Phonological awareness activities for parents

Phonemic Awareness Activities for Parents

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to understand that spoken words are made up of individual sounds called phonemes, and it’s one of the best early predictors for reading success.

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Developing phonological and phonemic awareness skills begins with word play. Children develop an awareness of sounds through hearing words that rhyme and isolating sounds in words. Parents can begin to draw a child’s attention to hearing and recognizing words that rhyme with songs and children’s books. We begin rhyme activities with hearing and repeating words that rhyme and then learning to recognize that words rhyme. Rhyme production or generating a rhyming word is a more advanced skill and we would want students to have practice and exposure with repetition and recognition first.

An awareness of words can be developed showing children how two words can blend into a compound word; words like rain - bow, rainbow or pop-corn, popcorn. After working with words, children can blend syllables into words; words like read-ing, reading or fan-tas-tic, fantastic.

After working with syllables, children can blend onset-rime into a spoken word. Children who are four or five are often ready to hear words at this level. An onset is defined as the first sound and the rime is the vowel and all the letters that follow.

Examples of onset-rime are: b-ig, big s-ock, sock m-ost, most

of 4th graders and 66% of 8th graders are reading below a proficient level, according to 2019 NAEP scores.

of elementary students are capable of learning to read when they receive sufficient instruction on foundational reading skills.

of teachers surveyed said Heggerty meets or exceeds their expectations when it comes to having a positive impact on learning outcomes

Preschool and Kindergarten activities

Hearing and recognizing words that rhyme is key to developing an understanding of sounds. Rhyme games are a fun way to practice phonemic awareness.

Hearing Words that Rhyme

Encourage your child to listen for words that rhyme when you say them aloud, such as fun, sun; hat, cat; and fish, wish. See if your child can produce new words that rhyme with the words you say—fan, pan, ran, can, tan.

Nursery Rhymes

Mother Goose rhymes can be fun to recite and sing. You can sing the rhymes, read nursery rhyme books, and use finger plays to act out a rhyme (i.e. The Itsy Bitsy Spider). Ask your child to tell you the rhyming words they hear in the nursery rhyme.

Read Books with Rhyming Words

Many children’s books are filled with rhyming words and reading them aloud can help your child hear and recognize words that rhyme. Books by Dr. Seuss, Is Your Mama a Llama?, Sheep in a Shop, Falling for Rapunzel, Rhyming Dust Bunnies, and Rumble in the Jungle are just a few books that are fun and engaging to read aloud to your child.

Sing Songs with Rhyme

Songs like Down by the Bay, Hey Diddle Diddle, and The Name Game are fun to sing with your child. We know from brain research that rhythm and song can help a child retain a skill or concept, and it is a fun way to engage in wordplay.

Hear the first sound in words

Encourage your child to say words that begin with sounds they know, such as their name, sibling’s names, or pets. Help them identify and isolate the first sound in a word, like the /m/ sound in meet, and see how many more words they can say that begin with that sound.

Letter Names and Sounds

Work with your child to learn the names of letters and the sounds they make through fun activities:

Sing alphabet songs—you can find some fun ones on YouTube!

Look for letters in environmental print (signs, packages, labels, book titles, etc)

Model how to write the letters in your child’s name and encourage them to copy the letters

Play with magnetic letters to build words or match the first sound to pictures

Build letters out of Play-Doh or modeling clay; use cookie cutters for letters and spell words with dough or clay

Make an alphabet book with pictures of things, animals, and people that are familiar to your child. Write the uppercase and lowercase letter on each page and label the pictures

Read alphabet books aloud with your child. Ask them to find letters in the book

Research & Findings

The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to read.

(Adams, 1990)

Every point in a child’s development of word-level reading is substantially affected by phonological awareness...

(Kilpatrick, 2015)

Phonemic awareness training provides the foundation on which phonics instruction is built...

(Blevins, 2017)

Phonemic awareness is central in learning to read and spell.

(Ehri, 1984)

Phonemic awareness is the most important core and causal factor in separating normal and disabled readers.

(Adams, 1990)

The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness.

(Adams, 1990)

Phonemic awareness has been shown to be a very powerful predictor of later reading achievement.

(Adams, 1990)

Phonemic awareness is the most potent predictor of success in learning to read.

(Stanovich, 1996, 1994)

Yes, there really is a difference in brain activation patterns between good and poor readers.

(Shaywitz, 1999)

The most comprehensive reading program EXPLICITLY [sic] teaches about the sounds of language.

(Shaywitz, 1999)

ALL [sic] children can benefit from being taught directly how to break up spoken words into smaller units and how letters represent sounds.

