Phonological awareness is about being able to hear and manipulate units of sound in spoken words, including syllables, onset, rime, and phonemes. Phonemic awareness is about being able to hear and manipulate the smallest unit of sound, a phoneme. Phonemic awareness is a part of phonological awareness, and they both focus on the sounds that we hear and not the letters that we see. This article explores phonological and phonemic awareness and suggests activities to practice these skills.
Current research on reading has identified phonological awareness as one of the strongest predictors of reading success. Students will have a difficult time learning and implementing phonics in reading if they don’t have phonological awareness, which includes phonemic awareness. It’s important that students are able to hear, blend, and segment sounds in words before learning to read using phonics.
- What is Phonological Awareness?
- What is Phonemic Awareness?
- Phonological Awareness vs Phonemic Awareness
- Phonological Awareness Activities on the Shelf
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Why are phonological awareness and phonemic awareness important?
- What is the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?
- How do you teach phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?
- What order should I teach phonological awareness?
- How do phonological awareness and phonemic awareness relate to phonics?
What is Phonological Awareness?
Phonological Awareness is the foundational skill needed for reading in English. Without this, new readers will be unable to understand the concept of the alphabet and how letters are combined to build words. If you have a student struggling with reading, in the majority of cases you will be able to trace the skill deficit back to a gap in phonological awareness.
So what is it exactly? Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, isolate, and manipulate the sounds of spoken language. Yes, spoken language. It comes before the introduction of letters and continues to build after the introduction of letters. Phonological awareness ranges from an awareness of the concept of words within a sentence, of syllables and rhymes within a word, all the way down to the individual sounds or phonemes within the word.
I remember when I first began teaching, I didn’t realize this was a skill that had to be learned. I somehow expected children to automatically recognize rhymes and hear the sounds in words, to know what I meant when I said “/c/ like cat”. Fortunately for me, a fellow teacher gave me a book on Phonemic Awareness in my first year leading a class and teaching this skill has been a critical component of my language sequence ever since.
The Components of Phonological Awareness
To work on Phonological Awareness, you will need to understand two strands: the sizes of the chunks/units of language and the different ways they can be manipulated.
Units of spoken language
- Word awareness
- Syllable awareness
- Onset-rime awareness
- Phonemic awareness
Ways to Manipulate the Units of Spoken Language
- Isolating
- Blending
- Segmenting
- Manipulating: Adding, Deleting, Substituting
This table from the Read Naturally website is a fantastic summary of the components pf phonological awareness. You may want to consider creating something similar as a way to track student progress.
Word Awareness
What exactly is word awareness? Simply put, it’s the understanding that a phrase or sentence is made up of individual words. It’s also the ability to manipulate words in phrases or sentences, including playing with compound words.
This one surprises most adults. It seems so basic that we don’t realize it’s a learned skill. As adults we can easily hear four separate and distinct words in a sentence like, “This is a book,” but this is not as easy for our young learners.
Think back to a time when you listened to someone speak a foreign language you were unfamiliar with. Chances are, you had trouble distinguishing where one word ended and another began. That’s similar to how young children hear sentences. They gain meaning from the whole sentence and do not necessarily break it down into its component words.
Resources and Activities: Word Awareness Pinterest Board
Syllable awareness
A syllable is a word or a part of a word with one vowel sound. It typically consists of a vowel and one or more consonants, such as “in,” “hat,” and “plug.” However, a syllable can also be a standalone vowel, such as “I” or “a”.
Syllable awareness refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the syllables in spoken words. It involves being able to identify and count the syllables in words, as well as complete more complex tasks such as blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting syllables.
Resources and Activities:: Syllable Awareness Pinterest Board
Onset-Rime Awareness
Onset-rime awareness is another important component of phonological awareness and is considered to be the intermediate stage between syllable awareness and phonemic awareness. It involves the understanding that words are made up of smaller units called onsets and rimes.
