Strategies and assessment activities for phonemic awareness

 

STRATEGIES FOR PHONEMIC AWARENESS:

            Phonemic awareness is recognizing and being able to manipulate the phonemic structure of language. It includes the following specific skills:

• The ability to isolate and distinguish individual sounds (the word fish starts with /f/, the word Sam starts with /s/, or the word ‘cat’ ends with /t/)

• The ability to identifying phonemes (the words ‘bat’, ‘boy’, and ‘Billy’ all start with the /b/ sound whereas ‘tall’ and ‘toy’ start with the /t/ sound)

• The ability to categorize similar sounds and recognize phonemic patterns: this includes the ability to recognize rhyming words (cat, mat, fat, and sat all rhyme) and the ability to recognize similarities and differences in a group of words (bake and bike start with the same sound but they do not rhyme) or (in the group of words ‘bug’, ‘rug’, ‘run’ and ‘hug’, the word ‘run’ is different)

• The ability to segment phonemes in a word (the word ‘cat’ is made of the sounds /k/ /a/ /t/, the word ‘shake’ is made up of the sounds /sh/ /ay/ /k/).

• The ability to blend sounds together (the sound /t/ /o/ /p/ put together make the word ‘top’, the sounds /r/ /u/ /g/ put together make the word ‘rug’).

• The ability to delete phonemes. (Say the word ‘train’ without the /t/ and the child can say ‘rain’) or (Say ‘mud’ without the /d/ and the child says /mu/).

• The ability to manipulate phonemes making changes/substitutions (What would the word ‘milk’ be if it started with the /f/ sound instead of the /m/ sound? and the child can say ‘/filk/’, What would the word ‘rug’ be if it you changed the /r/ to a /m/? ‘mug’). 

TEACHING PHONEMIC AWARENESS THROUGH INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES:

Play games with the beginning sounds in words. Start simple, give the child a word and see if he can tell you the sound that the word starts with. For example, what does the word “sam” start with? /ss/. Help the child by saying the word slowly. Help him learn to hear these sounds. At first, start with the sounds that can be stretched out (such as m, s, f, l, n, r) and avoid the blended consonants that are much more difficult to segment (for example give the word ‘big’ not ‘broom’). 

Practice oral sound games with the beginning sounds in words. Say “the word _ starts with the sound _. Let us see what else we can think of other words that start with the ___sound.” Give a few examples to get the kid started and at first help the child by saying the first sound to get him started. (For example, “milk” starts with the sound /m/. What else can you think of that starts with the sound /m/…. and to help him out say /mmmmmm/ while the child is thinking of a word. Help out at first with some words…/mmmm/ … mud…. /mmmm/ mom…” If the child says a word like ‘cat’ simply say oops that word starts with the /k/ sound…listen /c//a//t/. What starts with /mmm/?

Play “silly word” games with beginning sounds. Have the child modify the first sound in a word. For example, use the child’s name and make silly words. For example, “Jessica, if your name started with /mmm/ what would it be?... Messica; How about /t/? Tessica; How about /b/? Bessica. 

Sing little songs (or adapted versions of songs with a specific sound). Have the child help you make a ‘silly sound song’ of a specific sound. For example, sing twinkle, twinkle little star with all the words starting with the /sss/ sound (Twinkle, Twinkle, little star).

Do rhyming activities. Rhyming is terrific for developing phonemic awareness. Help the child learn how to rhyme. Say a word like ‘cat’ and see how many rhyming words the kid can say. (At first this rhyming needs to be demonstrated as kids will often just say a word that starts with the same sound.) For example, “What would rhyme with cat? hat, mat, pat, sat. See if you can come up with any “silly” rhyming words…zat. dat.

Practice orally segmenting sounds within a word. Have the child tell you the sounds he hears within a word. Remember this is an auditory skill based on sound does not letter names or spelling correctly. For example:
Tell me the sounds in the word ‘cat’: the kid should say /k/ /a/ /t/ .
Tell me the sounds in the word ‘shut’: the kid should say /sh/ /u/ /t.
Tell me the sounds in the word ‘place’: the kids should say /p/ /l/ /ay/ /s/ 
Say the word slowly and clearly to help the child hear and distinguish sounds.

Play ‘sound changing’ games where you tell the child a word and give him some instructions on how to change it. “Say __ without the __ sound”. (For example, say ‘milk’ without the /m/…. and the kid should say ‘ilk’). Or “how would you say __ if the // sound was change to /_/? (For example, how would you say sing if the /s/ was changed to /r/? (the kid should say ring.

Assessing Phonemic Awareness:

• Phoneme isolation – Initial (first) sound: What is the first sound in "sat?" (Correct response: /s/). 

• Phoneme isolation – Final (last) sound: What is the last sound in "sat?" (Correct response: /t/).  

• Phoneme isolation – (iddle) sound: What is the middle sound in "sat?" (Correct response: /a/) 

• Phoneme blending: What word do these sounds make? /h/ – /o/ – /t/ (Correct response: hot).

• Phoneme segmentation: What sounds do you hear in "hot?" (Correct response: /h/ – /o/ – /t/). 

• Phoneme manipulation – Initial (first) sound: Say "mat" without the /m/ sound. (Correct response: at). 

• Phoneme manipulation – Final (last) sound: Say "mat" without the /t/ sound. (Correct response: ma). 

• Phoneme manipulation – Substitution: Say "pig." (Correct response: pig) Now change the /p/ in "pig" to /f/. (Correct response: fig).