(Shaywitz, 1999)

Our Curriculum

Available for Pre‑K, Kindergarten and Primary grades in both English and Spanish.

Curriculum

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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:

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:

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.

Why phonemic awareness is the key to learning how to read

This video is from Home Reading Helper, a resource for parents to elevate children’s reading at home provided by Read Charlotte. Find more video, parent activities, printables, and other resources at Home Reading Helper.

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.

Rime house

Try this activity from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). The FCRR "At Home" series was developed especially for families! Watch the video and then download the activity: Rime House. See all FCRR phonological awareness activities here.

Phoneme dominoes

Try this activity from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). The FCRR "At Home" series was developed especially for families! Watch the video and then download the activity: Phoneme Dominoes. See all FCRR phonological awareness activities here.

Picture slide

Try this activity from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). The FCRR "At Home" series was developed especially for families! Watch the video and then download the activity: Picture Slide. See all FCRR phonological awareness activities here.

More phonological and phonemic awareness resources

Formation of the sound culture of speech in children of primary preschool age

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Learning with passion (for students of senior preschool age with TNR)

Sections: Work with preschoolers, Work with parents, Speech therapy, Competition "Presentation for the lesson", Correctional pedagogy, Master class

Keywords: Children with severe speech disorders TNR, older preschoolers

Targets:

• creation of conditions for parents' understanding of the importance of developing phonological competence in preschoolers with SPD;
• involve parents in organizing activities with children at home;
• training of parents in corrective techniques, taking into account the age characteristics of the child.

Tasks:

• familiarization of parents with modern methods and techniques of teaching literacy;
• systematization of parents' knowledge on preparing children for literacy,
• basic reading and writing skills;
• parents mastering the methods of forming phonological processes;
• draw the attention of parents to speech disorders in children;
• educating parents about activities with children at home;
• assistance in the choice of didactic material, games for the formation of reading and writing skills;
• parents mastering the techniques of developing graphic skills.

Type of event : consulting.

Form : Online webinar.

Slide 1

Hello, dear participants of the webinar. We are speech therapists of school No. 69, working with children with severe speech disorders, Tatyana Yuryevna Sogrishina, my colleague = Maria Vladimirovna Pavlovskaya. The theme of our presentation is "Learning with passion".

Slide 2

Severe speech disorders (SNR) are persistent specific deviations in the formation of all components of the speech system, observed in children with intact hearing and normal intelligence:

In other words, children have problems with

• lexical and grammatical structure of speech,
• phonemic processes,
• sound pronunciation,
• prosodic organization of the sound flow (tempo and rhythm of speech, pitch and power of voice, expressiveness and intonation).

There are difficulties in the formation of graphic skills.

I would like to tell you more about the formation of graphic skills.

Slide 3

A graphic skill is certain habitual positions and movements of the writing hand that make it possible to depict written sounds and their combinations.

For a preschooler (a child who does not have the skill of writing) this is the ability to hold a pencil, draw, trace, hatch, connect dots.

For some children, mastering the graphic skill is easy. Others experience significant difficulties: they cannot hold the pencil correctly, some even take it in their fists at first. The pressure on the pencil can be too strong, so that the stylus breaks and the paper is torn, or too weak. The lines are uneven and trembling.

It is more difficult for children with severe speech disorders to master the skill than for healthy peers - they often have reduced working capacity, impaired attention, spatial thinking, fine motor skills, coordination, that is, all the components necessary for further successful learning. As a result, they need more time and effort to develop writing skills.

When studying with a child, one should not forget that the tasks should be interesting for children, which means that they should be played in a playful way and correspond to the level of development of the child.

Slide 4

There are many ways to develop a graphic skill. Preparation for its formation begins from early childhood, when children play with pyramids, constructor, lacing, sculpt from plasticine, draw, color and trace large images.

At an older age, tasks become more difficult.

Slide 5

Children learn to draw straight, curved and wavy lines;

Slide 6-7

Learn to trace, draw, draw various ornaments and images;

Slide 8

A useful task is to finish the second half of the picture relative to the vertical line, while the child gets acquainted with the concept of "symmetry".

Slide 9

Hatching is performed in the indicated direction, the children try to draw lines parallel to each other and make the distance between the lines the same. Lines ideally do not go beyond the outline.

"Drawing by points". Right The child needs to redraw the object, focusing on the points and counting their number. To begin with, the task is performed together with the child. Together you count and place points on the plane that the child connects to get an image. In the future, the help of an adult is minimized and the child performs the entire task independently.

