14.3.22 Phonological awareness

I usually compare the skills of phonological awareness with laying the foundations of a house, because the art of learning to read and write is built on these important listening skills. The introduction to phonological awareness is usually classed as ‘Phase one’ in phonics development and should begin to be taught at nursery/preschool age so that children are ready to begin learning phase 2 phonics (the grapheme/phoneme correspondence) once they start primary school. However, these skills continue to be strengthened whilst learning new phonics skills. Take a look at the page on this site Phonological and Phonemic Awareness for more details.

Phase 2 phonics is learning grapheme/phoneme correspondence and coincides with the start of Reception in primary school when most phonics programmes start, whereas in phase one for phonological awareness, no written letters are used, it is all about the phonological aspect of listening skills. The children should learn to identify the beginning sound of a word, discover how to blend syllables and phonemes to make words. The ‘Phonics Queen’ (her group is on facebook) offers quality Phase one training at regular intervals for Nursery and preschool settings in order to develop children’s listening skills. These can be booked by emailing Natasha (The Phonics Queen) at: thephonicsqueen@gmail.com. Natasha is an experienced reception teacher, tutor and speaker and also shares her knowledge through some videos on her youtube channel.

The Letters and Sounds document Natasha mentions in the following video is no longer published, but still has valid information and contains great phase one activities to support the learner. It is available to download on https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf This document is not to be used as a stand alone phonics programme, although many new validated schemes are based on this Letters and Sounds document. Phase one is not always emphasised in new phonics schemes for schools, as it is expected that children have been exposed to these skills in preschool and nursery or at home, but it is important that they are not overlooked.

It is important to continue developing the understanding of syllables for accurate reading and spelling. A lot of spelling rules depend on how many syllables are in a word, the sound at the end of a syllable etc.

For school age children who continue to have difficulty discriminating the phonemes in words, then lots of extra practise manipulating sounds is recommended. I like to use the phonological awareness programme from the book ‘Sound Linkage’ by Peter Hatcher as it sets out all the different skills required for phonological awareness and lots of different activities to help support the learner. Don’t forget if a child is struggling to discriminate sounds, check they have had a recent hearing test.

Have a good week. Be brave, be strong and be kind. PJ 🙂