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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words

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Try this hands-on activity to practice phonemic awareness in your class!

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The National Reading Panel (2000) identified phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of later reading success.

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Reading Rockets (2023b) offers families simple, playful strategies like rhyming games and sound matching to build early listening and sound-awareness skills at home.

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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.

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

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 and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

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.

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.

"I spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple "I spy" game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store. Choose words with distinctive, easy-to-hear beginning sounds. For example, if you're in the bathroom you can say, "I spy something red that starts with the "s" ssss sound ( soap)."

Sound scavenger hunt

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 "

Which letter sounds do I teach first?

Reading expert Linda Farrell recommends that you begin with teaching the letter names, and then focus on the letter sounds that are closest to their letter names (such as /v/). And here's a great tip for teaching the trickier letter name-letter sound combinations - use arm motions. In this video, Linda demonstrates motions for /x/ and /y/. (From our video series Reading SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Reading.)

Sound games

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

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?

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.

"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.

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 Kindergartener

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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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Phonics: connecting sounds in spoken language to letters seen in print.

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Try this super fun, hands-on activity to practice phonics skills in the classroom!

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Practicing phonics is as simple as pulling out a book and reading to your child. Simply point to each letter as you are saying its sound!

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PBS Kids provides digital resources that allow children to hear sounds clearly and see matching visuals, supporting homes where English may not be common.

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Explore reading and play games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters like Elmo, Molly of Denali, Clifford, WordGirl, and Daniel Tiger!

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Fluency is reading with accuracy, speed, and expression (National Reading Panel, 2000).

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Classroom Activity to Build Fluency: Reader's Theater

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Classroom Activity to Build Fluency: Reader's Theater

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Have your child read a favorite bedtime story multiple times during the week. Repeated reading builds fluency (National Reading Panel, 2000).

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Oral practice builds fluency skills regardless of the language used (National Reading Panel, 2000). Let children read aloud in their home language to siblings or pets!

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Vocabulary is all the words we know and use to communicate. The more words students understand, the stronger their reading comprehension becomes!

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Students collect new words from books, lessons, or conversations in this classroom activity you could use throughout the year.

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Family Resource: Teacher-Approved Word Games

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Family Resource: Teacher-Approved Word Games

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Scholastic's Word Games includes interactive activities to build word knowledge at home with your child!

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Word games are great because they help children focus on sounds and letters, and develop skills they need for reading, writing, and spelling. By playing word games with our kids, we give them the benefit of our company, as well as demonstrating to them that playing with words is lots of fun. There are also word games that have become board games and toys, but the ones you'll find below need minimal equipment.

Guess the animal: Give children a rhyming word and have them guess the animal. "I rhyme with mat. I am a ..."

I spy: This is a simple word game most people know. Spot something nearby and tell kids the sound or letter it begins with. Children must look around and try to guess what it is you "spied."

MORE: Shop 'I Spy' Books in Our Store

Make a word: If you have plastic letters, magnet letters, or letter blocks, you can play this as soon as your child is old enough to spell. Play it mentally with older kids, or with paper and pencil. Simply give your children some letters and challenge them to make words from those letters. Great beginning for board games like Scrabble.

Categories: This is a game I loved as a child. Do you remember it? Simply draw a grid on a piece of paper. Then write some categories (for instance "plants," "girls' names," "cars," "grocery items") down one side of the grid and write alphabet letters across the top. It needn't be the whole alphabet. The aim is to try to think up a word for each letter and category.

Hink Pink: Kids adore this game! One person thinks of two-single syllable rhyming words, like fat cat. She works out a clue that should lead (eventually!) to the answer "fat cat." One clue could be "an obese mouse-catcher" or "a pet that eats too much," depending on the age of the guesser. The guesser tries to work out what the two rhyming words are. The game can be extended to Hinky Pinky (two syllable rhyming words), like happy chappy = "joyful fellow." Or Hinketty Pinketty (three syllable rhyming words, much harder), like mellower bellower = "less angry bull." Mix and match with Hinky Pinketty or Hinketty Pink!

Here are some Hink Pinks you can use to get you and your child started.

Clues 1. seafood platter 2. huge oinker 3. head cover that's been squashed by a truck 4. warmed up joint between two ropes 5. Rained-on puppy

Answers 1. fish dish 2. big pig 3. flat hat 4. hot knot 5. wet pet

If your child has trouble working out how many syllables are in a word, play a game where you tap the syllables on her arm as you slowly say the word: "butt(tap)-er (tap)-fly(tap)." Or march and dance the words, making strong body movements for each syllable. There is nothing more joyous than the sight and sound of 30 youngsters marching about, chanting the syllables in given words!

