Developing Sound Sense:
A Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Curriculum

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness: Sounds in Language

Phonemic Awareness: Sounds in Words

1. What Is Phonological/Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to think about, analyze, and manipulate the sound structure of individual words. This pre-reading skill, also called phonemic awareness, will make phonics that much easier for your child. It is the foundation of a child’s reading ability — if a child can’t hear the individual sounds in a word, he will always struggle to figure out the letters in that word. More
Phonemic awareness is the skill of hearing the difference between bat and mat and understanding that changing the /b/ sound in bat to an /mmm/ sound can create a different word.
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2. Teaching Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

We at SightWords.com have created a comprehensive curriculum for phonological/phonemic awareness instruction. It is intended for parents to use with one child in the home as well as for preschool and kindergarten teachers to use in the classroom. The curriculum is divided into eleven sections, each containing about ten activities and games. All the activities are designed to be short and engaging. Just go through the curriculum in order, as later exercises will build upon the skills learned in earlier exercises. Refer to our Teaching Tips for suggestions on planning lessons and tailoring activities to your child. How long will this take? For typically developing four- and five-year-olds, it takes about ten months, or one school year, to go through the entire Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Curriculum. More ↑ Top

3. Benefits of Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

Phonological/Phonemic awareness makes learning to read easier. A child with phonemic awareness can already blend sounds into words, and so she finds phonics more intuitive. When a child can separate words into sounds, spelling (breaking words into letters) becomes easier.
“Teach[ing] phonemic awareness…accelerates reading and writing growth of the entire classroom…” Ingvar Lundberg, “Phonemic Awareness in Young Children”
A typical child entering elementary school with high phonological/phonemic awareness is almost certain to become a skilled and confident reader. A child with low phonological/phonemic awareness is likely to struggle with phonics and reading. ↑ Top

7 Responses to “Phonological/Phonemic Awareness: The Foundation For Literacy”

  1. Kaitlyn Brown

    Great resources!

    Reply
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  3. Cynthia Sims

    Thank you.

    Reply
  4. Razia khan

    Good learning resource, excellent sight word explanation. Very systematic. Thanks!

    Reply
  5. caline

    Finally, I find a resource to put everything together with well-organized lesson plans based on the research! A lifesaver for homeschooling parents! Thank you!

    Reply
  6. Patricia Alcantara

    I’m a teacher from Peru. I found the information you share very helpful and interesting. Thank you very much for sharing these excellent resources.

    Reply

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