Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic Awareness is a necessary skill for students of all ages to become competent spellers and readers. “People are often surprised to learn that it is phonemic awareness and not intelligence that best predicts ease of learning to read.” (Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia).
Phonemic awareness is not the same as phonics and does not involve letters, only sounds.
Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill. There are 7 types of phonemic awareness skills and these skills range in difficulty from preschool through adult. The following examples are elementary level examples of phonemic awareness. Advanced examples would consist of multisyllable words.
- Phoneme Segmentation: Tell me the sounds you hear in the word mop? What’s the middle sound in the word cub?
- Phoneme Deletion: If you take the /t/ off the word table, what’s left?
- Phoneme Matching: Listen: do the words snake and sun start with the same sounds?
- Phoneme Counting: How many sounds are in the word tough?
- Phoneme Substitution: Change the /s/ in sad to /r/. What is the new word?
- Blending: What word do the sounds /h/ /u/ /g/ make when blended?
- Rhyme: Start with the word cat and tell me three words that rhyme with cat.
It is important to note that poor spelling ability can be an indication of an underlying reading disability, also known as dyslexia. This is one of the most common symptoms of dyslexia. “Phonemic Awareness is the core and causal factor that separates normal readers from disabled readers.” Reid Lyon, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.
