Phonological (phonemic) Awareness

            Yesterday I mentioned a couple words in one of my reviews. That word was Phonemic Awareness. Today I would like to talk about what Phonemic Awareness is and post a few activities one can do to help a child who is having difficulty with it.
            Phonemic Awareness is how we understand certain sounds, words, or what a child hears. Wikipedia states, "Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness in which listeners are able to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate meaning. Separating the spoken word "cat" into three distinct phonemes, /k/, /æ/, and /t/, requires phonemic awareness." In my literacy 1 class in college we had to separate words into their individual phonemes. Breaking down a word can help a child to improve their phonemic awareness. Phonics, in my opinion, is a great way to help children with phonemic awareness. this allows children to see that a C can make the sound /k/ or /s/. Or what are the differences between a long and short vowel. Or what a schwa is, "An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. Such vowels are often transcribed with the symbol <ə>, regardless of their actual phonetic value."


The following are just a few sites for Phonemic Awareness activities and information:
http://www.tampareads.com/phonics/phonicsindex.htm
http://www.reading.org/downloads/positions/ps1025_phonemic.pdf
http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/activities/phonemic.html

If you have any questions about Phonemic Awareness please don't be afraid to ask and I will try to answer to the best of my ability. Thank you.