Phonology examples for kids

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets

Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of individual speech sounds, or phonemes. A child's skill in phonological and phonemic awareness is a good predictor of later reading success or difficulty.

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Phonological awareness is a critical early literacy skill that helps kids recognize and work with the sounds of spoken language.

Phonological awareness is made up of a group of skills. Examples include being able to identify words that rhyme, counting the number of syllables in a name, recognizing alliteration, segmenting a sentence into words, and identifying the syllables in a word. The most sophisticated — and last to develop — is called phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching, or otherwise changing words. Children can demonstrate phonemic awareness in several ways, including:

• recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound

  ("Bell, bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning.")

• isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word

  ("The beginning sound of dog is /d/." "The ending sound of sit is /t/.")

• combining, or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word

  ("/m/, /a/, /p/ – map.")

• breaking, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds

  ("up – /u/, /p/.")

This diagram explains the relationship between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness:

Phonological and phonemic awareness and phonics: different but interrelated

Sometimes phonological and phonemic awareness are confused with phonics; they are two different yet interrelated skills.

Phonological and phonemic awareness refer to spoken language — the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words.

Phonics refers to the connection between sounds and print — it’s the instruction that teaches that letters represent the sounds of spoken language, or the alphabetic principle. Phonics is the tool teachers use to facilitate making print-sound associations.    

Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words.

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To learn more about phonological and phonemic awareness, browse the articles, parent tips, research briefs, and video below — and visit Topics A-Z: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness for our complete library of resources.

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Research Briefs

Featured Video: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets

Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Children who have phonological awareness are able to identify and make oral rhymes, can clap out the number of syllables in a word, and can recognize words with the same initial sounds like 'money' and 'mother.'

Phonemic awareness refers to the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Phonemes are the smallest units comprising spoken language. Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the word 'mat' has three phonemes: /m/ /a/ /t/. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including sounds represented by letter combinations such as /th/. Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction.

Students at risk for reading difficulty often have lower levels of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness than do their classmates. The good news is that phonemic awareness and phonological awareness can be developed through a number of activities. Read below for more information.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how difficulties with phonological or phonemic awareness affect their reading:

• I don't know any words that rhyme with cat.
• What do you mean when you say, "What sounds are in the word brush?"
• I'm not sure how many syllables are in my name.
• I don't know what sounds are the same in bit and hit.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with phonological or phonemic awareness:

• She has difficulty thinking of rhyming words for a simple word like cat (such as rat or bat).
• She doesn't show interest in language play, word games, or rhyming.

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with phonological or phonemic awareness:

• She doesn't correctly complete blending activities; for example, put together sounds /k/ /i/ /ck/ to make the word kick.
• He doesn't correctly complete phoneme substitution activities; for example, change the /m/ in mate to /cr/ in order to make crate.
• He has a hard time telling how many syllables there are in the word paper.
• He has difficulty with rhyming, syllabication, or spelling a new word by its sound.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with phonological and/or phonemic awareness problems that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

• Be willing to play word and sounds games with parents or teachers.
• Be patient with learning new information related to words and sounds. Giving the ears a workout is difficult!
• Practice hearing the individual sounds in words. It may help to use a plastic chip as a counter for each sound you hear in a word.
• Be willing to practice writing. This will give you a chance to match sounds with letters.

What parents can do to help at home

• Check with your child's teacher or principal to make sure the school's reading program teaches phonological, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills.
• If your child is past the ages at which phonemic awareness and phonological skills are taught class-wide (usually kindergarten to first or second grade), make sure he or she is receiving one-on-one or small group instruction in these skills.
• Do activities to help your child build sound skills (make sure they are short and fun; avoid allowing your child to get frustrated):
  • Help your child think of a number of words that start with the /m/ or /ch/ sound, or other beginning sounds.
  • Make up silly sentences with words that begin with the same sound, such as "Nobody was nice to Nancy's neighbor".
  • Play simple rhyming or blending games with your child, such as taking turns coming up with words that rhyme (go – no) or blending simple words (/d/, /o/, /g/ = dog).
• Read books with rhymes. Teach your child rhymes, short poems, and songs.
• Practice the alphabet by pointing out letters wherever you see them and by reading alphabet books.
• Consider using computer software that focuses on developing phonological and phonemic awareness skills. Many of these programs use colorful graphics and animation that keep young children engaged and motivated.

