What is Phonological Awareness?
Simply put, Phonological Awareness is being aware of the sounds in words and language. Phonological Awareness is the very foundation of literacy. Seems simplistic, right? Well, it’s not due to the fact that our language is so complex, but I’m going to break it down for you in a parent-friendly way!
When you hear the term phonological awareness think of an umbrella. This is the “mother” to all the other components under the umbrella of phonological awareness that we will discuss. Phonological Awareness isn’t just being aware of specific, individual sounds in words (that’s phonemic awareness, and yes, there’s a difference), but being aware of all types of sounds like syllables, rhyming, alliteration, and word boundaries. In other words, when a child is identifying the syllables in a word or rhyming, they’re operating with their phonological processor.
Another way to think of phonological awareness is to remember that all phonological skills can be practiced with your eyes closed because it does not require any work with actual letters. (Should you do this with your eyes closed? Absolutely not, considering there are many multisensory ways to practice without letters.) For example, a child could clap out the syllables they hear in a word without seeing the word in print. A child could also say words that all begin with the same sound. They’re showing their awareness of sounds in words without using letters.
Why is Phonological Awareness so important?
You might have heard the term phonological awareness more often in the last few years. This is because the Science of Reading research has shown most students struggle at the phonological level. According to David Kilpatrick, “Students with poor phonological awareness almost always struggle in reading. Poor phonological awareness is the most common cause of poor reading” (Equipped for Reading Success, 2016). Phonological awareness is so important because it is the foundation of reading and language.
Word Recognition
The goal of learning to read is automatic word recognition. There are many steps involved to get to that point. Words are not simply memorized by sight, but the letters represent sounds which make up a word. This act of decoding (figuring out words by the sounds the letters make) creates neural pathways in our brain and the more we practice the letter-sound connection, the more automatic we become. The word gets “mapped” into our memory (orthography) due to that pathway being strengthened. Words cannot get “mapped” unless a child has strong phonological skills to connect the sounds to the letters.
Word Recognition = More Mental Capacity
Word recognition is required for comprehension, which is the ultimate goal of reading. Proficient readers have automatic word recognition and fluency, so they have the mental capacity to understand and synthesize the information they’re taking in. Students that are learning to decode lack the automaticity and mental capacity to also comprehend because their mental energy was used on decoding. To sum it up, students struggle to comprehend, because they struggle with fluency, because they struggle with word recognition, because they struggle with phonological awareness.
As a third grade intervention specialist that primarily works with students with reading deficits, I feel like I am trying to fill in the gaps in the shaky foundation of a building while crews are working to add on the third and fourth floors of the building at the same time. Those floors look great, but if you don’t have a foundation, you don’t have a building. Many of the students I work with have excellent language comprehension and can make higher level connections within a story when it’s read to them. But when asked to read a grade level passage on their own, it’s a struggle because their foundation isn’t solid.
So, what is phonemic awareness?
One component of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness. It’s under the umbrella along with rhyming, syllables, and alliteration. However, I would say phonemic awareness is the most challenging aspect and the most crucial component within phonological awareness. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound within a word. Most experts agree English has 44 phonemes. However, our alphabet has 26 letters. Our language is sadly not a 1-to-1 correspondence of sounds to letters. Kilpatrick explains, “Being aware of the individual phonemes is not necessary to understand the flow of spoken language. But when oral language gets matched up with written letters, phoneme awareness becomes a necessity” (Equipped for Reading Success, 2016).
Let’s Break It Down
Let’s practice some phonemic awareness. I will show the sounds by using phonemic slashes (/ /). In the word “sit” there are three phonemes (/s/ /i/ /t/) and three letters. This word happens to have a 1-to-1 correspondence. The word “bike” also has three phonemes (/b/ /ī/ /k/, but four letters. The word “drench” has five phonemes (/d/ /r/ /e/ /n/ /ch/), but six letters. This activity involves phoneme segmentation since we are segmenting the sounds in words. There are other aspects of phonemic awareness that get more complex that will be covered in another post.
