Phonological Awareness from our Speech Language Pathologist, Lana Johnston
Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and changing parts of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets-rimes (e.g. /b/ /oat/).
Some Key Phonological Awareness Skills:
- Rhyming, as in red/bed/head or hold/cold/told
- Alliteration, as in the tongue twister Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
- Syllable awareness or saying words slowly by separating longer words into parts and then saying the parts quickly, as in base-ball= baseball
- Identifying beginning or ending sounds in words, as in bat begins with the sound /b/
- Identifying individual sounds in words, as in /b/- /a/- /t/ = bat; bat = /b/ - /a/ - /t/ (also called phonemic awareness)
Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on and change individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including sounds represented by letter combinations such as /th/. Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction.
Students at risk for reading difficulty often have lower levels of phonological and phonemic awareness than do their classmates. The good news is that phonemic and phonological awareness can be developed through a number of activities.
Tips to help your child with Phonological Awareness:
- Reading stories, poems or nursery rhymes that use rhyming words and alliteration is great way to introduce phonological awareness.
- Play with language through silly rhyming or alliteration songs and games. Even infants and toddlers enjoy listening to language that has repeating elements at the beginning or end of words
- Clap, tap, jump or stomp one time for each syllable in a word or one time for each word in a sentence or nursery rhyme.
- Start with compound words that preschoolers may know, like cupcake, football and toothbrush. Use real or pretend objects or pictures to help your child remember the word you are focusing on.
- Use your child’s and family members’ or friends’ names to work on phonological awareness – names that rhyme (Pam/ Sam) or start with the same sound (Bill/Betsy).
For additional information check out:
http://www.readingbrightstart.org/reading-skills-by-age/pre-reading-skills/phonological-awareness/
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic
Rhyming! It’s Important in Learning to Read!
Research indicates there is a correlation between phonological awareness and reading ability. Phonological Awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating parts of oral language parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Phonological awareness is made up of the following skills: rhyme, segmenting, sound isolation, blending, deleting and substituting.
Rhyming is the first step. The ability to identify and produce rhyming words is an important phonological awareness skill. Identifying rhymes means the ability to determine if two words rhyme (e.g. Do cat and sat rhyme?). Producing rhymes means the ability to come up with a rhyming word (e.g. Tell me a word that rhymes with car.).
Rhyming teaches children how language works. It helps them to notice and work with the sounds within words as well as helping them experience the rhythm of language. As they recite nursery rhymes they learn to speak with animated voices which may lead to reading with expression. When children are familiar with a nursery rhyme or rhyming book, they learn to anticipate the rhyming word. This prepares them to make predictions when they read, another important reading skill. Rhyming is important for writing, too. It can help children understand that words that share common sounds often share common letters.
Here’s what you can do to help develop your child’s rhyming skills at home:
- Read rhyming books to your child. Read them over and over again. Examples of rhyming books include:
- We go Together by Todd Dunn
- How do Dinosaurs say Goodnight by Jane Yolen
- Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Tom Lichtenheld
- Llama, llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
- Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
- Teach your child nursery rhymes. Nursery rhyme books are an excellent way to begin teaching your child this early phonological awareness skill.
- Jack and Jill
- Humpty Dumpty
- Baa, baa, black Sheep
- Five Little Monkeys
- Little Boy Blue
- I’m a little Teapot
- After you’ve read a rhyme several times, leave out the rhyming word and pause expectantly. Ask your child what word comes next. Wait for a few seconds for a response. If your child answers correctly, reinforce her by saying, “that’s right. See, _______ rhymes with ________.” If he/she doesn’t say the word, say it and ask them to repeat it. Say, “ see, ______ rhymes with _______.” Make this process playful and enjoyable. Eventually, your child will begin to anticipate the rhyming and fill them in.
- Once your child is able to predict rhyming words in their favorite rhyming books on a regular basis, begin playing rhyming games with them where you and your child think of words that rhyme. For example, ask them to think of a word that rhymes with a word that you say. Start out with words they already know from the rhyming books.
It is important to remember that rhyming is a developmental skill that will emerge over time. Be patient with your child as he/she learns this skill.
References:
https://www.verywell.com/the-importance-of-rhyming-in-learning-to-read-2162727
http://www.themeasuredmom.com/why-is-rhyming-important/
http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2014/08/rhyming-books-kids/
Segmenting! It’s Important in Learning to Read!
Children need good phonological awareness skills when first learning to read. Successful early reading requires the child to efficiently and accurately make the crucial sound/letter link. Research compiled over the last three decades has clearly linked phonological awareness with early reading skills. In fact phonological awareness is considered the leading predictor of a child’s reading success.