What teachers can do to help at school

• Learn all about phonemes (there are more than 40 speech sounds that may not be obvious to fluent readers and speakers).
• Make sure the school's reading program and other materials include skill-building in phonemes, especially in kindergarten and first grade (these skills do not come naturally, but must be taught).
• If children are past the age at which phonemic awareness and phonological skill-building are addressed (typically kindergarten through first or second grade), attend to these skills one-on-one or in a small group. Ask your school's reading specialist for help finding a research-based supplemental or intervention program for students in need.
• Identify the precise phoneme awareness task on which you wish to focus and select developmentally appropriate activities for engaging children in the task. Activities should be fun and exciting – play with sounds, don't drill them.
• Make sure your school's reading program and other materials include systematic instruction in phonics.
• Consider teaching phonological and phonemic skills in small groups since students will likely be at different levels of expertise. Remember that some students may need more reinforcement or instruction if they are past the grades at which phonics is addressed by a reading program (first through third grade).

More information

Additional resources

See the Reading Issues section on Understood.

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Phonological games for preschoolers | Skyteach

Before learning to swim, children get used to the water, learn to breathe properly, and train to lie on the water. In the same way, before learning to read, a preparatory stage is needed - the child must learn to distinguish sounds and control them. This is called phonological awareness.

The development of phonological awareness includes the following steps:

• separation of words in a sentence by ear;
• selection of rhyming words;
• distinguishing syllables in words;
• onset recognition and roman. Onset is the initial phoneme in a word, and rima is the sounds following the onset. For example, in the word dog d is onset, and og is rima;
• identification of phonemes in words;
• fusion and separation of phonemes.

I will tell you how to develop phonological awareness through games. The games from the selection are suitable for preschoolers, younger students, as well as for all students who have difficulty learning to read. Tasks are easily adapted for group and individual lessons.

Candy Count

This game teaches you how to count the number of words in a sentence.

You will need a candy wrapper or a printed wrapper and counters such as fruit puree lids or large buttons. Say a sentence and put as many candies in the package as there are words in the sentence. Then the students listen to the sentences and lay out the sweets themselves.

Sample sentences:

• Children play.
• Read a book.
• Boys like cars.
• He likes dancing.
• Mary doesn't live here.

Hungry Spider

We train the ability to find rhyming words.

You will need a web drawn on a sheet of paper, cards with flowers and pictures of rhyming words: pink/sink, red/bread, black/sack, green/bean, brown/clown, blue/shoe.

Attach the web to a board or wall, and place the cards with the pictures of the objects around the room. Read the poem aloud, filling in the gap with the first words of the pair:

I'm A Hungry Spider (based on the tune “I'm a Little Teapot”)

I'm a hungry spider, in my web.

Looking for treats that rhyme with _____.

Can you find me a tasty treat?

Put it in my web. Let's eat!

Children must find an object with a rhyming name and fix it on the web, for example, with a magnet. For young children, make cobwebs on the floor with masking tape or masking tape.

Source: Rhyming Activity: I’m a Hungry Spider

Pick a rhyming pair

A task to find consonance in words - rhymes.

You will need cards with rhyming words or real objects with rhyming names. The words must be familiar or learned beforehand. Each child receives a card, walks around the classroom and says the word out loud until they find a rhyme. If the class is large, then the children match in pairs.

Possible word pairs: flag/bag, cake/snake, duck/truck, star/car, boat/goat, bug/rug, pear/bear, log/frog. The number of words depends on the level of knowledge of the child.

Calling animals

Task for distinguishing syllables.

You will need animal figurines, eg bull, donkey, camel, gorilla, elephant. We hide the animals behind our backs and invite the child to call them in turn, dividing the words into syllables. For example, ca-mel, e-le-phant. Clapping hands helps to clearly separate syllables.

In my lessons the animals usually miss their flight: This is the final call for passenger Donkey. Let's call him together. Don key! don key! Hurry up.

Magic pockets

We practice the ability to distinguish syllables in words and count them.

You will need three or four pockets and a stack of word cards. Say the word in syllables - students will count the syllables and put the card in the appropriate pocket.

Pop-it game

Learning to identify phonemes.

The teacher shows a picture and says the word and then breaks it down into phonemes, eg b-u-s . During the pronunciation of sounds, children push the appropriate number of buttons in the pop-it toy. If pop-it is not at hand, then the number of phonemes can be slammed.

Puppet conversation

Task to merge phonemes into words.

