Phonemic Awareness
Caroline Erdos, Literacy Expert
Dr. Erdos is a consultant for the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board in Quebec and a speech-language pathology advisor for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Canada. Prior to this, she was ALDI Coordinator (Advancing Learning in Differentiation & Inclusion) for the 10 English school boards in Quebec, Canada, where she supported resource teachers through various professional development initiatives. Caroline has over 20 years’ experience as a pediatric speech-language pathologist in a tertiary care centre and has worked as a language and literacy consultant and a legal expert in speech-language pathology. Her areas of expertise include bilingualism and multilingualism, reading impairment, oral language impairment, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and craniofacial disorders. She has guest lectured at Université de Montréal, McGill University, and the McGill University Health Centre. She has also given workshops at numerous conferences across North America and has written and collaborated on several publications.
What is phonemic awareness, is it different from phonological awareness and why is it important?
What word do we get when we put these sounds together? “d” “o” “g”
What individual sounds do you hear in the word “sat”?
Phonemic awareness, the capacity to attend to and orally manipulate individual sounds in words, is one of the most important building blocks for learning to read and write. Studies have found that children who struggle with reading and writing often have underlying weaknesses in the area of phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness develops and can be taught before reading instruction begins. It is an oral ability that can and should be taught without print, at least initially. With exposure and practice, most children can blend (first example) and segment (second example) individual sounds in words, like in the examples above, by the end of kindergarten. Nevertheless, even if they have not acquired this skill, it is never too late to learn. Keep in mind, however, that phonemic awareness practice should be playful and fun.
These are not examples of phonemic awareness:
How many syllables are there in the word “table”?
What about the word “elephant”? How many syllables does it contain?
They are examples of syllable awareness. Syllable awareness is easier for children to master than phonemic awareness. Syllable awareness is often practiced as a way to build up to phonemic awareness.
Phonemic awareness and syllable awareness are both subtypes of phonological awareness, where syllable awareness is a means to an end and the end goal is phonemic awareness.
If you need help building phonemic awareness activities in your child’s daily routine, we have good news. A new children’s television show that is all about phonemic awareness has just launched – Sounder and Friends. It is targeted to 3- to 6-year-old children and you can find it here:
