Get ready, my friend, because today we are diving into one of my FAVOURITE topics: What is Phonological Awareness? And why, the heck, is it one of Sarah’s favourite topics?

Phonological awareness, in a nutshell, is the understanding of how sounds are put together and can be manipulated and changed in oral language. It includes seven areas:

1. Rhyming
2. Word Awareness
3. Syllable Awareness
4. Sound Identification
5. Sound Segmentation
6. Sound Blending 
7. Deleting Sounds

And why is it one of my favourite topics? Direct teaching of these phonological awareness skills through play in the preschool and kindergarten years can eliminate reading struggles down the road!

In fact, phonological awareness is the strongest predictor of early reading success. How amazing is that? Right now, by playing with these seven areas of phonological awareness, we can set our little ones up for complete reading success.

I wanted to share with you a video today I made that tells you all about what phonological awareness is, and also shares with you a fun way to practice each of the seven areas of phonological awareness through play. But just before that video…

I have 3 levels of support to offer you as you begin this amazingly important journey with your little one.

Level One: Get my FREE printable to keep on your fridge and remind yourself of the skills as you go about your day!

Grab your free printable right here: Phonological Awareness Printable

Level Two: Grab a copy of my ebook Play into Letters and Sounds. In this ebook, I share games and activities for the 7 areas of phonological awareness, allowing you to give your little one the very best start to reading readiness.

Check out the ebook right here: Play into Letters and Sounds

Level Three: The complete, step-by-step program that covers ALL fundamental preschool skills through play! In one 20-minute play-based activity per day, you will cover all phonological awareness skills, as well as numeracy, literacy, fine and gross motor skills, social and emotional skills, problem-solving, and so much more. Beautiful activities with next to no prep are all thoughtfully planned for you.

Check out the complete curriculum right here: Play into Kindergarten Readiness

The 7 Phonological Awareness Skills

Alright, let’s get to those phonological awareness skills, what they are, and how to teach them! Here is the video I created for you sharing all of my years of training and learning about phonological awareness boiled down to 10 minutes:

And just in case that video doesn’t work for you (it can be a bit fussy when I upload it in this way), here is the same video but shared from my YouTube channel:

 

If you are a reader more than a video watcher, here are the details from that video:

There are skills that are MORE important for preschoolers to develop than letters to support future reading. Those skills are phonological awareness skills. 

Rhyming

Rhyming is the skill of saying a word and choosing a second word that has the same word ending. Children will begin by being able to recognize rhymes: does cat rhyme with bat? After this, they will be able to differentiate if a word does not rhyme: does cat rhyme with tree? And finally, they will be able to produce a rhyme themselves: cat rhymes with hat.

A fun way to practice this activity is to set up a ramp out of cardboard and put two objects at the bottom. Maybe a hat and a cup. Call out a word that rhymes with hat and have your child zoom a car down the ramp trying to hit the hat. Then, call out a word that rhymes with cup and have your child zoom a car down the ramp trying to hit the cup. 

Word Awareness

Word awareness is understanding where a word begins and ends. This can be trickier than you might realize. Consider this: be is a word all on its own, as is the word begin, but be true is two words. Tricky!

A fun way to practice this skill is to have your little one stack blocks while singing a familiar song. Stacking one block with each word in the song. 

Syllable Awareness

Syllable awareness is the ability to discern how many sounds are in a single word. There are many ways to play with this skill, like clapping steadily as a word is said slowly. This skill should only be practiced after word awareness has been learned (not simultaneously) in order to avoid confusion.

A fun way to practice this skill is by popping a hand under your chin and saying a word very slowly. However many times your chin goes down is how many syllables are in the word. Empty out the junk drawer, pop some sticky notes on the table with numbers 1-4 and let your little one sort by syllable!

Sound Identification

Identifying the sounds in a word is an important skill for future reading and writing. Sound identification starts with identifying the first sound in a word, then the last sound, and finally, the middle sound, which is the most difficult.

A fun way to practice this skill is to have your child walk around collecting all the things he can find that start with the sound /s/.

Sound Segmenting

Sound segmenting is about pulling words apart. Saying a word slowly allows us to better hear each of the individual sounds that make up a word.

A great way to practice this phonological awareness skill is by doing a button flick! Give your child a CVC word (consonant-vowel-consonant, like cat or dog) and 3 buttons. Have him flick one button for each sound in the word.

Sound Blending

Sound blending is the flip side of sound segmenting. It involves pushing sounds in a word together and blending sounds to hear (or read) full words.

A fun way to practice this phonological awareness skill is with a game called Walk to Run. Start by saying a word very slowly, all stretched apart. As you walk faster, say the word faster, blending it together.

Deleting Sounds

Deleting sounds involves removing the first or last sound in a word. For example, saying the word cat, then saying the word again but deleting the first sound, which would result in at.

A fun way to practice this skill is with silly songs! We like to sing this one: “There was a crazy cat, he lost his /c/ and became a crazy… ___ (child fills in “at”)!

I hope these phonological awareness skill descriptions and activities help you to figure out exactly what phonological awareness skills are and help you to see how you can teach them—and why you should!

And don’t forget, I am here to help! Once again, here are 3 levels of support I would like to offer you and your little ones:

Level One: Free Printable

Get my FREE printable to keep on your fridge and remind yourself of the skills as you go about your day! Grab your free printable right here: Phonological Awareness Printable

Level Two: Play into Letters and Sounds eBook

Grab a copy of my ebook Play into Letters and Sounds. In this ebook, I share games and activities for the 7 areas of phonological awareness, allowing you to give your little one the very best start to reading readiness. Check out the ebook right here: Play into Letters and Sounds

Level Three: Play into Kindergarten Readiness

The complete, step-by-step program that covers ALL fundamental preschool skills through play! In one 20-minute play-based activity per day, you will cover all phonological awareness skills, as well as numeracy, literacy, fine and gross motor skills, social and emotional skills, problem-solving, and so much more. Beautiful activities with next to no prep are all thoughtfully planned for you. Check out the complete curriculum right here: Play into Kindergarten Readiness

xo
Sarah