What is Phonological Awareness?
Perhaps you’ve used the term phonological awareness used as a synonym for phonemic awareness. While they aren’t synonyms, they are related. Phonological awareness means knowing that language is an object, something that may be analyzed and manipulated by them in different ways: to rhyme, to play word games, and to talk about.
Phonological awareness is an umbrella term, meaning that is a broad term that encompasses a lot of sub skills (including phonemic awareness!).
Phonological awareness involves the detection and manipulation of sounds at four levels of sound structure:
word: the ability to hear individual words
syllables: the ability to chunk words into parts at the syllable level
onsets and rimes: the ability to segment words at a unit smaller than syllables
phonemes (phonemic awareness): the ability to segment individual sounds in words
How does phonological awareness develop?
While phonological awareness skills don't always develop in a linear pathway, some phonological awareness skills are considered simpler than others.
Why is phonological awareness important?
Phonological awareness is directly related to reading ability
Although the relationship is reciprocal, phonological awareness precedes skilled decoding
Phonological awareness reliably predicts later reading ability
Deficits in phonological awareness are usually associated with deficits in reading
Early intervention can promote the development of phonological awareness
Improving a child's phonological awareness can and usually does result in improvements in reading ability
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