulation: the ability to hear a word and change the word by switching an aspect of the word, for example; “say the word, cat; now change the first sound from (k) to (b), what word to you have now?”
The brief attached below is a seven page document that provides an overview of effective practices for phonological awareness in the form of “Hotsheet,” developed by the Division for Learning disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Outside Resources
Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness
This webpage is a link to a summary of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness; including tips on what a problem in this area might look like and how to help. It is part of the larger Reading Rockets website which has a wealth of resources and additional link designed to support teachers, parents and kids.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW RESOURCES FROM READING ROCKETS
Phonological Awareness Activities
This link will take you the page on learning center activities for phonological awareness including rhyming, syllable activities and many more links to resources developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research.
CLICK HERE FOR LEARNING CENTER ACTIVITIES
Phonemic Awareness
This webpage has a quick summary of phonemic awareness, and explains why it should be taught, and how to teach it. This page is a part of the larger set of resources provided by the IRIS Center at Vanderbilt Peabody College.