Slide 10

It is performed on a sheet of paper lined in a box. This task develops the ability to navigate on a sheet of paper in a cage and prepares the child for work in a notebook.

For adults, this task seems simple, but children, due to insufficiently developed spatial thinking, cannot always immediately determine what is drawn in the picture. First they see randomly scattered dots. And already, when they are connected, an image of the object appears in front of them.

Slide 11

• outline the cells, draw as straight lines as possible in the following directions: for example, from top to bottom and from right to left;
• teach to connect the corners of the cells diagonally;

Please pay attention to the qvarcode. By clicking on it, you can download manuals for the formation of a graphic skill.

Slide 12

When children begin to navigate the cells, you can enter the so-called graphic dictations. A dot is marked on a sheet of paper. Then the child works according to the instructions. One cell to the right, one cell down ... A very difficult task for children, reinforces the concepts of right-left; top bottom. Teaches the child to listen carefully and focus on what the adult is saying. The reward for the ability to listen to him will be a correctly drawn picture.

Please note that the tasks go from simple to complex. First, children work with large images. Gradually, the images become more complicated, become smaller, more often and more difficult, but with regular training, the ability of children also grows.

Gradually, the lines become smoother, accuracy and confidence appear in the work of children.

With the help of such tasks, the child will learn how to hold a pencil and pen correctly. He will improve concentration of attention, develop spatial thinking, perseverance, the ability to work according to established rules and, most importantly, the ability to complete his work. In addition, a well-formed graphic skill allows you to move on to the next stage of preparation for school and clearly, beautifully, legibly, quickly print letters.

Now I will talk a little about what games can be used when teaching reading.

Slide 13

If the child already has elementary graphic skills, we recommend that when teaching children with TNR the first basics of literacy, use Elena Mikhailovna Kosinova's notebook “We write with a speech therapist”.

Against the backdrop of all the variety of benefits, this unique technique stands out in that it provides full-fledged preparation for school for children with various speech problems, namely, it contributes to development and formation of phonemic processes , which are an integral part of successful schooling.

Let's go back to the beginning of our presentation and remember about the developmental features of children with SAD. One of the features is unformed phonemic processes ! What is it? It:

• Fuzzy distinction sounds in one's own and another's speech.
• Unpreparedness for sound analysis.

But it is developed phonemic processes that provide the opportunity for full-fledged learning at school, the future student should be able to listen and hear the teacher, that is, understand what the teacher says and translate the teacher's words into writing, for example, in dictation.

This is a sound that can be sung and pulled, when we pronounce it, the air comes out freely, in the mouth there is no any obstruction .

Consonants: blue circle hard consonant, green circle soft consonant.

When we pronounce these sounds, a barrier appears in the mouth, it can be lips (M), teeth and lips (B), teeth and tongue (C, Z). When we pronounce consonants always there is a barrier! This obstruction can be felt or seen in the mirror during pronunciation. You can also divide consonant sounds into voiced and deaf by the presence or absence of a voice when pronouncing!

We introduce hardness and softness a little later and here we focus on hearing.

Slide 25

Let's pay attention to cards with signal stripe .

The card itself is word . The signal strip is always left , forms the direction of reading and writing in Russian from left to right .

3 squares symbolize the beginning, middle and end of the word.

These cards will help children practice identifying position of a given sound in a word without fear of making a mistake before they move on to working with similar diagrams in a notebook.

Consider working with these cards using the example of sound H - it is consonant, sonorous and solid, so we will use a blue circle.

The word Knife - the sound H is at the beginning of the word.

Slide 26

Word Umbrellas - sound H in the middle of a word

Slide 27

Word Peony - sound H is at the end of the word

As soon as the child begins to almost accurately determine the position of the sound in the word, we start work from card without cells .

Slide 28

On such a card, children begin to lay out syllables and words in their entirety. From simple monosyllabic words to words with a complex syllabic structure.

For example, we took the word flies - it consists of 4 sounds:

1 sound M - consonant, voiced, solid, circle blue;

2 sound U - vowel, circle red ;

3 sound Xh - consonant, deaf, soft, circle green;

4 sound AND - vowel, circle is red.

Thus, the children perform a sound analysis of many words that are found on the pages of the notebook “We write with a speech therapist”, training the skill formed .

It is important that these two manuals are built into a single system and complement each other. The order of learning the letters is the same, but the tasks are different!

Also in the primer, attention is paid to differentiation of paired consonants and letters D-T, B-P, V-F, G-K , which is also important for the formation of phonemic processes.

In conclusion, I would like to note that these manuals can be used as basic material in training, as we do, or as additional material for fixing the house.