Phonological Awareness
What’s the first step you should take when teaching your child to read? You probably assume it's teaching the letters of the alphabet. However, the true foundation of reading begins with developing phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and distinguish between sounds in spoken words. Phonological awareness includes teaching children to distinguish and manipulate sounds in rhyming, alliteration, syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes. The best way to develop phonological awareness skills is to begin with more general types of listening skills and bigger pieces of language and gradually move to smaller and smaller sounds until children learn to listen to and use individual sounds of language.
How to teach Phonological AwarenessFirst start by developing good listening skills. Provide your children with opportunities to recite rhymes in songs. Music is naturally a part of their world. Encourage them to be active participants in the songs by, clapping, snapping, and adding their own motions to songs. Have your children listen to and identify rhymes in books and nursery rhymes. Before reading, ask your children to listen for rhyming words and during reading help them identify them. As their ability to identify rhymes increases encourage them to produce their own rhymes using. both real words and “nonsense words” like, Georgie porgie.
Most importantly when teaching Phonological awareness remember it should be taught without letters . you can use either blocks, objects, pictures, or sound boxes that symbolize the sounds. It is important for children to identify and learn those sounds before moving to their corresponding letters. |
Rhymes & ActivitiesA child has mastered rhyming when he or she can identify words ending with the same sound. Below are are some activities you can do to improve your child's skills.
Sing Sound-Play Songs
- Old MacDonald - This Old Man - B-I-N-G-O - Apples and Bananas - DooWah Diddy Diddy |