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Foundational Skills Mini-Course: Module 2 - Phonological Awareness

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This video shows a real-life classroom, with all the real-life challenges and successes found in daily interactions between students and teachers. It has been selected because it includes illustrations of the foundational skills best practices and areas for growth. These are embedded in the day-to-day work happening in a school, and so the video offers opportunities to practice norming expectations around SAP’s Foundational Skill Guidance Document. Learn more about supporting teachers with foundational skills through the Professional Development webinars and resources.

achievethecore.org/category/1206/ela-literacy-foundational-skills

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Phonological Awareness Staircase to Success

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Phonological Awareness Staircase to Success

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​​​Phonological awareness is a crucial skill to develop in children. It is strongly linked to early reading and spelling success through its association with phonics. It is a focus of literacy teaching incorporating:

recognising phonological patterns such as rhyme and alliteration

awareness of syllables and phonemes within words, and

hearing multiple phonemes within words.

Phonological awareness skills can be conceptualised within a sequence of increasing complexity:

The diagram below displays this concept:

Phonological awareness consists of all the above competencies, and phonemic awareness is a critical subset of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness includes onset-rime identification, initial and final sound segmenting, as well as blending, segmenting, and deleting/manipulating sounds (see diagram above).

While phonological awareness includes the awareness of speech sounds, syllables, and rhymes, phonics is the mapping of speech sounds (phonemes) to letters (or letter patterns, i.e. graphemes). Phonological Awareness and Phonics are therefore not the same, but these literacy focuses tend to overlap.

Phonics builds upon a foundation of phonological awareness, specifically phonemic awareness. As students learn to read and spell, they fine-tune their knowledge of the relationships between phonemes and graphemes in written language. As reading and spelling skills develop, focussing on phonemic awareness improves phonics knowledge, and focussing on phonics also improve phonemic awareness.

Developing strong competencies in phonological awareness is important for all students, as the awareness of the sounds in words and syllables is critical to hearing and segmenting the words students want to spell, and blending together the sounds in words that students read. Focussing on phonological awareness is recommended to form a key component of early childhood education for literacy, starting with syllable, rhyme, and initial/final sound (alliteration) awareness.

In the early years of primary school, the focus of phonological awareness includes syllable, rhyme, and alliteration awareness, but has a stronger focus on phonemic awareness, especially sound blending, segmentation, and manipulation - as these are the strongest predictors of early decoding success.

Phonological awareness is a key early competency of emergent and proficient reading, including an explicit awareness of the structure of words, syllables, onset-rime, and individual phonemes. Together with phonics, phonological awareness (in particular phonemic awareness) is an essential competency for breaking the code of written language as per the Four Resources Model for Reading and Viewing

In this video, the teacher leads a whole class lesson that focuses on rhyming words.

In this video the teacher explicitly teaches onset and rime through a mini lesson. Students make differentiated onset-rime booklets to practise the skill of onset-rime segmentation.

In this video, the teacher leads a whole class lesson that focuses on syllables.

National reports on the teaching of reading in the US, UK and Australia support the inclusion of phonological awareness in early literacy programs. Hill (2016, p.110) notes the importance of phonological awareness as 'a precursor to decoding' which needs to be explicitly taught (Adams, 2011).

Foundation

Reading

Understand concepts about print and screen, including how books, film and simple digital texts work, and know some features of print, including directionality (Content description VCELA142)

Recognise all upper- and lower-case letters and the most common sound that each letter represents (Content description VCELA146)

Speaking and listening

Identify rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and some sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (Content description VCELA168)

Blend and segment onset and rime in single syllable spoken words and isolate, blend and segment phonemes in single syllable words (first consonant sound, last consonant sound, middle vowel sound) (Content description VCELA169)

Replicate the rhythms and sound patterns in stories, rhymes, songs and poems from a range of cultures (Content description VCELT172)

Writing

Understand that punctuation is a feature of written text different from letters and recognise how capital letters are used for names, and that capital letters and full stops signal the beginning and end of sentences (Content description VCELA156)

Understand that sounds in English are represented by upper- and lower-case letters that can be written using learned letter formation patterns for each case (Content description VCELY162)

Level 1

Reading

Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links (Content description VCELA177)

Speaking and listening

Identify the separate phonemes in consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of syllables (Content description VCELA203)

Manipulate phonemes by addition, deletion and substitution of initial, medial and final phonemes to generate new words (Content description VCELA204)

Writing

Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands (Content description VCELA190)

