How to Develop Phonemic Awareness in Preschoolers

Phonemic awareness is the ability of a person to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds of their language. These individual sounds are called phonemes. For example, the phonemes in the word "shot" are "sh," "o", "t." Good phonemic awareness is critical for developing reading and writing skills. There are some easy activities that you can incorporate into your preschooler's day to help develop phonemic awareness in your child.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Knowledge of some simple children's songs
• Alphabet board or alphabet books
• Alphabet flashcards

1. Sing songs that focus on sounds of letters such as "Do You Hear the Way Sounds Ring" to begin to develop phonemic awareness in your child.

2. Use letter books or an alphabet chart. Go through it each day and label the letter and then make the sounds that goes with it. When pointing out vowels model the short vowel sound first.

3. Introduce the long vowel sound as the child becomes more familiar with the short vowel sounds.

4. Point out everyday sounds in their environment and how these sounds are similar to letter sounds. "The fly goes zzzzz just like the letter z," or "snakes make an s sound," are good examples.

5. Provide alphabet flash cards and pictures of objects that start with these sounds. If your child finds a picture of a pig say the word "pig" with her and then see if she can find the letter "p" to go with it.

6. Talk about what sound their name starts with to develop phonemic awareness in a personalized way. For example "Your name starts with the letter k; k for Katie!" Once she becomes familiar with her name start saying other people's names and talk about what sounds these names begin with.

Tips & Warnings

• When modeling consonant sounds for your child don't put the "uh" sound at the end. For example, when modeling the "f" sound don't say "fuh." Model "fff" instead.

Resources

• Click here for some good phonemic awareness songs.

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[keziaha]

on 2/4/2009 I teach first grade and would like to thank you for putting the warning about "uh". It just makes it that much harder for students to learn how to read when they have learned the incorrect sound. Thank you again for putting up these steps for parents and teachers alike.