An onset is the initial consonant or consonant cluster in a word, and a rime is the remaining vowel sound and any additional consonants that follow it. For example, in the word “cat”, the onset is “c” and the rime is “at”. In the word “plug”, “pl” is the onset and “ug” is the rime.
Rhyme and alliteration are related concepts that build on onset-rime awareness. Rhyme involves words that have the same rimes, such as “cat” and “bat”. Alliteration refers to the repetition of onsets in a series of words, such as “Sally sells Seashells”.
Resources and Activities:: Onset-Rime Awareness Pinterest Board
What is Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic Awareness is the highest level of Phonological Awareness and is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words.
What is a phoneme? A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, the word cat is made up of the phonemes /c/ /a/ and /t/. The word ship is made up of the phonemes /sh/ /i/ /p/. The English language has 44 phonemes. We use the 26 letters of the alphabet in a few different combinations to represent these phonemes. Watch the video below to learn how to pronounce each of the English phonemes.
Phonemic Awareness is a crucial skill for children to have as they begin learning to read, as it helps them to recognize that words are made up of individual sounds, and that these sounds can be blended together to make a word. This skill is essential for decoding, as it allows children to identify and manipulate sounds within words.
Resources and Activities:: Phonemic Awareness Pinterest Board
Phonological Awareness vs Phonemic Awareness
If you imagine phonological awareness as a house, phonemic awareness is one of the rooms.
Before (or while) learning phonics, students need to build phonological (and phonemic) awareness. Phonological and phonemic awareness matter because students need to be able to hear, blend, and segment sounds in words before learning to read with letters using phonics.
Phonological Awareness Activities on the Shelf
Phonological awareness is essentially a hearing skill which can make it difficult to convert to hands-on shelf activities that children can do independently in a Montessori or preschool classroom. Difficult but not impossible! I designed my Phonological Awareness packs to overcome this difficulty.
These packs break down the essential phonological awareness skills into hands-on activities that can be done one-on-one or with a small group.
Below are photos from our ocean themed phonological awareness pack.
Word Awareness
Use this poem to work on word awareness skills:
- Learn the Poem: Sing or chant this song as a group many times until the children have learned it. Show them how to use a pointer (or their finger) to point to each word as they sing.
- Isolate the Words: Read one of the sequencing sentence cards and have the child place a block or other object on the table for each word they hear in the sentence.
- Substitute Words: Read one of the sequencing sentence cards and omit the last word. Have the child suggest alternative words to use.
- Sequencing: Sequence the cards or bind the cards together to make into an early reader. Children can color, cut and sequence the cards to make their own booklet.
Syllable Sorting
These syllable sorting mats are simple to use. Read the word and clap the syllables. Have the child place the card on the correct mat.
Rhyming Riddles
Rhyming riddle cards were always a favorite with our students!
Line up the picture cards and name each image to ensure that the child knows what it is.
Read a riddle card and have the child complete the rhyme. If they can’t, offer a clue by saying the first sound (this is called the onset) and have them complete the word (the rest of the word is called the rime).
If the child’s ear is not ready for rhyming yet, you can provide the rhyming word. For example: “I rhyme with free. I am a tree. Free, tree. They rhyme.” Using this vocabulary is a simple way to introduce the concept of rhyming.
Sorting Beginning Sounds
To play, first line up the mats. Say the name of the picture on each mat as you place it down, enunciating its initial sound as you do so. Pick up a picture card, find the mat with the matching beginning sound. You may want to place a color-coding dot on the mat and the back of the corresponding picture card to provide a control of error.
Variation: Use the picture cards in your I-Spy basket. Distribute the cards among a small group of children, naming each card and emphasizing the initial sound as you do so. Say “I spy something that starts with the sound….” and have child identify it.
Phoneme isolation is a more advanced skill than many people realize. The child needs to be able to chunk the sounds in words quite well in order to hear an isolated phoneme (sound). An important note about this stage: we will be matching phonemes (sounds) only and not letters.
NOTE: Some of the words in this themed set begin with blends. I do not recommend using these words with children who are just beginning to isolate initial phonemes.