Level 2

Speaking and listening

Manipulate more complex sounds in spoken words through knowledge of blending and segmenting sounds, phoneme deletion and substitution (Content description VCELA238)

Identify all Standard Australian English phonemes, including short and long vowels, separate sounds in clusters (Content description VCELA239)

Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)

Speaking and listening

Use comprehensible pronunciation for familiar words

Repeat or re-pronounce words of phrases, when prompted, if not understood
(VCEALL183)

Use comprehensible pronunciation for a range of high-frequency words learnt in class (VCEALL262)

Repeat or re-pronounce words of phrases, when prompted, if not understood (VCEALL263)

Use clear pronunciation for common words and learnt key topic words (VCEALL343)

Self-correct and improve aspects of pronunciation that impede communication (VCEALL344)

Self-correct and improve aspects of pronunciation that impede communication, and focus on correction (VCEALL423)

For example activities to develop the major phonological awareness skills, see: Examples to Promote Phonological Awareness

Adams, M. J. (2011). The relation between alphabetic basics, word recognition and reading. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (4th ed.) (pp. 4-24). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Allington, R., Baker, M., Baumann, J., Hoffman, J., Stumpf Jongsma, K., Klein, A., Larson, D., Logan, J. & Morrow, L. (1998). Phonemic awareness and the teaching of reading: A position statement from the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Hill, S. (2012). Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching (2nd ed.). South Yarra, Vic. Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

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​​​Phonological awareness is a crucial skill to develop in children. It is strongly linked to early reading and spelling success through its association with phonics. It is a focus of literacy teaching incorporating: recognising phonological patterns such as rhyme and alliteration awareness of syllables and phonemes within words, and hearing multiple phonemes within words.

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National Center for Supporting Literacy 

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National Center for Supporting Literacy 

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This toolkit helps teachers and families understand the difference between phonemic and phonological awareness and how to support a child's development of these important reading skills.

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What is phonological (sound) awareness?

Phonological awareness (sometimes referred to as 'sound awareness') is the awareness of what sounds are and how they come together to make words. Skills include the ability to rhyme, segment words into syllables and single sounds, blend sounds together, identify sounds in different positions in words and manipulate sounds within words.

Why is phonological (sound) awareness important?

Phonological awareness is an important pre-literacy skill because if there are difficulties in this area it can often lead to reading and writing difficulties. Children develop phonological awareness skills in a sequential pattern which is as follows:

The ability to hear rhymes and alliteration.

Hearing words in spoken language.

Hearing syllables in spoken words and then being able to clap out syllables.

Hearing sounds at the beginning of words and then being able to produce words that begin with certain sounds.

Recognising and identify rhyming words and then being able to produce rhyming words.

Being able to hear individual sounds in words.

Being able to blend individual sounds together to make a word (e.g. c_a_t = cat).

Being able to segment sounds in words (e.g. cat = c_a_t).

Deleting, substituting and manipulating sounds in words.

What are the building blocks necessary to develop phonological (sound) awareness?

Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities without distraction and being able to hold that effort long enough to get the task done.

Hearing: Adequate hearing for the detection of speech sounds.

Middle ear functioning: A child with on-going ear infections, glue ear or colds which block the ears may have fluctuating hearing levels which can affect speech and sound awareness.

Auditory Processing: The ability to hear sounds, distinguish between similar sounds or words, and separate relevant speech from background noise.

Receptive (understanding) language: Understanding simple concepts, such as beginning, end, middle, long, short, loud and soft.

Articulation: Clarity of speech sounds and spoken language.

Working memory: The ability to temporarily retain and manipulate information involved in language comprehension, reasoning, and learning new information; and to update this information as change occurs.

How can I tell if my child has problems with phonological (sound) awareness?

Age
Common Phonological (Sound) Awareness Difficulties

Overall

Has difficulty decoding unfamiliar words.

Has difficulty pronouncing words correctly.

Reads in a slow, laboured or dysfluent manner when reading age appropriate paragraphs or stories.

Has difficulty understanding what they are reading.

Has difficulty spelling and writing words.

Has difficulty learning and accessing the curriculum at school.

Lacks motivation to participate within reading and writing activities.

Presents with low self esteem related to academic difficulties.

4 - 5 rs

Has difficulties recognising and pronouncing words that rhyme.

Cannot hear the beginning sound in a word.

The child is unable to identify syllables in words (e.g. butter=bu....tter, caterpillar= ca...ter...pi...llar).

6 - 7 yrs

Is unable to segment words into sounds (e.g. cat=c...a...t - 3 sounds).

Is unable to blend sounds together to make words (e.g. c_a_t = cat).

Cannot hear the beginning, end or middle sounds in words.

Is having difficulty spelling simple non-words (e.g. lib, nuk, das).

What other problems can occur when a child has phonological (sound) awareness difficulties?

When a child has phonological (sound) awareness, the might also have difficulties with:

Literacy: Spelling and writing.

Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities without distraction and being able to hold that effort long enough to get the task done.

Receptive (understanding) language: Comprehending language.

Expressive (using) language: The use of language through speech, sign or alternative forms of communication to communicate wants, needs, thoughts and ideas.

Articulation: Clarity of speech sounds and spoken language.

Completing academic work

Handwriting

Planning and sequencing: The sequential multi-step task/activity performance to achieve a well-defined end result.

Sensory processing: Accurate registration, interpretation and response to sensory

stimulation in the environment and one's own body.

Executive functioning: Higher order reasoning and thinking skills.

Self confidence: A child's belief in their ability to perform a task .

What can be done to improve phonological (sound) awareness?

Work collaboratively with preschool/school staff to set up joint communication goals and develop strategies to help support the child within the classroom setting.

Sing nursery rhymes to help expose the child to rhyming words.

Reading time: Set aside a regular time to read to and with the child every day.

Family reading: Set aside a regular time for the whole family to sit down and read together.

Reading materials: Provide a range of reading material around the house to expose the child to sounds in words (e.g. letters, newspapers, magazines, comics, picture books). Place items in the lounge room, in the bedroom and even in the bathroom.

Visit the library: This will encourage the child to enjoy reading and writing and they will be able to access a wide range of reading materials. Also, the library may offer reading programs like guest story tellers which may further increase the child's interest in reading like .

Electronic programs: Enhance the child's skills by utilising other activities such as books on tape, using programs on the computer (e.g. Reading Doctor, Reading Eggs) or Ipad.

Speech Therapy assessment: To identify where the sound awareness breakdown is occurring and if there are other elements such as receptive language (understanding) or articulation difficulties that might be having an impact.

What activities can help improve phonological (sound) awareness?

Listen to sounds in the environment, songs, stories, words and speech sounds.

Look at books together from an early age.

Make sounds: Talk about how sounds are made with your mouth and practise making different sounds in front of the mirror (e.g. a snake makes a "sssss" sound).

Alphabet: Look at alphabet books and sing alphabet songs.

Sing nursery rhymes and songs: Emphasise rhythm and rhyme in rhymes and songs, such as 'Incy Wincy Spider' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' (e.g. "Twinkle twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are").

Read books together which have an emphasis on sound play (e.g. rhyme, alliteration, or words that start with the same sound). Highlight to the child that the rhyming words sound the same because they have the same endings (e.g. 'cat' and 'hat' both have an 'at' sound in them).

Identify sounds in words. For example, talk about the sound at the start of words - 'Listen, mummy starts with the /m/ sound. Let's find more words that start with the /m/ sound').

'I Spy': Play games like 'I Spy' and take turns to find objects that begin with a specific sound (e.g. 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with /t/').

Syllables: Model and encourage the child to identify the number of syllables in a word by clapping, drumming or stamping their feet (e.g. 'butterfly'- but - ter -fly). Clap out the name of the child as well as the names of siblings, pets, family members and classmates.

Feely bag: The adult and child can take turns to pull out objects to focus on:

Rhyme: Put pairs of items into a feely bag. If the two objects rhyme they can keep the pair.

Syllables: Place a variety of objects (e.g. toys, plastic food) into the bag. Get the child to take out an object, say the word and work out how many syllables it has.

Sound segmentation: Select pairs of objects/pictures that have the same number of sounds in their name. Put them in a bag. Each child takes out two objects/pictures and says whether they have the same number of sounds. If they do, the child gets to keep the pair. Note: we are focusing on the number of sounds not the number of letters (i.e. b-oa-t has the same number of sounds as c-a-t). Initially you may want to use blocks to represent each sound.

Silly sentences: Make up silly sentences where words begin with the same sound (e.g. "Katy the cute koala likes cuddling Chloe").

Word pairs: Think of a list of familiar pairs (e.g. fish and chips, knife and fork, Posh and Becks, salt and pepper). Try swapping the first sounds of each word to make spoonerisms (e.g. table and chair = chable and tair).

Sound Swap: Take it in turns to change a sound in a word to create a new word (e.g. hat - hut- hum - hug - bug - bag).

Why should I seek therapy if I notice difficulties with phonological (sound) awareness in my child?

Therapeutic intervention to help a child with manipulation difficulties is important to:

Develop the child's ability to identify and produce rhyming words.

Improve the child's syllable awareness.

Develop the child's ability to blend sounds.

Strengthen the child's ability to identify sounds at the start, at the end and in the middle of words.

Help the child sound out words.

Improve the child's reading comprehension.

Help the child read fluently.

Develop the child's confidence and self esteem.

Improve the child's spelling.

Some children who have phonological awareness difficulties require explicit teaching of these skills in order to develop their reading and spelling abilities (e.g. to use strategies when attempting unfamiliar words).

If left untreated what can difficulties with phonological (sound) awareness lead to?

When children have difficulties with phonological (sound) awareness they might also have difficulties with:

Completing comprehension tasks (such as reading the maths question) that require reading of text.

Completing and following through with tasks that require the ability to read and comprehend written instructions (e.g. traveling directions, recipes, assembling furniture, taking medication).

Reading signs.

Reading maps.

A lack of enjoyment of literature.

What type of therapy is recommended for phonological (sound) awareness difficulties?

If your child has difficulties with phonological awareness, it is recommended they consult a Speech Therapist.

If there are multiple areas of concern (i.e. beyond just phonological awareness) both Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy may well be recommended to address the functional areas of concern. This is the benefit of choosing Kid Sense which provides both Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy.

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Phonological (Sound) Awareness - Kid Sense Child Development

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What is phonological (sound) awareness? Phonological awareness (sometimes referred to as 'sound awareness') is the awareness of what sounds are and how they come together to make words. Skills include the ability to rhyme, segment words into syllables and single sounds, blend sounds together, identify sounds in different positions in words and manipulate sounds within words.

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Guidelines for Teaching Phonological Awareness

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Guidelines for Teaching Phonological Awareness

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Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills

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Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills

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Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness

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Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness

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What Is Phonological Awareness?

It's a big term, but it's really quite basic: phonological awareness is the ability to hear and identify the various sounds in spoken words.

Kids who have strong phonological awareness can do things like rhyme, count syllables, and blend sounds into words. And most important of all, kids with strong phonological awareness learn to read much more easily, making their first attempts at reading more successful. This early advantage sticks with kids as they continue through their school career.

Phonological awareness is so incredibly important that it is one of the Big Five Skills for pre-readers, and it's one of the first things I work on with children before teaching them to read.

How Phonological Awareness Develops

Kids don't just pop out of the womb ready to run (although with some kids it may feel that way!). Instead, babies learn to stretch their little limbs, turn over onto their bellies, crawl, and walk-and then, eventually, they are off and running.

In the same way, phonological awareness develops gradually over time. Kids start with the easiest skills-like understanding that spoken language contains words-and then move on to skills like rhyming. Eventually they develop more advanced skills like manipulating sounds and are able to play word games like " Go Find It."

Quick Check for Phonological Awareness

Here are six skills that indicate that your child is phonologically aware.

Your child is able to rhyme. If you say the word , your child can respond with words that rhyme like , or .

Your child understands word boundaries. If you say the sentence Don't let the cat out , your child is able to separate the sentence into five individual words.

Your child can clap syllables. If you say , your child knows to clap once. If you say , your child knows to clap three times.

Your child can blend sounds to make a word. If you say the sounds , your child can respond and say the word .

Your child can identify the beginning sound in a word. If you ask your child to say the first sound in , your child is able to respond with the sound /p/.

Your child can identify the ending sound in a word. If you ask your child to say the last sound in the word , your child is able to respond with the sound /m/.

Of course there are more advanced phonological skills, such as segmenting and sound manipulation, but the skills above are the important ones to have before beginning reading instruction.

6 Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness!

If your child hasn't yet acquired the skills on the checklist above, you can help her develop them through informal activities such as listening to great books and playing oral language games. Here are a few ideas for you!

Help your child hear the first sound in a word with our free "Go Find It" game.

This engaging phonological awareness activity is a great way to help your child learn to identify the beginning sound in a spoken word.

Practice word boundaries with building blocks.

Say a sentence such as My puppy has long ears. Have your child build a tower by adding one block for each spoken word.

Practice sound substitution with our free "Dinner Time" game.

In addition to helping kids practice sound substitution and rhyming, this fun game will provide lots of giggles for kids and parents alike!

