22/07/2024
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: THE STEPPING STONES TO READING
What is phonological awareness?
Phonological awareness can be described as having the awareness of what sounds are and how they come together to make words. It is an umbrella skill that includes identifying and manipulating units or parts of oral language—for example, words, syllables, onsets, and rimes. It is meta-cognitive, involving the awareness/ability to think about one’s own thinking regarding the sound structures of language. This awareness allows one to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate sounds at different levels. Phonological awareness is an important foundation for reading.
What are the stages of phonological awareness?
Children start developing specific phonological skills around the age of three, though their listening skills have been developing since before birth. Very young children become aware of environmental sounds, such as a phone ringing, dogs barking, taxis hooting, and thunder.
Around the age of three, children begin to recognize rhymes through exposure to simple rhymes from caregivers or in school, like "Humpty Dumpty" and "Wielie-wielie-walie."
Awareness of syllables begins to develop around ages four to five. At this stage, children realize that words are made up of syllables. For example, they might clap and count how many syllables are in their name.
By around age six, children start identifying the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words, such as recognizing that "ball" starts with the /b/ sound. They also begin to blend sounds heard on an auditory level into words, like hearing /d/ /o/ /g/ and saying “dog.”
Around age seven, phonological segmentation and manipulation skills develop. Children learn to segment words into their different sounds, for example, hearing "mat" and identifying the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/. They also start manipulating sounds to form new words, such as changing the /c/ sound in "cat" to /m/ to make "mat."
How do these skills influence a child’s ability to read?
Learning to read is a complex process. Children must hear and identify individual sounds in speech, recall the letters of the alphabet to match each sound, and blend the letters together to decode words. This process is further complicated by the fact that letters can represent different sounds in English, such as the letter "g" representing the sound “g” in "goat" and “j” in "giraffe."
How can teachers, therapists, and parents help children develop phonological awareness skills?
Sing songs with rhyming words, such as "Hickory Dickory Dock."
Play ‘Rhyme Time’, where you think of words that rhyme with a given word.
Read rhyming books, like "Room on a Broom" by Julia Donaldson or "Hog in the Fog" by Julia Copus.
Play silly tongue twisters, like “She sells sea shells on the sea shore.”
Play “I spy with my little eye” to make your child more aware of beginning sounds.
Play “Sound Sleuth”, where your child finds objects starting or ending with a specific sound.
Use Lego bricks or beads to count the sounds in words. For example, "cat" = /c/ - /a/ - /t/ would be three sounds, so use three beads or bricks.
Robot Talk: Say a word stretched out with each sound separated by about a second, for example, /s/…/l/…/a/…/p/, and your child responds with “slap.”
What role does a Speech-Language Therapist (SLT) play in helping with your child’s literacy?
Speech-language therapists play a key role in developing phonological awareness and literacy. They collaborate with teachers to provide instruction on phonemic awareness and related literacy skills and are involved in assessing and providing intervention for students with reading and writing disorders.
For more resources and information for educators, healthcare professionals, and caregivers, visit www.bellavista.org.za.
