According to Yvette Zgonc, “Phonological awareness (PA) is the understanding that our spoken language is made up of words and that our words are made up of individual units of sounds called phonemes” (Zgonc, 2010). Children must be able to play around with and hear oral sound patterns before they can relate them to print. PA is foundational for reading and is part of my reading assessment. When a child is deficient in this area I will incorporate it into the lessons.
PA includes concept of spoken word, rhyme recognition, completion, production, syllable blending, segmentation, deletion, finding the initial sound of a word, phoneme blending and more. Here are some examples:
Clap the words of the sentence: Books are fun!
Basket is missing ket. What’s left? (bas)
Which word does not rhyme? song, ramp, lamp
Simply do a search for Phonological Awareness activities and you’ll find plenty more!
Zgonc, Y. (2010). Interventions for all: phonological awareness. Routledge, New York.