A phoneme is a unit of sound that gives meaning to a word. In an article for the Florida Department of education, professors Joseph K. Torgesen and Patricia G. Mathes with Florida State University share that the word “cat” has three phonemes: /k/-/a/-/t/. When you change one of the letters in the word, it becomes a new word. For example, by replacing the letter C with the letter B, you get the word “bat.” Parents can make a game out of sound substitutions to help children with this concept.
Phonological awareness is the auditory ability to hear, manipulate and understand spoken words with the understanding that phonemes, or units of sound, make up the syllables and sequence of sounds heard. Torgesen and Mathes explain that phonological awareness involves learning individual phonemes and that a sound unit can be smaller than a syllable. For example, the word “chimneys” has two syllables: /chim/-/neys/. At the same time, the word has six phonemes: /ch/-/i/-/m/-/n/-/ey/-/s/. This knowledge helps a student understand how two words that look similar have a different meaning, like the words “tacks” and “task.” When developing phonological awareness, students learn to count the number of syllables and sounds in words, manipulate the sounds in words, orally blend parts of a word and recognize elements like alliteration, rhymes and assonance.
Phonological awareness is not the same as phonics. Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate sounds in spoken words, while phonics is about how letters and sounds relate. Utah State University asserts that teachers should expose students to the concept of phonological awareness before teaching phonics. The University of Oregon defines phonological awareness as an auditory process that doesn’t involve printed words.
Students who don’t know how to notice and manipulate phonemes have a harder time reading, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The University of Oregon notes that phonemes aren’t naturally obvious, so teachers must teach about them. In early education, phonological awareness helps students prepare to read because they learn how letters represent sounds. Torgesen and Mathes state that as students learn more about phonemes and their features, they get better at identifying them and their order in words. It equips readers with a way to read and sound out new words.
Engaging students in activities that focus on the sounds within words is one of the best ways to develop phonological awareness in students, according to the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. Reading books aloud to a class helps draw attention to sounds, particularly when the books use alliteration, rhymes and sound substitutions. The National Association for the Education of Young Children says that poetry books and books that combine English with another language help stimulate phonological awareness, as do word games, songs and nursery rhymes.