Phonological Awareness
Overview
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear the separate sounds, or phonemes, in words. Phonemic awareness is a purely oral understanding and deals only with sounds – not letters. As soon as letters are introduced, we call it “phonics”. A more over-arching term is “phonological awareness”, which includes an awareness of parts of speech larger than phonemes – syllables and words for instance. Research has shown that Phonological Awareness develops in a hierarchical manner, with the ability to complete some skills necessarily preceding others.
Phonological Awareness Interventions
Phonological Awareness Interventions:
In general, phonological awareness develops in this order:
- Preparatory activities – students develop listening habits and tune in to sounds
- Rhyme awareness
- Phoneme awareness
- Segmenting – the ability to:
- segment sentences into words
- segment words into syllables
- segment words into sounds
- Blending – the ability to:
- blend syllables into words
- blend sounds into words
- Manipulation – the ability to:
- delete syllables from words
- substitute syllables in words
- delete sounds from words
- substitute sounds in words
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention - Awareness of Gross Differences
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Source or adapted from Voyager U Reading Academy
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Materials: none needed
Instructions for administration:
This phonological awareness skill involves both word and sound discrimination. Children are asked to determine if two words or sounds are the same or different. Or, given the choice of three, children might be asked to identify the word or sound that is different.
Introduce the Task:
I will say two words. Listen to the words and tell me if the words are the same or different. If I said cat-hug, you would say the words were different.
Present the Activity:
Now you try some.
Set 1
1. pet-hug 6. toad-band
2. tree-tree 7. nose-moon
3. sun-net 8. word-word
4. wag-mess 9. run-hat
5. dog-dog 10. red-red
Set 2
baseball-baby sad-sad
baby-baby jump-jump
shoe-shark feet-feet
no-stop pop-see
tap-tap rip-sip
Set 3
hip-baby baby-bait
no-yes help-stop
talk-walk apple-apple
able-apple bottle-baby
tree-see dog-dig
This same format can be used to present pairs of phonemes that are the same or different—for example, /t/-/k/ (different) or /p/-/p/ (same).
The words you use in this activity determine the level of difficulty. In the model, the words that are different are entirely different. They share none of the same phonemes. As children’s ability to hear sounds develops, move gradually from such words to pairs of words that have one phoneme in common—for example, run-rake; cook-like; meet-feel—and finally to minimal pairs, words that are the same except for one phoneme—for example, pants-plants; beat-bean; rug-rag.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention - Distinguishing Words—Oddity Task
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Source or adapted from Voyager U Reading Academy
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Materials: none needed
Instructions for administration:
Introduce the Task:
I will say three words. Two of them are the same. One is different. Listen to the words and tell me which word is different. If I said cat-hug-hug, you would tell me that cat is different.
Present the Activity:
box-bird-bird run-run-bike
vet-van-vet tell-fall-fall
pear-pear-pat mess-kick-kick
ant-cat-ant soap-too-soap
red-red-dot one-two-one
car-camp-car slip-slip-slide
This format can be used to present individual phonemes and have children tell which is different—for example, /b/-/b/-/r/.
The level of difficulty is determined by the degree of difference or similarity in the sound or words presented. It is more difficult to hear the different sound in the set /j/-/j/-/ch/ than in the set /j/-/j/-/m/. Similarly, it is more difficult to identify the word that is different in the set bed-beard-bed than the word that is different in the set bed-rug-bed.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Rhyming identification: auditory rhyming
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials are needed.
Instructions for administration:
- Tell student three words (two that rhyme and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two words rhyme.
- Remind student that when words rhyme they have the same sound at the end (vowel plus consonant: man, tan). These words do not have to have the same spelling.
- Increase up to three and then four words and have the student tell which words rhyme.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Rhyming identification: Picture card rhyming match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” Notebook
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Materials:
Rhyming picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student three picture cards or three picture tiles (two that rhyme and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two pictures rhyme by asking student to remove the card that does not rhyme.
- Remind student that when words rhyme they have the same sound at the end (vowel plus consonant: man, tan). These words do not have to have the same spelling.
- Increase up to five or six cards and have the student remove all the words that do not rhyme (only two cards will remain).
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Rhyming Production: picture card rhyming match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Rhyming picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student one picture card or overhead picture tile.
- Ask student to produce a word that rhymes with that picture card.
- Remind student that when words rhyme they have the same sound at the end (vowel plus consonant: man, tan). These words do not have to have the same spelling.