Last time, we wrote about the importance of rhyming. Segmenting is the next important step in developing good phonological awareness skills. Research suggests that segmentation is a crucial phonological awareness skill in learning to read as being able to split words up into their separate speech sounds helps students to read unfamiliar words. This gives them an advantage in learning to spell.
Segmenting requires children to listen for words, syllables, or sounds within sentences or words. We teach segmenting skills in this order first with sentences, then words, and finally sounds.
- Sentences: “Say, My house is big. Say the sentence again and clap once as you say each word.”(4 claps)
- Compound words: “Say mousetrap. Say it again and clap once as you say each little word.” (2 claps)
- Syllables: “Say Saturday. Say it again and clap once as you say each syllable. (3 claps)
- Sounds: “I’m going to say a word and I want you to tell me each sound in the word.” “cat.” /k/ /a/ /t/
Here’s what you can do to help develop your child’s segmenting skills at home:
- Early, we teach children to segment sentences into individual words. Identify familiar short poems such as "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!" Have children clap their hands with each word.
- As children advance in their ability to manipulate oral language, teach them to segment words into syllables or onsets and rimes. For example, have children segment their names into syllables: e.g., Ra-chel, Al-ex-an-der, and Rod-ney.
- When children have learned to remove the first phoneme (sound) of a word, teach them to segment short words into individual phonemes: e.g., /s-u-n/, /p-a-t/, /s-t-o-p/
References:
http://www.speechlanguage-resources.com/phonological-awareness-intervention.html
Sound Isolation! It’s Important in Learning to Read!
It’s worth repeating that there is a significant link between good phonological awareness and reading skill. Children with proficient phonological awareness skills are well placed to read and decode relatively easily.
Previously, we have written about the importance of rhyming and segmenting in developing reading skills. Sound Isolation is the next important step in developing good phonological awareness skills. Sound isolation is the ability to identify where a sound appears in a word, or to identify what sound appears in a given position in a word. This is a very important step in the development of literacy, as well as general language development. Children who have mastered this level of phonological awareness can accurately answer questions like "Does the /p/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word tap?" They will also be able to answer correctly if you phrase the question as "What sound comes at the end of the word tap?"
For example, a picture of a house represents a spoken word. Don't spell this word, just think of it only as a spoken word, not a printed word. When we think about the spoken word for this picture, and analyze it, we find that it is made up of 3 distinct and separate sounds: "h" "ow" and "s". The ability to hear and perceive the individual sounds in spoken language is what allows a child to understand how written language and spoken language map onto each other. Research stresses the importance of teaching a child this ability early in life.
Sound Isolation requires the child to recognize/hear the initial, final, and medial sounds in a word. Here are some things you can do to help at home:
Initial sound:
“Say cat.” What’s the first/beginning sound of the word “cat?” /k/ sound
Final sound:
“Say cat.” What’s the last/ending sound of the word “cat?” /t/ sound
Medial sound:
“Say cat.” What’s the middle sound of the word “cat?” short /a/ sound
"Phonological awareness is the ability to listen inside a word"
-Dyslexia researcher and author Jo Fitzpatrick
References:
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_skills_iso.php
https://www.cli.org/blueprint/teachers/phonological-awareness/
Sound Blending! It’s Important in Learning to Read!
Phonological awareness is the understanding of different ways that oral language can be divided into smaller components. Spoken language can be broken down in many different ways, including: sentences into words, words into syllables (e. g., in the word simple, /sim/ and /ple/), words into onset and rime (e. g., in the word broom, /br/ and /oom/) and words into individual phonemes (e.g., in the word hamper, /h/, /a/, /m/, /p/, /er/).
If children understand that words can be divided into individual phonemes the next step would be for them to blend them into words. This knowledge indicates they are able to use letter-sound knowledge to read and build words.
Previously, we have written about the importance of rhyming, segmenting and isolation in developing reading skills. Sound Blending is the next important step in developing good phonological awareness skills. Sound blending is the ability to smoothly combine individual sound together into words. For example, blending is sounding out the word ‘mast’ as /mmaasst/. In simple terms, blending is smoothly ‘hooking the sounds together’ when sounding out words.
To read proficiently, your child needs to learn to blend individual sounds smoothly together into words without choppy pauses between the sounds. The ability to seamlessly blend individual sounds together into a word is not only vital for developing correct phonologic processing, it is also critical for developing eventual reading fluency.
Blending requires the child to recognize/hear the sounds in a word and smoothly put them all together to form the word. Here are some things you can do to help at home:
- Use any word with the following procedure – say the word "mom" slowly holding each of the sounds for 1-2 seconds - “mmmmoooommmm”. Have your child listen to the sounds and then blend them together in his/her head. Then have them say the word.
