Children learn to juggle word sounds well before they are able to read. They also learn word recognition and decoding skills well prior to being able to read syllables or even say the alphabet. Phonological awareness is the ability to associate words with sounds (phonemes), therefore making it possible to identify, manipulate and combine or separate units of oral language such as rhymes, syllables and phonemes.

Why is acquiring phonological awareness important?
 Plays a key role in the reading and writing learning process.
 Research shows that children with learning difficulties (reading/writing) or dyslexia often have poor phonological awareness skills.

Examples of skills children must develop to become good readers:
 Singing songs and nursery rhymes.
 Understanding sequencing words (first/last, before/after, beginning/end, etc.).
 Associating and conjuring up words that rhyme.
 Counting the number of syllables in a word.
 Recognizing the presence of a sound in a word.
 Combining syllables (e.g. SUN and SET together form…. sunset!).
 Conjuring up words from an initial phoneme.
 Adding/removing a syllable from a word (e.g. if I remove SUN from SET, I am left with… set!).
 Combining phonemes (e.g. which word makes ch-ee-z? Yes, cheese!).
 Dividing words into phonemes (e.g. what sounds are found in the word cheese?).

In Quebec schools, phonological awareness skills are generally worked on in kindergarten. Schoolteachers and education professionals use various fun and playful methods, such as “Raconte-moi les sons” and “Petits mots j’entends tes sons.” As a parent or guardian, at least one of these two methods will be familiar to you.

Below are a few suggestions to help promote phonological awareness in children:
 GAMES:
 Éduludo ABC (Djeco)
 ABC (Ravensburger)
 Mont à Mots ALPHA
 ACIVITY BOOKS :
 Conscience phonologique, fiches reproductibles. Thérèse Daignault et Lison Sirois. Éditions Passe-Temps.
 Hérisson, Début de mots 1. Alexandra Cantin et Thérèse Daignault. Éditions Passe-Temps.
 L’Apprenti-lecteur : activités de conscience phonologique. Brigitte Stanké (2001). Éditions LaChenelière/Didactique.
 AT HOME :
 Sing nursery rhymes to your kids!
 Make a game out of clapping or hopping the number of syllables in words!
 During car trips, conjure up words from a sound.
 Use building blocks to make combining syllables fun. Assign a “name” to each block (e.g. we’ll call this one “BA” and that one “PO”). Join the two blocks together and ask what the big block is now called (BAPO!).
Have fun with sounds!

 

Julie Coiteux, Speech-Language Pathologist jcoiteux@crcm.ca – www.crcm.ca