THEIMPORTANCEOFPHONOLOGICALAWARENESSTherearemanyreasonsthatayoungchildcanstruggletolearntoread–somereasonsarelanguage-relatedandsomeareliteracy-based.Veryoften,weaknessesinPhonologicalAwarenessareasignificantcauseofliteracydifficulties.Teachingphonologicalawarenessintheearlygrades,especiallyinKindergarten,isfundamental.Asaparent,itisreallyimportanttoknowhowphonologicalawarenessisbeingtaughttoyourchild.In2000,theNationalReadingPanel(partoftheNationalInstituteofHealth)completedastudyofalltheresearchthathadbeendoneonreadingdevelopmentovertheyears.Theypublishedtheirstudiesinseveralways–twoofthebestpublicationsarelinkedhere,oneisaparentguideandoneisforteachers.Don’tbeintimidatedbytheteacherguide–itisveryreadableandcangiveaparentalotofgreatinformation!https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/Documents/PRFbrochure.pdfhttps://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/prf_k-3/Documents/PRFbooklet.pdfPhonologicalAwarenesswasfoundtobeoneofthefundamentalareasthatayoungchildneedsinordertobecomeanexpertreader.Theresearchhasshownthatachildneedsapproximately20hoursofspecificdirectphonologicalawarenessteachingtobepreparedtobeagoodreader.PhonologicalAwarenessisapurelylanguageskill.Itisafundamentallanguagecomponentofthereadingprocess.Phonologicalawarenesshelpsastudenttohearandworkwiththesoundsofwords.ItisoftencalledaLights-OutActivity,becauseitisaboutlisteningtosounds–nolettersareinvolved.PhonologicalAwarenessdescribesasetofskills,whichisbuiltlikealadder,withskillsfromeasiesttomostchallenging.Thesearesomeoftheskills(startingwiththemostbasic):

ü Awarenessofwordsinsentences(Icanridemybike.)ü Theconceptofsyllableswithinwordsü First-middle-endsoundsinwordsü Awarenessofrhyming,whichisoftencalled‘onset-rime’(m-at)ü Theabilitytoblendsoundsintoaword(c-a-t>cat)andtosegmentawordinto

itssounds(cat>c-a-t).Checkoutthepicturesbelowü Theabilitychangeormanipulatesoundsinwords(changehop>hot).

ASegmentingActivity–CalledSay-it-and-Move-it

(noticetherearenoletters–themagnetsareusedforthesounds)

ResearchalsoshowsthateachlevelofphonologicalawarenessrelatestoReadingandWritingskills.Forexample,knowledgeofsyllablescandirectlyassisttheabilitytoreadmulti-syllablewords.Beingabletorhymebenefitsreadingunfamiliarwords,whichhaverhymepatternsthatastudenthaslearned(knowingmathelpsyoutolearncat/sat/bat/hat).Blendingsoundsintowordshasastrongconnectionwithdecoding.Theabilitytosegmentsoundsrelatestospelling.Forallofitsimportanceasanessentialearlyliteracyskill,PhonologicalAwarenessmaynotreceivetheinstructionalfocusitneeds.Achildwhostrugglestodevelopphonologicalawarenesswillneedcoreinstructionwiththeentireclass,aswellassmallgrouporindividualinterventionasneeded.Heorshemayneedmorethanthe20hoursrecommendedbytheNationalReadingPanel.Asaparent,youshouldaskyourchild’steacherhowPhonologicalAwarenessinstructionisdoneintheclassroom.Youshouldaskaboutalloftheskillsmentionedabove,andyoushouldalsofindoutifthereisaspecificprogramorcurriculumthatisused.Alsofindouthowphonologicalawarenessistestedandhowtestinghelpstheteacherdecidewhattoteach.Asacriticalconsumer,decideifyouthinkallofthebasesarebeingcovered.ThereareseveralcurriculathattargetPhonologicalAwareness.Therearesomeverygoodstand-aloneprogramsthatteachthisskill.SoundsAbound-MultisensoryPhonologicalAwareness,LadderstoLiteracy,andRoadtotheCodearethreeoftheseprograms(IamsuretherearealsoothersofwhichI’munfamiliar).Fundationsisanearlyreadingprogramthatincorporatesphonologicalawarenessintoitsreadinginstruction.AspecialprogramdoesnothavetobeusedaslongasallofthePhonologicalAwarenessskillsarebeingtaught.Inconclusion,pleaserecognizethatPhonologicalAwarenessisoneoftheimportantareasofteachingearlyliteracy.Childrenwhostrugglewithphonologicalawarenesswillbeat-riskasearlyreadersandwriters.Olderchildrenwhostrugglewithreadingfluencyveryoftenshowphonologicalawarenessweaknessesthathaveremained.EarlyPhonologicalAwarenessInstructionandInterventionisveryimportant.Itcanhelp

topreventlaterdifficulties.Beproactive!Yourchildonlyhastheseearlylearningchancesonce!

FeelfreetocontactmeatLinguisticFoundationsifyouwouldlikemoreinformationaboutPhonologicalAwareness,aswellasoptionsforinstructionandtesting.ThankyouforyourtimeandBestofLuck!SteveMacCormack