- Place a small number of picture cards or objects in front of your child. Tell them you are going to say a word using "Snail Talk" a slow way of saying words (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/). They have to look at the pictures/objects and guess the word you are saying. Alternate between having your child identify the word and having him or her say the word using the “Snail Talk” for you to guess.
- Explain that you will sing a verse of “Old MacDonald,” but you will say an animal name in a special way. Have children guess what animal name you are saying by blending the separate sounds together. For example, you will sing, “Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a /d( pause 1 second)uuuuk/. Students guess what animal you are sounding out. Have your child sing a verse and have you guess. Be sure he or she is using smooth blending!
- Use magnetic letters on a cookie sheet or just on the table top. Place the letters of a word spaced out across the work surface from left to right. Using the word “man,” as an example, the “m” will be on the left side of the workspace the “a” in the middle and the “n” at the right side. Slide the “m” to the right to join the “a”, saying the sounds of the letters as you drag them. Then slide the “ma” to join the “n”. Then have your child guess the word.
- Play a new variation to a favorite children’s game. Play ‘I Spy’ by sounding out the name of the object you are looking at. Children have to blend the sounds together to determine the object. “I spy with my little eye something that is round. I spy a /b(pause 1 second) ahhhhllllll. Have your child guess the object that you sounded out.
POINTERS
- Some letter sounds can be elongated and held continuously - a, e, f, i, l, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w,
- Other letter sounds cannot be elongated or held continuously - b, c, d, g, h, j, k, p, q, t, x
- If the sound can be held continuously, hold the sound for 1-2 seconds and blend it smoothly into the next sound in the word (eg. for the word man, say "mmmmaaaannnn")
- If the sound cannot be held continuously, say the sound once, pause briefly for 1-2 seconds, and then say the next sound in the word elongating it for 1-2 seconds if possible (eg. for the word pin, say "p [1 second pause] iiiinnnn"
- It is easier to blend sounds that can be held continuously.
- Start instruction with words that have continuous sounds – eg. mom, run, van, sun
- Gradually add words that have sounds that cannot be held continuously – eg. dad, cat, dog, pop
References:
http://blog.maketaketeach.com/teaching-students-to-blend-words/
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/blending_games
https://pals.virginia.edu/activities-PA-B-all.html
https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200901/BTJPhonologicalAwareness.pdf
Sound Manipulation! It’s Important in Learning to Read!
Phonological awareness refers to a child’s ability to understand the sound patterns that are specific to the language that the child is exposed to on a regular basis. Development of phonological awareness skills begin gradually and build sequentially upon each other throughout the preschool and early elementary period. Although phonological awareness is taught when a child enters school, research shows that the more a child knows before he or she enters school, the faster they are able to learn to read, write, and spell. In fact, these fundamental skills are strong predictors of literacy performance in subsequent years. Many researchers believe that phonological awareness in early childhood is more important to literacy than any other variable.
Previously, we have written about the importance of rhyming, segmenting, isolation and blending in developing reading skills. Sound manipulation is the last and most challenging of the five phonological awareness tasks. It is the ability to manipulate or work with individual sounds in spoken words.
The two main manipulation tasks are substitution and deletion:
Substitution requires children to be able to switch or substitute one sound for another to make a new word. For example “Say /cat/”,” now change the /c/ to /b/” (use the sounds not the letter names), “what is the word now?” - answer “bat”.
Deletion requires children to be able to remove individual or blended sounds from words or to identify words once a phoneme or phonemes have been removed. For example “say snail” now say it again but don’t say /s/” – answer “nail”.
Here are some things you can do to help at home:
- Sound substitution – have your child change sounds in words to make new words. For example say: “say map”, “now say it again but change the /p/ to /t/”. The response would be “mat”. When doing this activity it’s important to only change one sound at a time. The words don’t always have to be real words either. This is really fun to do with made up words. For example, change ‘block’ into ‘blon.’ This helps students really listen to the sounds in the words.
- Sound deletion - being able to delete (or add) sounds in words is an important skill - in this activity have kids practice saying words by deleting some of the sounds. For young children or those who haven’t had much practice with this, start with deleting the initial sound in words. For instance, get students to say a word without the first sound. For example, say ‘mat’ without the ‘m’. Say ‘Tom’ without the ‘t’.
- If you have older students use words that have 4 or 5 sounds. Say ‘slump’, say it again without the ‘s’. You can also move on to removing sounds either in the middle of the word or at the end of the word. For example, say ‘clump’ say it again without the ‘l’ or say ‘print’, say it again without the ‘t’.
References:
http://www.scholastic.com/dodea/Module_2/topic2.htm
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_what.php
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/development-phonological-skills
http://cleverclassroomblog.com/2017/01/phoneme-manipulation-phonemic-awareness.html
For more information, please contact:
Lana Johnston
Speech-Language Pathologist, MVSD
204-638-3001, ext. 22115