- Word can be a nonsense word.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Rhyming production: auditory rhyming identification
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials are needed.
Instructions for administration:
- Say one word to the student.
- Ask student to produce a word that rhymes.
- Remind student that when words rhyme they have the same sound at the end (vowel plus consonant: man, tan). These words do not have to have the same spelling.
- Word can be a nonsense word.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Initial sound match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials are needed.
Instructions for administration:
- Tell student three words (two that have the same initial sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two words have the same initial sound.
- Increase up to three and then four words and have the student tell which two words have the same initial sound.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Initial Sound Identification with picture cards
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student three picture cards or picture tiles (two that begin with the same sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two pictures have the same initial sound by asking student to remove the card that does not have the same initial sound.
- Increase up to 5 or 6 cards and have the student remove all the words that do not have the same initial sound (only two cards will remain).
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Initial Sound Production with Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
Give student Elkonin box and chips. Give one chip per sound in the word.
- Say the word to the student sound by sound.
- Point to the first chip. Ask student to produce the initial sound. Say: “What do you hear in the initial position of _______.”.
- Then have the student touch the initial sound (the chip) and repeat the sound. (Say, “Can you touch the initial sound? What sound does that chip represent?”)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Initial Sound Production
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Source or adapted from – “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
Show student various picture cards or picture tiles. Ask the child to produce the initial sound of the object in the picture. Begin with more simple initial consonants and then progress in the following order. You will want to introduce 5-6 cards with different sounds during each intervention session.
- Consonants (mat, can)
- Short vowel sounds (egg, ant)
- Consonant blends (black, frog)
- Consonant digraphs (shop, chin)
- Long vowel sounds (eat, aim)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Initial sound alliteration
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Source or adapted from Voyager U Reading Academy
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Materials:
none needed
Instructions for administration:
Nonsense sequences are an excellent way to introduce the concept of alliteration and to encourage children to play with sounds. These activities can be used with single consonant sounds or consonant blends. Remember to prompt the students with a sound, but do not mention the letter name. Start with a simple sequence. The sequences can get more complicated each time you revisit the activity.
Nonsense Sequences
Introduce the task: Do you know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk? There’s a giant in that story who likes to say “Fee fie foe fum.” Let’s say that together: Fee fie foe fum. All those words begin with /f/: Fee fie foe fum. Let’s see if we can say those words with a different beginning sound. Let’s try /d/: Dee die doe dum.
Present the Activity: I will say a sound. Then, we’ll say the giant’s nonsense words with that sound at the beginning.
/t/--tee, tie, toe, tum /ch/--chee, chie, choe, chum
/y/--yee, yie, yoe, yum /r/--ree, rie, roe, rum
/b/--bee, bie, boe, bum /m/--mee, mie, moe, mum
/st/--stee, stie, stoe, stum /h/--hee, hie, hoe, hum
/n/--nee, nie, noe, num /gr/--gree, grie, groe, grum
When children are comfortable with the concept of alliteration, engage them in completing simple alliterative sentences. The point of such activities is for children to think of words that fit the alliterative pattern. Don’t be concerned if a word offered doesn’t make sense in the sentence or isn’t a genuine word.
Another variation of this activity is to use the “Happy Birthday to You” song in a silly way. Explain that they will begin each word with (example /mmmm/). Review the sound production cue for letter m.
Remember, when you say /mmm/, your lips come together and the sound comes out of your nose. Put your lips together and say /mmmm/.
Sing the song to students, beginning each word with /mmm/.
Mappy mirthday moo moo.
Mappy mirthday moo moo.
Mappy mirthday, mean _________.
Mappy mirthday moo moo.
Other letters can be used as well.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention - Producing Alliteration
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Source or adapted from Voyager U Reading Academy
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Materials:
No materials are needed.
Instructions for administration:
Introduce the Task: Listen to this sentence: Leila likes lions. Did you notice that all the words in the sentence start with the same sound? We will make up more sentences like that. I will say the first two words. I want you to finish the sentence with a word that begins with the same sound.
Let’s try it. If I say, William wants ____, you would finish the sentence with a word that starts with /www/ like William and wants. You could say, William wants water or William wants worms or William wants waffles.
Present the Activity: I’ll start the sentence. You finish it with a word that begins with the same sound as the words I say.
Cathy cooks ___. Sam sees ___.
Burt buys ___. Felicia fixes ___.
Maura makes ___. Gus gets ___.
