User:Sarah.martin

Strategies for improving Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awaerness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words. This is very difficult for some young learners. Here are a few strategies you may find helpful:

1. Isolating the sound in the word:

Show your student how to do all the steps in the task before you asking the student to do the task.

Example: (Put down 2 pictures that begin with different sounds, such as man and pan, and say the names of the pictures.) "My turn to say the first sound in man, /mmm/. Mmman begins with /mmm/. Say the first sound you hear in man, /mmm/."

2. Blending the sounds together

When the student is first learning to blend, use examples with continuous sounds, because the sounds can be stretched and held.

Example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to talk in a broken way. When he says /mmm/ - /ooo/ - /mmm/ he means mom."

3. Segmenting the phonemes

Reuse the examples used for blending. Blending and segmenting are sides of the same coin. The only difference is whether the student can hear or produce a segmented word.

Example: "Listen, my lion puppet likes to say the sounds in words. The sounds in mom are /mmm/ - /ooo/ - /mmm/. Say the sounds in mom with us. "

The above information is from the following sources: 

Some helpful links to activities: Teaching Syllable Segmentation:

Teaching Sound Substitution: 

Teaching Sound Isolation: 

Teaching Phonemic Segmentation: 

Worksheets for Phonemeic Awareness: