Parents Guide to Teaching Phonemic Awareness

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In her book Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz writes, “Phonemic awareness, the most important and sometimes the most difficult task in learning to read, is the foundation of all subsequent reading and spelling instruction.” To give you an example of how impactful Dr. Shaywitz is, her studies and research provide the modern framework used for understanding dyslexia today. Her statement calls attention to how essential it is for children to learn phonemic awareness in order to read and spell. 

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words. It is part of the larger umbrella called phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in language, not necessarily individual sounds. An example of phonological awareness could be hearing each word in a sentence, whereas phonemic awareness is hearing every sound in the word (t)(o)(p). For a more detailed explanation of the difference between these two terms and their specific importance to reading, please visit this post. 

In the following paragraphs, we are going to explore activities you can do at home with your children to help them grow their phonological and phonemic awareness skill set. Because these skills have everything to do with sounds in words and not letters, you can practice these skills before children learn to read and set them up for reading success.

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Best Practices to Implement

Before we dive into how to practice phonemic awareness exercises, please review some basic guidelines that can apply to all stages of learning.

Practice the “I Do, We Do, You Do” teaching strategy: 

Before any activity, you should model the exercise for your child as the “I Do” portion of this strategy. It allows your child to see and understand what the expectation is from them. In the “We Do” section, you should support your child by allowing them to participate in the activity with your assistance. In the “You Do” portion, your child should be free to try the activity independently. 

Use your body: 

Many of the exercises below require pulling words apart. Any time there is a segmenting activity, ask your child to segment words using their body in the following sequence: head, shoulders, waist, knees, toes. For instance, if they are segmenting the word pit, they touch their head when saying (p), their shoulders when saying (i), and their waist when saying (t).  This could also be done with fingers or counters such as beans or pennies, etc. Get creative with what works for your child.

Work at your child’s pace:

The exercises below are segmented by age however, it is important to meet your child where they are on their reading journey. If a certain task is too difficult, try starting on activities for a younger age range and have them build from there.

Phonemic Awareness Exercises: Age 3-4

Detecting rhyme:

Rhyme is the foundation of phonemic awareness. It helps children understand that words come apart. For a child to know that hop and mop rhyme, they must pay attention to only part of the word. 

  • Read a nursery rhyme a few times with your child simply for the joy of it. On the third time reading, ask your child to listen for the rhyming words and to stop you when they hear them.
  • For a more supported version of this exercise, you could give examples of words that rhyme to familiarize them. Next, reread nursery rhyme and prompt them every few sentences and ask, “What words rhyme in this section?” 
Syllable division and blending: 
  • Have children clap out common items by syllable such as: their name (Le-on), food (ba-na-na), things (ta-ble), etc. 
  • Ask children to blend two syllables together to make a word. For instance, “What word do you get when you blend can-dle together?” 
  • Compare words using pennies as counters to see which words “cost more” based on their number of syllables. For instance, you could compare a picture of a blan-ket (2 pennies) and a picture of a bas-ket-ball (3 pennies) and find that the basketball costs more.
  • Sing lullabies that reinforce syllable division. Songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star already break up the words in syllables as you sing it. 

Phonemic Awareness Exercises: Age 4-5

Produce rhyming words:

At this age, we want children to progress from identifying rhyming words and start producing the rhyming words themselves. If your child is struggling, please visit our link for more detailed support on how to help your child rhyme.  

  • Parents can be creative when thinking of ways to play rhyming games with their children. You can ask children to rhyme with parts of their body, things they see while driving, food at the grocery store, etc. 
  • Play the “I spy” game. Say, “I spy something that rhymes with ramp” and allow your child to find the lamp.
Onset/Rime
As you recall, onset is the letter or letters before the vowel in the word and the rime is the vowel and all letters after. At this age, onset and rime should be done with CVC words such as cat, dog, mat, etc. As they become successful, add CVCC (h-and)  words and then CCVC (pl-an) words. 
  • Play the “I Spy” game in the context of onset and rime. For example, “I spy a p-an.” 
  • Sing the naming song, where you change the first letter of each person’s name. It is another great way to have children place attention on the initial sounds in words. When using the name Penny, the song lyrics start with the lines, “Penny-Penny-Bo-Benny, Banana-Fanna-Fo-Fenny…”
Phoneme identification:
  • Ask children to identify the first sound in one-syllable words by using pictures. For example, show pictures of a dog, cat, and rug, and then ask your child to identify the first sound in each picture. You can create cards for your child by cutting out pictures from magazines and pasting them on notecards. 
  • Following the last exercise, parents can progress to laying out 5 cards and ask their child to group the cards that start with a certain sound. For instance, “Can you find all the cards that begin with the sound (p)?” 
  • Lay out 3 cards and ask your child to identify the card that begins with a certain sound, then ask them to find something in the room that also begins with that sound. For instance, ask them to find the card that begins with (d), and then ask them to find something in their environment that also begins with that sound.
  • Another variation would be to ask your child, “What card has the same beginning sound as the word park?”