Pat paints ___. Tina takes ___.
Harry has ___. Nan needs ___.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Final Sound Identification: auditory final sound match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials are needed.
Instructions for administration:
- Tell student three words (two that have the same final sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two words have the same final sound.
- Increase up to three and then four words and have the student tell which two words have the same final sound.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Final Sound Identification: picture card match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student three picture cards or picture tiles (two that end with the same sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two pictures have the same final sound by asking student to remove the card that does not have the same final sound.
- Increase up to 5 or 6 cards and have the student remove all the words that do not have the same final sound (only two cards will remain).
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Final Sound Production: Picture card
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student various picture cards or picture tiles. Ask the child to produce the final sound of the object pictured. Begin with more simple final consonants and then progress in the following order. You will want to introduce 5-6 cards with different sounds during each intervention session.
- Consonants (mat, can)
- Consonant digraphs (touch, cash)
- Long vowel sounds (tea, be)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Final Sound Production: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give one chip per sound in the word.
- Say the word to the student sound by sound.
- Point to the first chip. Ask student to produce the final sound. (Say: “What do you hear in the final position of: _______.”)
- Then have the student touch the final sound (the chip) and repeat the sound. (Say, “Can you touch the final sound? What sound does that chip represent?”)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Final Sounds Production: auditory production
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed.
Instructions for administration:
- Say a word to the student.
- Ask student to produce the final sound. (Say: “What do you hear in the final position of: _______.”)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Medial Sound Identification: Picture match
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student three picture cards or picture tiles (two that end have the same medial sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two pictures have the same medial sound by asking student to remove the card that does not have the same final sound.
- Increase up to 5 or 6 cards and have the student remove all the words that do not have the same medial sound (only two cards will remain).
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Medial Sound Identification: auditory match
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Source or adapted from – “In the Trenches”
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Tell student three words (two that have the same medial sound and one that does not).
- Ask student to identify which two words have the same medial sound.
- Increase up to three and then four words and have the student tell which two words have the same medial sound.
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Medial Sound Production with picture cards
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Picture cards
Instructions for administration:
- Show student various picture cards or picture tiles. Ask student to produce the medial sound of the object pictured. Begin with more simple medial consonants and then progress in the following order. You will want to introduce 5-6 cards with different sounds during each intervention session.
- short vowel sounds (cat, pin)
- long vowel sounds (team, time)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Medial Sound Production with Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give one chip per sound in the word.
- Say the word to the student sound by sound.
- Point to the first chip. Ask student to produce the final sound. (Say: “What do you hear in the medial position of: _______.”)
- Then have the student touch the medial sound (the chip) and repeat the sound. (Say, “Can you touch the medial sound? What sound does that chip represent?”)
Skill- Phonemic Awareness
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Intervention – Medial Sound Production: auditory production
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say a word to the student.
- Ask student to produce the medial sound. (Say: “What do you hear in the medial position of: _______.”)
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Sentences into Words
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or tokens and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give one chip per word and a chip for the ending punctuation.
- Say the sentence word by word to the student.
- Ask the student to repeat the sentence pulling down one chip per word.
- Then have the student touch each chip while repeating the sentence.
- Ask the student what the punctuation chip stands for (period, question mark, and exclamation point).
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Auditory Sentence Segmenting
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say one sentence to the child.
- Ask student to reproduce the sentence word by word.
- Ask the student to tell you how many words are in the sentence.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Compound Words: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give one chip per base word.
- Example: (Say: Let’s segment the compound word “rainbow” into its two base words.)
- Ask the student to repeat the compound word while pulling down one chip per base word.
- Then have the student touch each chip segmenting the compound word into the two base words.
- Then have the student delete either the beginning or ending base word.
- Example: (Say: “Now say rainbow without rain.”)
- Review three-five compound words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Syllables: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
- Example: Say: (“Let’s segment the word “tiger” into syllables.”)
- Ask the student to repeat the word while pulling down one chip per syllable (ti)and (ger).
- Then have the student touch each chip segmenting the while segmenting the word.
- Review three to five multisyllabic words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- Move from two syllable to three and four syllable words once the student becomes proficient.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Syllables: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say: (“Can you segment tiger into syllables?”)
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Phonemes: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
- Example: Say: (“Let’s segment the word “at” into its phonemes”)
- Ask the student to repeat the word while pulling down one chip per phoneme /a/-/t/).
- Then have the student touch each chip while segmenting the word.
