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In this article, you will learn what phonemic awareness is, why it is important, and simple activities you can do at home to support your child’s learning.

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That's a complicated sounding term, but it's meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to:

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a name

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Identify the syllables in a word

The most sophisticated phonological awareness skill (and the last to develop) is called phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. When playing with the sounds in word, children learn to:

Blend individual sounds to make a word

Stretch out a word into its individual sounds

Swap in a different sound to the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make a new word

Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of later reading success. Children who struggle with reading, including kids with dyslexia, often have trouble with phonemic awareness, but with the right kind of instruction they can be successful. Learn some of the warning signs for dyslexia in this article, Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood.

Your first grader should be able to recognize rhyming words and create their own rhyming word pairs or sets ( big, dig, fig). See if your child can also identify the first, middle and last sounds they hear in a word, and show you how many sounds are in simple one-syllable words using their fingers ( sit = s-i-t = 3 sounds).

Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Try these speech sound activities at home

Syllable shopping

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

Rhyme time

"I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big. What's the animal?" Answer: pig. What else rhymes with big? (dig, fig, wig)

Road trip rhymes

While you're out driving in the car, spot something out the window and ask your child, "what rhymes with tree or car or shop?" Then switch roles and have your child spot something and ask you for a rhyme. This can turn into a game of nonsense rhymes ("What rhymes with tree stump?") but that's great for practicing sounds, too!

Word families

Word families are sets of words that rhyme. Start to build your family by giving your child the first word, for example, cat. Then ask your child to name all the "kids" in the cat family, such as: bat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, hat, flat. This will help your child hear patterns in words.

Silly tongue twisters

Sing songs, read rhyming books, and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

Sound games

Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Hold each sound longer than normal.

One sound at a time

Certain sounds, such as /s/ or /m/are great sounds to start with. The sound is distinct, and can be exaggerated easily. "Please pass the mmmmmmmmilk." "Look! There's a ssssssssssnake!" It's also easy to describe how to make the sound with your mouth. "Close your mouth and lips to make the sound. Now put your hand on your throat. Do you feel the vibration?"

Tongue ticklers

Alliteration or "tongue ticklers" - where the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again - can be a fun way to provide practice with a speech sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

"I Spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple game: ask your child questions like, "I spy something red that starts with /s/."

Sound sleuth

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "p" pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear "

"I Spy" blending

Here's an easy phoneme blending game you can play while talking a walk. For blending, you can say, "I see a sign that says s-t-o-p" Then your child has to blend the sounds to guess your word - stop. (Remember to say only the sounds in the word - not the letters.) Keep the words short, moving from two to three to four sounds depending on your child's skill level.

Jump, skip, hop!

Create simple picture cards that you draw or cut out of magazines. Have your child, identify what's in the picture, and then break that word into its individual sounds. For example dog is d-o-g, three sounds (phonemes). Three sounds? You and your child do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops (followed by a high-five). You can also do this game outdoors without the cards, just call out simple words for your child.

Snail talk

Tell your child you're going to communicate in "snail talk" and they need to figure out what you're saying. Take a simple word and stretch it out very slowly (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/), then ask your child to tell you the word. Switch roles and have your child stretch out a word for you.

First sounds

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and say it with emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Zzz-zookeeper and rrr-rhinoceros. Can you hear what sound zzz-zookeeper starts with? Is it the same as rrr-rhinoceros?

Sound counting

Using LEGO bricks, beads, or pennies, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, top = t-o-p = three sounds, so your child would place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word bike would be = b-i-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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This word game will help your child practice letter sounds and blending words. Your child will choose a short vowel sound; they will change the beginning or ending sound in the word. Encourage them to sound out words with the game’s voice; this will help build their reading confidence!

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Learn Short Vowel Words with Action-Packed Word Machines | Starfall

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Get ready to take the controls of these five action-packed short-vowel activities for kids with words like C-A-T, H-E-N, D-I-P, F-O-G and T-U-B.

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Treasure Chest- Phoneme Segmenting and Blending

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Treasure Chest- Phoneme Segmenting and Blending

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Here is a fun printable treasure chest game to help your child practice segmenting letter sounds and blending them into a word. You will need a small box for the treasure chest, encourage your child to decorate the box.

