Phonemic Awareness
What is Phonemic Awareness?
Before children learn to read, they need to become aware of the sounds in words. They must understand that words are made up of individual sounds, or phonemes. Children can show that they have phonemic awareness in several ways.
1. Recognizing which words have the same beginning sound.
(ball, boat, and bug all have /b/ at the beginning.)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say two words and then tell you “yes” if the words begin with the same sound or “no” if they do not begin with the same sound.
bake, bike can, come
eat, do fat, fig
he, go line, jar
2. Isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word.
(The beginning sound of duck is /d/. The ending sound of pit is /t/.)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say a word and then tell you the beginning sound of the word. Then repeat the word and ask your child to listen again and tell you the ending sound of the word.
What is the beginning sound of the word like? /l/
What is the ending sound of the word like? /k/
3. Combining or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word.
(/h/, /a/, /t/ = hat)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say the individual sounds and then ask him/her to say the whole word.
ch-i-p = chip sh-e-l-f = shelf
sh-i-p = ship th-i-n = thin
ch-i-l-d = child w-i-l-d = wild
4. Breaking or segmenting a word into its separate sounds.
(The word at can be broken into two sounds - /a/, /t/)
For example: Tell me all the sounds you hear in the word mop. “/m/, /o/, /p/”. Ask your child to tell you all the sounds he/she hears in the following words:
sell /s/ /e/ /l/ at /a/ /t/
swim /s/ /w/ /i/ /m/ touch /t/ /u/ /ch/
that /th/ /a/ /t/ stop /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/
5. Listening for rhyming words.
For example: Ask your child to tell you whether or not the following words rhyme.
shot, spot chest, best
whip, white wish, dish
flash, map shock, shop
Before children learn to read, they need to become aware of the sounds in words. They must understand that words are made up of individual sounds, or phonemes. Children can show that they have phonemic awareness in several ways.
1. Recognizing which words have the same beginning sound.
(ball, boat, and bug all have /b/ at the beginning.)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say two words and then tell you “yes” if the words begin with the same sound or “no” if they do not begin with the same sound.
bake, bike can, come
eat, do fat, fig
he, go line, jar
2. Isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word.
(The beginning sound of duck is /d/. The ending sound of pit is /t/.)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say a word and then tell you the beginning sound of the word. Then repeat the word and ask your child to listen again and tell you the ending sound of the word.
What is the beginning sound of the word like? /l/
What is the ending sound of the word like? /k/
3. Combining or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word.
(/h/, /a/, /t/ = hat)
For example: Ask your child to listen as you say the individual sounds and then ask him/her to say the whole word.
ch-i-p = chip sh-e-l-f = shelf
sh-i-p = ship th-i-n = thin
ch-i-l-d = child w-i-l-d = wild
4. Breaking or segmenting a word into its separate sounds.
(The word at can be broken into two sounds - /a/, /t/)
For example: Tell me all the sounds you hear in the word mop. “/m/, /o/, /p/”. Ask your child to tell you all the sounds he/she hears in the following words:
sell /s/ /e/ /l/ at /a/ /t/
swim /s/ /w/ /i/ /m/ touch /t/ /u/ /ch/
that /th/ /a/ /t/ stop /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/
5. Listening for rhyming words.
For example: Ask your child to tell you whether or not the following words rhyme.
shot, spot chest, best
whip, white wish, dish
flash, map shock, shop