Ending Sounds Bingo
Ending Sounds Bingo is another fun way to work on phoneme isolation skills.
Four bingo mats have been provided but I prefer to play this game with just one or two children at a time. You will need some sort of tokens to cover the pictures. Pompoms, buttons, shells, and bingo chips will work well.
Identify each picture and its ending sound with the players to ensure they know what they are. Draw a card and read the instructions. The players have to find the correct picture and cover it with a token. Show them the card so they can see if they covered the correct picture. Our Bingo ritual is to say “Did you get it right?” in a singsong voice as the caller shows the card. We always allow the players to correct their work if they didn’t get it right. Continue with all the cards until the board is covered. When the board is covered, the players may call out “Bingo!”
These boards are designed such that all players will complete the board at the same time. This allows you to play the game without having any winners. If you want to make it a little more competitive, you can call out Bingo when you complete a row or column.
Sorting Middle Sounds
Isolating middle sounds is the most complex phoneme isolating skill. The child should be fairly competent at isolating beginning and ending sounds before doing this activity.
Line up the sorting mats and identify the sound of each vowel. Pick out a picture card and say its name, emphasizing the middle sound. Place on or below the correct mat.
Tip: Stick one identifying picture card on each mat to help your students who do not recognize the letters.
Point and Slide
Practice segmenting and blending phonemes with these Point and Slide Cards
Say the name of the picture. Then, touch the dots as you say each sound in isolation. Slide your finger across the arrow and say the complete word again. If desired, use tokens such as beads or pompoms instead of pointing.
Important note: Again, we are working with SOUNDS ONLY, not letters. Many of the words used have many letters but consist of only 2-3 sounds.
What’s the New Word?
Phoneme manipulation is the most advanced phonological awareness skill. 12 cards are provided in this pack, four each for substituting the beginning, end, and middle sounds.
Distribute the picture cards among a group of children, or line them up along the bottom of a rug or table. Read one of the label cards. Have the child identify the correct picture. Place the picture and label card along the top of the table/rug. E.g. “Mouth. Change /th/ to /s/. What’s the new word?” Child says “Mouse” and finds the picture of the mouse.
See more examples of hands-on activities for working on phonological awareness skills in A Year of Early Language Shelves
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are phonological awareness and phonemic awareness important?
Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are important skills for developing reading and writing abilities. These skills help individuals recognize and manipulate the sounds in words, which is essential for decoding and spelling words accurately. Without these skills, individuals may struggle with reading, writing, and overall literacy development.
What is the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?
Phonological awareness refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structure of language, including syllables, rhymes, and words. Phonemic awareness is a specific type of phonological awareness that focuses on the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds, or phonemes, in words. In other words, phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness.
How do you teach phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?
There are many effective strategies for teaching phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, including:
- Rhyming games and activities
- Sound matching and sorting activities
- Blending and segmenting sounds in words
- Syllable counting and manipulation activities
- Word and sound manipulation games
It is important to make these activities fun and engaging for learners, and to provide plenty of opportunities for practice and reinforcement. Check out our series of Phonological Awareness Packs shown above for some hands-on activities.
What order should I teach phonological awareness?
The order in which phonological awareness skills are taught can vary, but typically progresses from larger units of sound (such as syllables and rhymes) to smaller units of sound (such as phonemes). It is important to assess learners’ current skill levels and provide instruction that is appropriately challenging but not overwhelming.
How do phonological awareness and phonemic awareness relate to phonics?
Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are closely related to phonics, which is the understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds in written language. Developing phonological and phonemic awareness skills can help learners better understand the sounds represented by letters and how to decode words accurately. In turn, phonics instruction can reinforce and build upon phonological and phonemic awareness skills.
Phonetic Reading
This course shows you how to present the reading materials and includes all the printables needed to set up your reading area.
Seemi holds a Master's degree in education, and an AMS Early Childhood credential. She has twenty years of experience in Montessori as a teacher, school administrator, and school owner. Seemi is the founder of TrilliumMontessori.org.