{"id":82860,"date":"2022-05-20T12:26:01","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T16:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.readbrightly.com\/?p=82860"},"modified":"2023-05-11T13:04:58","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T17:04:58","slug":"phonological-awareness-why-this-skill-set-is-so-important-for-young-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.readbrightly.com\/phonological-awareness-why-this-skill-set-is-so-important-for-young-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"Phonological Awareness:
Why This Skill Set Is So Important for Young Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have a little one in your life, you\u2019ve likely received advice like, \u201cTeach them animal sounds!\u201d and \u201cRead rhyming books!\u201d <\/p>\n

Okay, so you can moo, quack, and read about Llama\u2019s pajamas<\/a> again and again\u2014but why?<\/p>\n

Besides being enjoyable, playing with vocal sounds develops a set of skills called phonological awareness<\/strong>. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and work with sounds in spoken language. Children must have this awareness of sounds in spoken words before being able to read or write them. A strong foundation in phonological awareness prevents reading difficulties later<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Levels of phonological awareness<\/strong>
\nAnyone who\u2019s tried to understand someone speaking a foreign language knows it\u2019s hard to tell where one word ends and another begins. Word awareness<\/i> is the ability to separate a stream of speech into individual words. Thinking about each word as a distinct unit is an essential skill when kids start writing sentences.<\/p>\n

Hearing and comparing parts of words<\/i> is another important aspect of phonological awareness. Identifying the three syllables<\/i> \u201cbut,\u201d \u201cter,\u201d and \u201cfly\u201d in \u201cbutterfly\u201d is essential to read or write that word. Hearing how \u201cbake\u201d and \u201ccake\u201d rhyme<\/i> because they both end in \u201c-ake\u201d is a helpful precursor to learning how to spell those (and similar) words and recognize them in print. <\/p>\n

The most complex level of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness<\/i>\u2014hearing individual sounds within a word. Phonemic awareness goes hand in hand with another skill set you\u2019ve probably heard about: phonics<\/i>. Phonics skills help kids attach written letters to vocal sounds. A child can use phonemic awareness to hear that the word \u201ccat\u201d has three sounds, \/c\/ \/a\/ \/t\/, and can use phonics knowledge to attach a letter to each sound. Ta-da! That\u2019s when reading and writing magic happens. <\/p>\n

Easy ways to build kids\u2019 phonological awareness<\/strong>
\nSince phonological awareness deals only with uttered sounds, it\u2019s easy to playfully develop it in young children during everyday moments like driving in the car, walking the dog, or chatting during bath time. Next time you have a few minutes of downtime with your kids, try one of these phonological awareness-boosting activities:<\/p>\n

Sing songs<\/strong>
\nLoad up your kids\u2019 playlist with songs that experiment with sounds, like Raffi\u2019s classic Willoughby Wallaby Woo<\/a>. Or, share a sweet song book<\/a> together and let your kiddo chime in with some words.<\/p>\n

Read aloud books that play with sounds<\/strong>
\nReading books that include onomatopoeia<\/a> calls kids\u2019 attention to how words sound (literally!). When you find a family favorite, reread it often; when kids are familiar with the sounds, encourage them to participate. <\/p>\n

Play sound games<\/strong>
\nSound games are fantastic for filling wait time or injecting a bit of silly fun into your day\u2014and, of course, building kids\u2019 early literacy skills without them suspecting a thing! Here are a few games that encourage phonological awareness: <\/p>\n

list_text no <\/p>\n

Word list challenge:<\/strong>
\nPick a starting word and see how many rhyming words you can think of. When you run out of actual words in a rhyming set like goat, coat, moat, and float, think of nonsense words like \u201czoat\u201d and \u201cjoat.\u201d (Remember, phonological awareness is about sounds, not written letters, so in this scenario, if kids say words like \u201cnote\u201d or \u201crote,\u201d they count!) You can also play this game with words that start with the same sound or end with the same sound.<\/p>\n

Talk like a robot:
\n<\/strong>This one is fun if you do it by surprise. Talk in a \u201crobot voice\u201d by enunciating each syllable of a word\u2014\u201cPlease hur-ry up and buck-le your seat-belt.\u201d (If your kid gives you successful robot voice directions back, like \u201cLet\u2019s get ba-na-na splits af-ter soc-cer,\u201d you should probably reward them!)<\/p>\n

Talk like an alien:
\n<\/strong>Once you\u2019ve mastered robot syllables, mix things up by speaking \u201cAlien.\u201d Enunciate each sound in a word and have kids guess what you\u2019re saying, like \u201cDo you want an \/ah\/ \/p\/ \/ul\/?\u201d for \u201cDo you want an apple?\u201d<\/p>\n

Guess my word:
\n<\/strong>Choose a word and give clues related to its sounds. For instance, \u201cIt starts with the sound \/d\/ and rhymes with frog\u201d for \u201cdog.\u201d If guessing random words is too hard, you can also play this like \u201cI Spy.\u201d Give easy, silly clues about items within eyesight, like \u201cit starts with \/sss\/ and it rhymes with \u2018meatbelt\u2019\u201d for \u201cseatbelt.\u201d When kids get good at this game, mix in clues about ending sounds and the number of syllables.<\/p>\n

Change my word:
\n<\/strong>Manipulating sounds in words builds flexibility and solidifies phonological awareness knowledge. Pick a starting word and give cues to change the beginning sound, like \u201cStart with map and change the beginning to \/l\/\u201d to get \u201clap.\u201d Once kids get good at changing beginning sounds, you can cue them to change the ending sound, like, \u201cStart with map and change the \/p\/ sound to a \/d\/ sound\u201d to get \u201cmad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching kids the sounds of spoken language is an important first step toward reading and writing. With these tips it\u2019s easy to playfully develop these skills throughout your daily life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":82864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,47],"tags":[62,116,1302],"coauthors":[1053],"class_list":["post-82860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-tips-advice","tag-learning-to-read","tag-parenting","tag-early-learning","ages_stages-pre-k","ages_stages-growing-reader"],"yoast_head":"\nPhonological Awareness: Why This Skill Set Is So Important for Young Readers | Brightly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Teaching kids the sounds of spoken language is an important first step toward reading and writing. 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