Put on a glove puppet and say that it speaks the puppet language - this will be a temporary name for English. Ask the children to translate what the toy says. For example:

Teacher (puppet voice): H-e-l-o. What does Mr Crocodile say? H-e-l-o?

Children: Hello!

I practice most of the tasks from the article at home with my three-year-old son. He does tasks on rhymes and tapping syllables himself, and he determines phonemes with my help.

I hope your students enjoy the games and help them take the first step towards learning to read.

You may also be interested in reading about games for the development of phonemic hearing in children

Phonological processes

Phonological processes – are the types of sound changes associated with phonological positions or phonetic terms, characteristic for a particular language (or group languages). In Russian, the most common phonological processes are reduction, accommodation, assimilation, dissimilation, dieresis (discard), epenthesis (insert), substitution, metathesis, contraction.

Reduction is the attenuation of the sound associated with a change of position, which leads to abbreviation of phonetic properties or change in sound quality. Reduction phonetic properties associated with decrease in the duration and intensity of the sound without changing its quality is called quantitative reduction. For Russians vowels is a change of stress position on unstressed. For Russian consonants - is a change of position at the beginning or middle words to the position at the end of the word.

IN Russian vowel reduction happens two degrees. The first degree concerns positions in the first pre-strike position and at the beginning of a word. Second degree of reduction concerns the unstressed position of the Russian vowel in all other unstressed positions (pre-shock and behind-shock). Reducing the strength and duration of the sound in reduction is called quantitative reduction. In Russian, unstressed vowels are pronounced higher tone than stressed (stressed vowel corresponds to a wider resonator, and unstressed - narrower). Change unstressed pronunciation quality vowel is called quality reduction. Coincidence of sounds in reduction and other phonological processes called neutralization. For example, [y] unstressed is pronounced shorter and weaker percussive sound, service (the first [y] is pronounced shorter and weaker, than the second). If the reduction is associated with change in sound quality, then we have dealing with qualitative reduction, for example: house [house] – houses [dma], forest [l'es] - forests [l'saʹ], hour [h’as] – hours [ch’sy], honey [m’from] – medoc [m'dok].

reduction consonant is called either stunning noisy voiced consonant, or weakening the sound of the consonant [j]. Stun examples: teeth − tooth [zoop], fruits − fetus [raft], snow − snow [snack], puddle − puddles [lush], goat − goats [kos], rains [j:'i] − rain [dosh':].

strong [j] pronounced before stressed vowels [a], [o], [y], [e]: mine − mine − mine − mine; pit − tree − south −if . Before stressed [and] after vowels is pronounced weak [i]: mine, mine, the most .

Accommodation (in literal translation - "adaptation") is such an interaction of two heterogeneous sounds (vowel and consonant), which leads to a change in phonological the status of one of the sounds. Phonological accommodation in Russian is progressive (when the previous consonant changes phonological status of subsequent vowel) or regressive (when the following vowel changes phonological status of previous consonant).

Not any interaction is accommodation, but only one that accompanied by a change in functional the importance of sound. About accommodation speak when you are near invariant and variation (or variant, dependent on the invariant). Direction accommodation goes from invariant to variation (or variant). Examples of progressive accommodation in Russian: little [mál] - there is no accommodation, [m] and [a] − invariants − myala [m' al] - progressive accommodation − [m'] − invariant, [a] − variation: [m'] affects [·a]. Next example: Mors [mors] - no accommodation, [m] and [o] − invariants − merz [m'ors] - progressive accommodation, [m'] - invariant, [ o] - variation: [m'] affects [ o]. Luza [luz] - there is no accommodation, [l] and [y] - invariants - chandelier [l' ustr] - progressive accommodation − [l'] − invariant, [ y] − variation: [l'] affects [·y]. Mil [m'il] − there is no accommodation, [m'] and [and] − invariants − soap [soap] − progressive accommodation, [m] − invariant, [s] - variation: [m] affects to the next vowel. Honor [h'es't'] - there is no accommodation, [h'] and [e] − invariants − six [shʹt'] - progressive accommodation, [w] - invariant, [e] - variation: sound [w] affects the sound [e] (it would be more correct even to say that [w] dominates sound [e]). syllabic synharmonism .

Accommodation can be pin (extending to two adjacent sound) and disconnected (propagating from near sound to a distant sound within a word). In that case they talk about verbal synharmonism . An example is the words of the Kazakh language: balalar – children (here all non-front vowels and all consonants are solid), mektepter – schools (here all vowels are front row, and consonants - semi-softened, palatalized).