The majority of a young child's day should be filled with play, real-life activities, and physical exploration. Add in just a touch of daily intentional instruction in the five reading readiness areas (including phonological awareness), and your child will have a huge advantage when it comes time to read.

Phonological Awareness Is One of the Big Five Skills

Phonological awareness is one of the five critical skills for reading readiness that we call the " Big Five Skills." The other four skills are:

If you're ready to tackle the rest of the Big Five Skills, be sure to check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Your student will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love the way your student effortlessly learns essential pre-reading skills.

Do you have any questions about print awareness? Post in the comments below!

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Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness (+FREE Downloads!)

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Phonological awareness helps children learn to read more easily. Check out our free download and learn how to help your child develop this important skill!

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Candace L. Goldsworthy is Professor of Speech-Language Pathology at California State University, Sacramento, and served as Vice-Chair of the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology for ten years. Honored as an Outstanding Alumna, she also won the Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of Health and Human Services. Dr. Goldsworthy is also Co-Director of the Sacramento Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders and a partner in the private practice of Speech-Language-Learning Associates. A Fellow of the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Dr.Goldsworthy received its Distinguished Achievement award in 2009. Dr. Goldsworthy has presented workshops on child language and literacy throughout the United States and published several books, including Volumes I and 2 of this text, and Volume 3, which she wrote with Dr. Robert Pieretti. Additional publications include Developmental Reading Disabilities: A Language Based Treatment Approach and Linking the Strands of Language and Literacy: A Resource Manual. Dr. Goldsworthy received her doctorate from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio.Dr. Goldsworthy has received numerous professional awards, including Fellow of the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association and Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of Health and Human Services at California State University-Sacramento in 2001. She was also honored as Outstanding Alumna at California State University, Los Angeles in 2003, and received the first ever Distinguished Achievement award by the California Speech-Language Hearing Association in 2009.

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Sourcebook of Phonological Awareness Activities, Volume II: Children's Core Literature

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SOURCEBOOK OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS ACTIVITIES, VOLUME 2: CHILDREN'S CORE LITERATURE, 2nd Edition continues to integrate proven phonological awareness activities with children's core literature, such as The Three Little Pigs, to help effectively treat children with language difficulties and reading problems. Proven awareness activities at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels are provided.

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Phonological Awareness Archives - Make Take & Teach

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The research is very clear regarding the relationship between phonological/ phonemic awareness skills and later reading achievement. Children need to have an appreciation of how sounds can be put together to create words. Incorporating phonemic awareness activities into our ... [Read more...]

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Phonological Awareness Games, Books and Videos 

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Phonological Awareness Games, Books and Videos 

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Blending and segmenting games and activities can help students to develop phonemic awareness — the ability to hear the individual sounds in spoken words. Begin with segmenting and blending syllables, and then move to working with individual sounds (phonemes). Learning to blend and segment sounds is key to learning to read.

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Ideas and Activities for Developing Phonological Awareness

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Ideas and Activities for Developing Phonological Awareness

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for
Students with Significant Disabilities

"Phonemic awareness and alphabet learning should be interactive, authentic, and FUN!"
-Caroline Musselwhite

ALPHABET AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

What is alphabet and phonological awareness?

During the emergent literacy phase, children are busy developing their oral language, their understandings of how and why to use print, and their early phonemic and syntactic awareness (Senechal, LeFerve, Smith-Chant, & Colton, 2001).

An important component of beginning reading instruction is effectively teaching letters and sounds. Related to letter and sound knowledge are phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in oral language(, and phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound in oral language). It can be tempting to teach these skills in isolation since they can be easily parsed, but they are very difficult to apply and generalize when they are taught in isolation. (from Quick Guides to Inclusion, page 185)

Alphabet knowledge is the knowledge of individual letter names, sounds, and shapes. The alphabetic principle is the idea that letters and groups of letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Readers apply the alphabetic principle through phonics when they use their knowledge of the relationships between sounds and letters to read both familiar and unfamiliar words.

The goal of instruction in the alphabetic principle is to teach students to apply their knowledge of letters and letter sounds rather than targeting identification, matching, and mastery through direct instruction and repeated trials. There is no evidence to support that isolated instruction of alphabet knowledge has any impact on important reading-related outcomes. (from Research Based Practices for Creating Access to the General Curriculum in Reading and Literacy for Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities)

Which students would benefit from alphabet and phonological awareness?

know some of the letters of the alphabet, some of the time

do not yet know the letters of the alphabet

are beginning to develop letter-sound connections

have not yet developed letter-sound connections

are developing print awareness and are scribbling

How can students benefit from alphabet and phonological awareness?

