What is Phonemic Awareness?

 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. An example of how beginning readers show us they have phonemic awareness is combining or blending the separate sounds of a word to say the word ("/c/ /a/ /t/ - cat.")

 

 

What it feels like to me:  A child’s perspective

 

When a child has a difficulty or frustration, they are usually unable to express what is causing this feeling.  Instead they may say, “ I hate this!” ,“It’s stupid!”, or they may avoid the task all together.  Those few children who are able to express themselves often tell me:

 

Ø  When you say change the /b/ sound in bat to /c/. I have no idea what you mean.

 

Ø  I don’t know how many sounds are in my name.

 

Ø  I don’t know the first sound in the word “pan”.

 

Ø  When you give me the words “bat”, “cat”, “man”, I can’t tell which one doesn’t belong.

 

 

What I see at home: A parent's perspective

 

Here are some clues for parents that a child may be having reading difficulties as a result of his or her phonemic awareness:

 

Ø  He doesn’t know that words like cat and bat rhyme.

 

Ø  She doesn’t know how many sounds are in the word “pop”.

 

Ø  He can’t tell me the first sound in his name.

 

Ø  She can’t tell me the two sounds in “no”.

 

What I see in the classroom: A teacher's perspective

 

Here are some clues for teachers that a child may be having reading difficulties as a result of his or her phonemic awareness:

 

Ø  He has difficulty substituting sounds in words.

 

Ø  When I say, “The word is bun. Change /n/ to /g/. She doesn’t know the new word is bug.

 

Ø  She can’t separate the sounds in a word, and is unable to count them.

 

Ø  He is unable to identify individual sounds in a word.

 

Ø  She is unable to blend sounds into a word. /c/-/a/-/t/ = “cat”.