I joke with my students every year that I’m going to get a tattoo that says Focus on the SOUNDS because with reading and spelling, that’s what you need to do and I find myself saying this all. the. time. I often have students that have some concept of how to spell a word and they will throw in those letters anywhere in the word when writing. One student I had would write the word “it” as “ti.” They knew there were both of those letters in the word, but if they thought about the sounds they hear, the /i/ sound comes first and they would have switched the letters. The primary component they’re lacking is the phonemic segmentation. Phonemic awareness is ESSENTIAL to reading.
Phonological Introduction & Instruction
Kilpatrick says that reading problems can be prevented if all students are trained in phonological awareness starting in kindergarten. This means schools need to have explicit instruction in all the components of phonological awareness, specifically phonemic awareness. Kilpatrick also says that the more basic concepts like rhyming, alliteration, beginning sounds, and syllable segmentation can start in pre-school.
Nursery Rhymes… or Something Else
“One British study demonstrated that children with exposure to classic nursery rhymes in preschool were better readers by the end of second grade than those who lacked exposure. Both groups were matched in socioeconomic status,” (Equipped for Reading Success, 2016). I have to say, I understand the sentiment, BUT some nursery rhymes are scary! Ring Around the Rosy? Rock-a-Bye Baby? TRAUMATIZING. What this means is that when stories are read with rhyming, a child’s ear is beginning to be aware that some words sound the same. Once I’ve read a story for what feels to be a million times to my daughter, I will leave off the last word of the phrase that rhymes so Harper has to say it. She will recognize when she says a word that doesn’t fit because it doesn’t rhyme. There are PLENTY of rhyming stories to read with kids that aren’t linked to plagues or babies falling out of trees.
Beginning Sounds
Practicing beginning sounds is also something I suggest to practice with preschoolers. This may take a lot of modeling at first, but if you turn it into a game, it’s something fun you can do anywhere. Notice I said beginning sounds, not letters. I don’t expect littles to know which letters go at the beginning of words. With that being said, I urge parents to teach letter sounds in addition to teaching letter names when working with littles.
Sound Discrimination
Parents are unknowingly working on a precursor to phonological awareness even with their babies. I remember playing with animal sounds with Harper even before she was one. She was able to distinguish between animal sounds when we said, “What does a snake say?” vs “What does a lion say?” This is practicing auditory discrimination and helps develop an awareness for the differences in sounds.
Letter Sounds & Names At The Same Time
I am also a proponent of teaching letter names using letter toys as early as one! We are teaching our littles the names of objects and animals anyways, might as well teach the alphabet! Harper and I played with her letters and once she knew most of them, I introduced sounds. If you’re starting at 2 or older, I would try to introduce sounds at the same time. “This is the letter D and it says /d/.”
When to start?
Kilpatrick says phonological instruction (from teachers in a school setting) should start at preschool. I say phonological introduction (from home by playing games) should start with babies! Starting littles on basic phonological awareness and letter sounds before preschool should be normal and encouraged. I am not saying they need to have it mastered, but having some prior knowledge goes a long way in learning to read. I know when I am learning something new, I feel more confident when I have some understanding of the concept or have done something similar. When entering a learning environment with other people and having to learn something brand new, I am stressed and more willing to disengage. I remember I thought I would try out for softball in high school. So I went to conditioning and knew nothing. I did not have any muscle memory or knowledge of the terms, so I decided to quit. If littles have been introduced to letters and letter sounds at home, they will be more confident and have prior knowledge when they receive formal instruction in preschool and kindergarten.
The Takeaways
Phonological awareness is the foundation of all literacy and it does not involve printed letters.
Phonemic awareness is the most important component of phonological awareness because it involves specific sounds within a word.
Phonemic awareness prepares littles for decoding, which is connecting sounds to letters.
Introducing phonological awareness skills should start well before a child gets to a school setting.