Students who are at the emergent reading and writing level need explicit instruction around the alphabet and sounds to improve their alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness.

Hall and Williams (2000) list "letters and sounds" as one of the primary blocks that needs to be focused on in emergent literacy instruction. Letters and sounds are often listed together because as well as learning the letters, students also need to develop the alphabetic principle. They need to understand the different sounds that individual letters and groups of letters can make - and use this alphabetic principle to begin to spell words and to decode words. (from Jane Farrall)

Practice in manipulating sounds in words is a necessary preliminary ability to the systematic study of phonics, which takes the next step to connect these sounds to letters and words in print (word identification and decoding).

How do we teach alphabet and phonological awareness?

Students who are at the emergent reading and writing level need explicit instruction around the alphabet and sounds to improve their alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. Using words to teach letters and sounds integrates the skills and teaches their application from the beginning.

At an emergent level, word work will focus on phonemic awareness with activities created to bring attention to rhyme (word endings), rhythm (memory), repetition, alliteration (word onsets), and predictability. Use words that are meaningful to the student, beginning with first names and other words that they are likely to see often.

When teaching letter and sound knowledge, use a variety of approaches that encourage generalized understanding from the beginning rather than rote learning, such as:

read alphabet books

point out letters and print in the environment

talk about letters and their sounds when you encounter them in every day activities

provide opportunities to play with letter shapes and sounds

explicitly reference letter names and sounds in shared reading and writing activities

use mnemonics and actions

use student names!

Some key ideas to keep in mind:

explicitly teach, model and emphasize sounds and letters throughout the day in meaningful contexts

teach phonological skills during regular activities (e.g. read alouds, telling stories, writing activities, word work, predictable chart writing, guided reading)

sound matching and sorting activities can be done with devices, PODD, eye gaze frames and with low tech paper solutions.

Following are suggestions for teaching alphabet and phonological awareness from Caroline Musselwhite:

Resources

Alphabet Action Man Game - Caroline Musselwhite
Too often, students with significant disabilities are taught the alphabet through flip cards and other boring, inauthentic tasks. The Alphabet Action Man Game is a quick activity for making alphabet instruction fun and meaningful.

Phoneme Isolation - Caroline Musselwhite
To support the development of phoneme isolation, which requires recognizing individual sounds.

Phonemic Sound Substitution - Caroline Musselwhite
To support the development of sound substitution, which requires listening to words, then substituting the initial sound to create a rhyming word.

Tar Heel Reader Alphabet Books
http://tarheelreader.org/favorites/?collection=alphabet-books

Where can I learn more about alphabet and phonological awareness?

The ABCs of Alphabet Knowledge and Phonological Awareness
Alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness are foundational components of emergent literacy. This 92-page book provides a rationale, brief research overview, and suggestions for interactive instructional tasks based on evidence based practice. While all of the activities in this book are appropriate for any emergent learners, the focus is on providing access to activities for learners with significant disabilities, including individuals with physical impairments and people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The strategies suggested focus on supporting ALL learners at home and in classrooms. This book should be informative and helpful for teachers, therapists, and family members. Use this book to explore best practice in alphabet knowledge AND engage in fun learning opportunities with a wide range of learners.

Word Wall, Word Activities and Extension into Writing
This presentation highlights the importance of meaningful, purposeful communication in learning to read and write and connecting oral language to phonological awareness. Many interactive and engaging word wall and word activity examples are provided.
http://www.literacyforallab.ca/past-webinars

Working with Words
Alberta teachers demonstrate how they use word walls and related making word activities to build literacy skills of all students in their classroom, including students with significant disabilities. (Length: 7 minutes 2 seconds)

Learning Guide: Working with Words

Support for Implementation

The resources found on this site were developed by the ERLC, a member of Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC), as a result of grants from Alberta Education, to support implementation.

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Alphabet & phonological awareness | Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities "Phonemic awareness and alphabet learning should be interactive, authentic, and FUN!" -Caroline Musselwhite ALPHABET AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS During the emergent literacy phase, children are busy developing their oral language, their understandings of how and why to use print, and their early phonemic and syntactic awareness (Senechal, LeFerve, Smith-Chant, & Colton, 2001).

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National Center on Intensive Intervention

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National Center on Intensive Intervention

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Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children

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Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children

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Assessment and Instruction in Phonological Awarenesses

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Assessment and Instruction in Phonological Awarenesses