Once older kids are used to the game, it can provide a lead-in to crossword puzzles, and then cryptic crossword puzzles. All of these word games are great for developing thinking skills, as well as giving the whole family a way of celebrating the joy of language.

Word Game: I have no idea of the name of this game, but this is how we play it. One person, A, thinks of a five-letter word. A tells B the first letter of the word. B makes guesses at the word and finds out if letters are correct and in the correct place, correct but in the wrong place, or not correct at all. B gets five chances to guess the word.

Here's an example:

A - My five-letter word starts with D.

B - Is it drive?

A - It's not drive. There are no correct letters.

B - Is it donut?

A - It's not donut. The N is correct and in the right place. The U is correct but in the wrong place.

B - Is it dunny?

A - It's not dunny. The U is correct and in the right place, the N is correct and in the right place.

B - Is it dunks?

A - Yes! That's it. The word is dunks.

This game is much easier if you use pencil and paper to keep a record. But doing it mentally is very good memory training! Our family tends to play for fun, but you can keep a running score if you want - the guesser gets 5 points for guessing the word first go, four for guessing on the second go, three for third, two for fourth, one for fifth, and none for missing the word in five guesses. Try four-letter words with younger kids.

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Word games are great because they help children focus on sounds and letters, and develop skills they need for reading, writing and spelling.

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Picture-word cards support children with communication challenges. Find flashcards like those above to reinforce word-meaning connections at home.

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Comprehension is making meaning from text: understanding characters, setting, events, and lessons.

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Comprehension happens when reading reminds you of something you already know.

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Support comprehension with this classroom activity where students use puppets to retell a story!

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Practice reading comprehension at home with PBS Kids Storytime: online stories with interactive questions.

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Welcome to PBS Books Storytime!

"PBS Books Storytime" is a resource developed by the PBS Books channel to offer author read-aloud stories and book features for educators, libraries and families.

The segments feature children's book authors and others in "Read-Aloud" segments and/or video features on new and best-loved children's books.

Stories will be posted each day, so follow PBS Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and look for the hashtag #PBSBooksStorytime!

Watch this space and our social media messages for new and fun stories!

PBS Books is also aggregating a list of other credible book-related resources for parents, caregivers, librarians, and teachers, which you'll find below.

Author Videos

Resources

Looking for more virtual learning opportunities for your kids while they're away from school? Here's a list of great resources you can use to keep kids engaged:

Read Aloud Permissions

Are you an educator or librarian who wants to do a virtual read aloud to your kiddos? Below is a list of publishers who has given temporary permissions to create and post read aloud videos, with links to their specific guidelines. Most permissions end on June 30, 2020, so read the fine print. We'd love if you tagged PBS Books too!

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Welcome to PBS Books Storytime! "PBS Books Storytime" is a resource developed by the PBS Books channel to offer author read-aloud stories and book features for educators, libraries and families. The segments feature children's book authors and others in "Read-Aloud" segments and/or video features on new and best-loved children's books.

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Audiobooks with visuals are great for children with developmental challenges. After your child reads one of the many books on kaplanco.com , follow up with questions to practice comprehension.

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Children’s Books · Read-alongs & Audio Books

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Support students’ literacy skills through read-along and audio books. These tools help students expand their reading comprehension and listening skills with lively music and sound effects. As they listen to books on CDs, children can enjoy a new story while hearing fluent reading and learning to pronounce words. With options including adventurous tales or gentle creatures, Kaplan carries a host of read-along books for children of all ages and reading levels.

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Please consult these references for information on this Padlet and for additional research.

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FCCR :

offers resources for the five components of reading.

great for finding lesson plans, routines, and ways to track student progress.

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Parents and children visiting the LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library System will find new resources awaiting them thanks to Book Nook Bundles provided by the Florida Center for Reading Research.

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Reading Rockets:

packed with strategies and tips to help kids become better readers.

includes guides for teachers and parents on story sequencing, text structure, vocabulary, and more!

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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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Curates research-based tools to strengthen reading instruction.

Great for professional development and classroom support.

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Science of Reading Resources Hub | Tools, PD & Research

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Explore the best Science of Reading tools, guides, and research-backed strategies—curated to support educators with practical, evidence-based instruction.

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This resource for students with exceptionalities:

provides audiobooks and human-read recordings for students with dyslexia or other reading challenges.

helps build fluency and comprehension in an accessible way.

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Audiobooks for Dyslexia & Learning Disabilities | Learning Ally

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Learning Ally solutions help struggling readers through audiobooks & support services for educators, parents, and students dealing with dyslexia. Reading accommodations

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Another excellent resource for students with exceptionalities is Bookshare.

A free digital library for students with print disabilities, like dyslexia or visual impairments.

Books are available in various formats, including audio, Braille, and many others.

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Listen to words read aloud, follow with karaoke-style highlighting, enlarge text, or read in braille