Phonemic Awareness, Phonological Awareness, Phonics...aren’t they the same thing? NO. Although it seems that they are the same, there are differences. When children learn to read, there is a continuum of skills that have to be developed. You can’t jump ahead in levels...you must first build the foundational skills before moving on. Let’s investigate these differences. Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate different sounds in spoken words. Phonemic Awareness is the foundation required to learn to read. Skills within this category include:
Phonological Awareness is the awareness of sounds in bigger units such as syllables and words. For example, understanding how many syllables are in a words, understanding that two letters make up one sound (sh), word families and rhymes, recognizing sounds in different parts of words (what sound is at the end of bat?). Skills in this category include:
Phonics is a teaching tool for reading. This focuses on the relationship between sounds and their spelling. So before teaching phonics and spelling, a child must first understand that specific letters make specific sounds (phonemic awareness) and then understand that several sounds go together to make syllables and words (phonological awareness). The first two steps are auditory skills. Phonics is both auditory and visual. Here is a great visual to help you understand the building blocks for reading: Despite these different focuses, phonics instruction and phonemic awareness instruction are connected. In fact, phonemic awareness is necessary for phonics instruction to be effective. Before students can use a knowledge of sound-spelling relationships to decode written words, they must understand that words (whether written or spoken) are made up of sounds. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that a word is made up of a series of discrete sounds. Without this insight, phonics instruction will not make sense to students.
How can parents reinforce these phonemic skills at home?
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