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This article will help you understand the basics of phonics and its importance in early reading development. It also includes frequently asked questions about phonics and resources to support your child’s phonics practice at home.

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What is phonics? Find out in our phonics guide for parents. Learn about Letters and Sounds, the phonics screening test, and how to practice phonics at home.

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Your child can play an interactive phonics game, read a story online focusing on a specific phonics skill, or watch a fun movie teaching phonics sounds. These activities help reinforce their phonics skills while keeping learning fun and engaging.

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Please see Starfall's how-to-teach-reading page, Learn to Read with Phonics, Fluency, and Comprehension, and print the Free Phonics Printouts for children. Starfall™ books, games, movies, and songs follow a research-based method of systematic phonics starting with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Emergent readers gain confidence as they progress to long vowels and other letter-sound relationships such as digraphs.

Brought to you by Zac the Rat™, Peg the Hen™, and Gus the Duck™.
Starfall™ Where Children Have Fun Learning to Read™

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Learn to Read with Phonics | Starfall Education

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Starfall's movies, games, and ebooks create an environment where children have fun as they learn to read. We use a proven sequential phonics method.

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Have fun playing this printable game where your child will practice phonics skills. In this game, you roll two dice—one with phonograms and the other with consonants. Sound out the letters, create a real word, and write it down. The player with the most real words at the end wins! It's a playful way to practice phonics and have fun!

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Who knew you could play a game with dice that helps your 1st learn to read? Try out this game that will have your child rolling his way to better reading skills. Want more dice? Print out another dice game to double your fun!

No standards associated with this content.

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Who knew you could play a game with dice that helps your 1st learn to read? Try this game that will have your child rolling his way to better reading skills.

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Fluency helps your child read smoothly and confidently. This guide offers an explanation of the topic, videos, and examples of what fluent readers sound like.

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This toolkit helps teachers and families understand what fluency is and how to support a child's development of fluency with text.

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This website allows your child to choose any book and helps build their reading fluency by listening to stories read aloud. As they follow along, they can practice expression and pacing, which improves their reading skills while enjoying a story that interests them. If they would like to repeatedly listen to the same book, that is ok!

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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For this printable activity, your child will read the passage multiple times aloud. This practice will improve their accuracy and expression by becoming more familiar with the words and sentence structure in the passage.

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Students read a sentence repeatedly, rewrite it and answer questions about it. Free | Reading | Worksheets | Grade 1 | Printable

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Helping Your Child Grow with Words

Vocabulary is key to your child’s learning and communication. In this article, you will learn about the different types of vocabulary and simple ways to support their language growth.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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This free interactive game on Spelling City helps kids practice antonyms (opposites), synonyms (similar words), and definitions as they match pairs.

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Teaching spelling and vocabulary is easy with VocabularySpellingCity! Students can study and learn their word lists using vocabulary and spelling learning activities and games. Students can take final or practice spelling and vocabulary tests right on this engaging site. Premium games and automated student record keeping are available to Premium Members.

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After you click on the link, scroll down to page 5, titled "Paint-by-words." For this printable activity, your child will color the picture based on the words they read. Each word has a matching color listed in the key. Encourage your child to read the words out loud, find them in the picture, and then color.

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Watch this informative video to learn about reading comprehension, what it looks like, how to develop good reading comprehension, and the benefits of becoming a strong reader.

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Reading Comprehension - Everything Parents Need to Know

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This link offers a variety of excellent reading options for your first grader. You will need to create a free account to begin. Once logged in, click "content" at the top of the page. Then click 1st grade in the far left column. Allow your child to choose any story from the list. After reading, please encourage them to complete the question set to practice their reading comprehension skills. Your child can also choose to listen to the story read to them; this option is at the top of the reading passage.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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Picture the Character Printable Activity

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Picture the Character Printable Activity

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Have your child choose a book they can read. Print this activity handout and guide them through each section. This will help them practice identifying the main character, describing words, and retelling key ideas from the story as they practice their reading comprehension skills.