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Amp up your Reading at Home with these Phonological Awareness Activities

Updated: Feb 27, 2019

There are many parts to Phonological Awareness. First, what is phonological awareness? Phonological awareness is the ability to understand that words can be manipulated into smaller parts such as syllables, initial or final sounds. It is also is the foundation to learning to read.

There are many different areas you can target to improve phonological awareness skills. Here are some ideas for each skill!


Rhyming:

Point out the words that rhyme. You can emphasize that the end of words sound the same. "Hey, cat and pat rhyme!" "They both say /at/ at the end". "Can you think of another word that rhymes with ___?" Try to identify lots of opportunities to identify rhyming words. You can even choose words that do not rhyme. "Do cat and dog rhyme?" The child can then identify a word that rhymes with each. Play rhyming games in the car, at the store looking for items, or when watching his or her favorite T.V. shows.


Segment Words into Syllables:

Children can practice identifying syllables or how many "beats" are in a word. They can start with two syllable words and move onto more as ready. Provide a word such as butterfly and model by clapping one time for each syllable. Practice segmenting and clapping the words together first, and then move to having the child practice alone. Your child can then mix and match words with a different number of syllables at the same time.


Sound/Syllable Blending and Segmenting:

Children can practice blending and segment words by breaking words into their smaller sounds and putting them back together. Start with one/two-syllable words and move onto larger words as ready. Example: /bat/; when broken into its individual sounds is b-a-t. You can start with sounds separated and have the child practice blending the words or start with a single word and have the child break it down into its smaller parts! Try it at home with scrabble pieces, spelling words that can be cut up, or create letters of your own!


Alliteration (Same Beginning Sounds):

Identify words in stories where the beginning sounds are the same. You can prompt this conversation with your child by stating "Hey /big/ /blue/ /button/!" "Did you hear the same sound at the beginning of the words?" "What sound did you hear?" See if your child can come up with silly sentences that use the same sound multiple times.


Identifying Final Sounds:

Just as children can practice beginning sounds. They can also practice ending sounds. Have your child identify words in stories read where two or more words have the same sounds at the end. "Did you hear the same sound at the end of the word /hat/ and /bit/?" "What sound did you hear?" "Can you find another word that has the same sound at the end?" Make a list together of words that end in a specific sound, or sort words among many lists!


Manipulating Sounds in Words:

Ask your child what would happen if you took a letter off of a word. "What would the word cat say without the /c/?" At. You can also manipulate letters among words. "I see the word /cat/. Change the /c/ to a /p/ what would it say?" The word is /pat/. Try to have the child visualize the words without writing the word down and try hiding the original word! Creating a visual representation of the words will help the child better manipulate words when decoding text.


Letter Sound Correspondences:

It is always important to manipulate letters and their sound associations. One program I like to use on the iPad is called "Phonograms" when a letter is selected it provides each of the sounds that the letter or letter combination makes. For example: /ough/ has 6+ different ways of being pronounced! Identifying these various pronunciations will help your child become better at reading and writing.


Thanks for reading! I hope these suggestions amplify your reading time at home!

-Miss Jen

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