Phonemic Awareness Exercises: Age 5-6

Phoneme segmenting: 
Phonemic segmenting is pulling apart words into their individual sounds and facilitates spelling.
  • Practice segmenting exercises with your child starting with two-phoneme words. For instance, ask your child to use their body and tell you how many sounds they hear in the word zoo. They should tap their head (z) and shoulders (oo) and tell you they hear two sounds. 
  • Once they are successful in segmenting two phonemes words, they can progress to three phoneme words such as pan, fish, etc. 
Phoneme blending:

Phonemic blending is a skill where children put sounds together to make a word and it facilitates reading.

  • Show children three pictures, then slowly segment three sounds for them, and ask them to identify the picture that you just said. For example, “Show me the picture of the (p) (a) (n).” When they have become successful with this task, parents can remove the pictures and ask children to blend words using just the phonemes. 
Phoneme manipulation:

Give children some counters such as beans or pennies and ask them to pull out the number needed to make a CVC word of your choice. For example, you could give them the word sit, meaning they would pull out three beans and place them in a row. As they are asked to change a sound, children can use the beans to help visualize what sound they are changing by pushing up the bean that needs to be changed. Below are examples of manipulations exercises using the beans as a support.

  • For initial sound manipulation using the word sit, you would ask your child to change the (s) sound to a (p) sound and tell you the new word. They would push up the first bean and change it for a new one, then give you the new word of pit.
  • Final sounds are usually more difficult to isolate than initial sounds which is why this exercise is second in the sequence. Final sound manipulation using the word sit requires you to ask your child to change the (t) sound to (p) and tell you the new word. They would push up the last bean, change it for a new one, then give you the new word of sip.
  • Medial sounds are the most difficult sounds for children to isolate.  For this reason, medial sound manipulation is last in the sequence. Using the word sit, you would ask your child to change the (i) sound to an (a) sound and tell you the new word. They would push up the middle bean and change it for a new one, then give you the new word of sat.
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Phonemic Awareness Exercises: Age 6-7

Phoneme segmenting, blending, and manipulating with longer words:

Children should be practicing segmenting, blending, and manipulating words with 4 sounds that follow the CCVC (ex: plan) and CVCC (ex: list) pattern. Below are some examples of exercises however, parents should refer to the exercises listed in the 5-6 age category for more detailed explanations. As you review the 5-6 age category exercises, be sure to adjust for your child’s age by using the longer CVCC and CCVC words.

  • To practice phoneme segmenting, ask your child to use their body or counters and tell you how many sounds they hear in the word list. 
  • For blending activities, parents would ask questions like, “What word do you get when you put the sounds (l)(i)(s)(t) together?” 
  • As explained in the phonemic manipulation exercises for ages 5-6, parents can use counters, such as beans, to change sounds and make new words. For instance, using the word list, parents could ask children to change the (i) sound to (a) and ask for the new word, last.
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Resources, Resources, Resources

Phonemic awareness is the foundation of literacy skills. It allows children to get to the sound structures of words that are needed for speaking, reading, and writing. Practicing the exercises listed above with your child could help set them up for reading success.

If you are looking for more ways to engage with your child on phonemic awareness exercises, please visit the Florida Center for Reading Research website linked here. It has wonderful phonological and phonemic awareness activities divided by grade. 

As parents work through phonemic awareness exercises with their children and ensure they are progressing, it would also be helpful to check that other literacy milestones are being met. Speaking milestones and delays can provide feedback related to reading and can be instrumental in identifying reading difficulties. Reading milestones and delays are also clearly defined and can help parents get ahead of any intervention, if needed. Being an informed parent takes the surprise out of any future reading delays and allows you to help and advocate for your child as early as possible. 

Please visit our services page if you would like information on our dyslexia therapy services. We provide virtual dyslexia therapy through the Take Flight intervention that is all science and research-based. Take Flight is a wonderful reading intervention for all struggling readers, not just for students with dyslexia.

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