Assimilation (in literal translation - "similarity") - is the interaction of two identical sounds (consonants) causing a change dependent sound and change of its phonological status. In Russian there are following types of assimilation.

Stunning (voiced consonants before deaf), for example: blur − plow [r'sphat'], boat − boat [tray];

Voicing (deaf before voiced), for example: flush − shoot down [beat'], mow − mowing [kz'baʹ], to woo − wedding [wedding b];

Softening (available both in accommodation and in assimilation). In accommodation softening of consonants occurs before front vowels [e], [i], on which postfixes (suffixes, inflections) begin, for example: coat of arms − on coat of arms [b'e], labor − in work [d'e], benefit − benefit [s'b], book − books [g'b], screw − screw [t'b], touch − affect [g'b].

At assimilation in Russian is softened hard front-lingual consonants (except [r], [l]), before soft - anterior lingual consonants (except [p '], [l ']), for example: bridge − bridge [s't'], stars − star [h'd'], ringing − louder [LF']. There is also a transition [t] to [ts] before [ts] and [s]: father − fathers [tets] − [tsy] = [ts:sʹ], open − deposit [tsad'itʹ]. occupies a special place in the Russian language pronunciation of verbs with endings to -sya, ex: bathes [ts']→[tss'] →[tss] →[tsts] →[ts]. Here simultaneously act regressive and progressive assimilation: at first [c] affects [t], turning it into [c] (regressive assimilation), and then [ts] affects the subsequent [s '], first making it hard, and then turning it into [c].

transformation [t] in [h'] before [h'] and [w']: report [tch'] →[h'h']=[h'], pinch off [tsh'] → [h'sh'].

transformation [z] in [g] before [g]: unclench [zzh] →[zhzh]=[zh].

transformation [s] in [w] before [w]: embroider [ssh] →[shsh]=[sh].

transformation [s] in [w'] before [h'] and [w']: clear [sch'] → [sh'h'] → [sh'], split [ssh'] →[sh'sh']=[sh'].

Faucalization: wash [bmyt'], Nepman [nepmn], tray [pdnos], attributed to [tn's't'i].

Lateralization: under [under], m branch [m'tla].

IN English there is a progressive assimilation, for example: hand – hands [dz], here is the previous sound [d] affects the subsequent sound [s], turning it into a voiced consonant [z].

Dissimilation (literally - "dissimilarity") - such a change one of the nearby sounds, which increases the difference between them e.g.: light [l' ogk] − light [l' ohk'yi] − lighter [l'ehch']; soft [m' agq] − soft [m' ahk'i] − softer than [m'ahch]; city [hort] - k city ​​ [γproud]; center [center] - k center [khtsentru]. In these examples, stop [k] before [h '], [c] turns into a deaf fricative [x] or voiced fricative [γ].

Meet also disconnected assimilation ( sachet - pathetic, now - chichas ) and dissimilation ( corridor − collidor ).

Coupling takes place in Russian pronunciation of double consonants (usually in loanwords) at the end of a word, for example: Locke [k:] − Locke [k], points [l:] − points [bal], strains [m:] − strain [m], bathtub [n:] - baths [n], Bopp [p:] − Bopp [p], Gorra [p:] − Gorr [r], box office [s:] − cass [c], Gotta [t:] − Gott [t], as well as in cases of complete assimilation, ex: report [h:'], fathers [c:], reckless [w:], fat-free [and:].

IN Russian language has a lot of foreign words that are spelled with doubles consonants, but always pronounced with one. There is no contraction here: intelligence, communism, connotation, stewardess . These cases do not apply to contraction.

Diereza (throwaway). The Russian language has quite a large a group of words with the so-called unpronounceable consonants, which may be used in other derivational or inflectional forms of these words, for example: sunny − sun (drops out [l]), idle − holiday (drops out [d]), charm − adorable (drops out [T]). In the word feeling the letter is written in, but the loss there is no corresponding sound. It is not pronounced in any form. It is indicated on the letter to remind writing about the existence in Russian language of regular alternation uy//uv ( blowing − purge ).

IN Russian speech quite regularly a faint sound falls out [i] after vowels before i-shaped sounds ([i], [į], [ь])/ For example, my [moį] − my [mįi] →[mi], train [post].

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