- Review three to five words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- Move from two phoneme to three and four phoneme words once the student becomes proficient.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Segmenting Phonemes: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
Say: “Can you segment at into its phonemes?”
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending compound words: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or tokens and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give student three-four chips per word.
- Example: (Say: Let’s blend two words into a compound word. We’re going to put together “rain” and “bow”.)
- Ask the student to repeat the two words while pulling down one chip per word.
- Then have the student touch each chip blending the words together to form a compound word.
- Review three-five compound words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending Compound words: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
Say: (“Can you put rain and bow together to make one word?”)
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending Syllables: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give student three-four chips per word.
- Example: (Say: “Let’s blend two syllables into a compound. We’re going to put together (ti) and (ger)”.)
- Ask the student to repeat the two syllables while pulling down one chip per syllable.
- Then have the student touch each chip blending the syllables together to form a word.
- Review 3-5 words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- After student if proficient blending two syllable words, spend time working on words of three and four syllables.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending Syllables: Auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say: “Can you put “ti” and “ger” together to make one word?”
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending Phonemes: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give student three-four chips per word.
- Example: Say: (“Let’s blend two phonemes to make a word. We’re going to put together /a/ and /t/.”)
- Ask the student to repeat the phonemes while pulling down one chip per phoneme.
- Then have the student touch each chip blending the phonemes together to form a word.
- Review three-four words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- After student is proficient blending two phoneme words such as the one in the example, spend time working on words of three, four and five phonemes.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Blending phonemes: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
Say: (“Can you put /a/ and /t/ together to make one word?”)
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Compound Words: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
- Example: (Say: “Let’s segment the compound word “rainbow” into its two base words.”)
- Ask the student to repeat the compound word while pulling down one chip per base word.
- Then have the student touch each chip segmenting the compound word into the two base words.
- Then say: (“Now delete rain from rainbow. What is left?”)
- Review three-three compound words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Compound Words: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say “Say rainbow without rain” OR “Say rainbow without bow.”
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Syllables: Elkonin Boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
- Example: (Say: “Let’s segment the word “tiger” into its syllables.”)
- Ask the student to repeat the word while pulling down one chip per syllable.
- Then have the student touch each chip segmenting the word into the syllables.
- Then have the student take away a chip corresponding to which syllable they take away. (Say:“Now say tiger without /ti/.”)
- Review three-5 words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- Move from two syllable to three and four syllable words once the student becomes proficient.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Syllables: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
Say: (“Say tiger without /ti/”.)or (“Say tiger without /ger/”.)
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Substituting Syllables: auditory
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Source or adapted from - www.phonologicalawareness.org
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Materials:
List (for teacher’s use) of compound words such as: doghouse, fingernail, cupcake, eggshell, hotdog, eyeball, greenhouse, doorbell, birdbath
Elkonin boxes and markers
Instructions for administration:
Orally present a compound word as you push up a marker for each part of the word. For instance, say “dog…house” and push up 2 markers, one for each root word. Then ask the child what the word would be if we took out “dog” and put “cat”. Once the child is able to do this, have them substitute sillier words.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Substituting phonemes: auditory
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Source or adapted from - www.phonologicalawareness.org
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Materials:
List for teacher’s use of CVC words, such as cat, hog, pit, mop, etc.
Elkonin boxes and markers
Instructions for administration:
Orally present a CVC word as you push up a marker for each phoneme of the word. For instance, say “hog…/h/…/o/…/g/” and push up 3 markers, one for each phoneme. Then ask the child what the word would be if we took out “/h/” and put “/d/”. Try to choose substitutions that create real words to aid in the student’s understanding of the need for reading to make sense.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Phonemes: Elkonin boxes
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes:
Instructions for administration:
- Give student Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
- Example: Say: (“Let’s segment the word “at” into its phonemes.”)
- Ask the student to repeat the word while pulling down one chip per phoneme.
- Then have the student touch each chip segmenting the word into the phonemes.
- Then have the student take away a chip corresponding to which phoneme is to be taken away. Example: Say (“Take away the /a/ in at. What is left?”)
- Review 3-5 words per session until the task becomes automatic for the student.
- Move from two phoneme to three and four phoneme words once the student becomes proficient.
Skill- Phonological Awareness
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Intervention – Deleting Phonemes: auditory
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Source or adapted from - “In the Trenches” notebook
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Materials:
No materials needed
Instructions for administration:
- Say (“Say at without saying /a/.”) or (“Say at without saying /t/.”)