From our Literacy Specialist
Phonemic Awareness – this powerful building block is the key to better reading!
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and play with the individual sounds, called phonemes, in words. It is an important early skill that helps children learn to read and spell. For example, a child with strong phonemic awareness can hear that the word cat is made up of three sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/. (Yes, we love using the word ‘cat’ for examples! 🙂)
Phonemic awareness doesn’t involve letters; it’s all about listening to sounds. Children develop this skill through activities like clapping out syllables, rhyming games, or identifying the first or last sound in a word.
Strong phonemic awareness makes learning to read easier because children can link sounds to letters when they start reading and writing. It is an important building block for reading success, and children can improve it with simple, fun activities at home and at school.
Here is a link to a short video sharing three skills and associated games that you could easily use at home to help strengthen phonemic awareness. You don’t need any equipment, just your voice! They may seem simple to us, but they are more powerful than you think!