Phonological awareness is closely related to phonics, and greatly impacts reading instruction. Phonological awareness focuses on auditory processes, while phonics further develops the skills by looking at the relationship between the sounds and their written symbols. Children who are proficient at taking apart the words they hear and putting them back together again eventually develop the ability to sound words out as they read and spell. Children who haven't grasped these skills may struggle in early reading development, so instruction in phonological awareness is beneficial for all children. It may even be essential for those with disabilities, such as hearing loss, speech impairments and communication disorders.
Encouraging phonological awareness in the classroom can be a riot. Who hasn't giggled over a song like "Down By the Bay" or a rhyme like "Willaby Wallaby Woo"? Teachers can make familiar children's songs into games by having the children fill in the rhyming word or decide which sound to substitute at the beginning of each word. Auditory learners will enjoy these songs and chants.
The familiar game, "I Spy" can easily be adapted to encourage phonological awareness. Instead of colors, children will look for items that begin with a specific sound, for example, "I spy something that begins with 'p'."
Kinesthetic learners will enjoy being able to move around the classroom and participate in more physical activities. Try printing possible rhymes or word endings, such as "-ack," "-ing" or "-ent," on slips of paper. Fasten them securely to a beach ball. Have the students toss the ball to each other, and use the word ending they land on to make new words. The objective is to see how many unique words they can find. Check the website FreeReading.net for hundreds of ideas for phonological awareness games and activities, all of which are contributed by teachers.
Many commercial board games, tile sets, magnetic letters and flashcards are available to assist in teaching the skills of segmenting language, and will be especially useful for visual learners. Usually attractive and brightly colored, these products are perfect for engaging young learners during free activity time or at classroom learning centers. One example is the Little Red Toolbox: Magnetic Daily Word-Building Center. Commercial games and activities can be purchased from teacher's stores such as Scholastic, booksellers like Amazon, or even the toy section of local department stores.
Education and special education catalogues often have a variety of software to address early language and literacy skills like phonological awareness. One program, Earobics, addresses skills sequentially and uses data to guide programming for individual students. This program can also be related to IEP goals for students that require them. Colorful, engaging games, in the early levels of Earobics, help students learn skills such as counting syllables, blending sounds, segmenting words, rhyming and sound discrimination.
Online games can also be used in the classroom or resource room, to address these skills. Elmo Rhymes and Clifford Sound Match are great games to start with, since these characters are often favorites with young children. You can find links to these free games in the resource section of this article.