Phonemic+Awareness


 * Phonemic Awareness. **

Phonemic Awareness is sometimes confused with phonological awareness, but they are two different terms. Phonological awareness is the ability to pay attention to the sounds of language as distinct from its meaning, it is a more inclusive term. Phonemic awareness involves just the sounds. It is the awareness that phonemes exist as abstract and manipulatable components of the spoken language.


 * The Development of Phonemic Awareness:**

__Words:__ awareness of words and word spaces in oral language. The awareness of spaces between words comes in useful when spelling, writing and reading. A way to get children to learn about spaces between words is to get them to count the words in a sentence, I have located come footage which depicts a teaching getting children to lay out counters for each word they say in a sentence[|. Click here to view]

__Syllables:__ awareness of syllables can help children read and write compound words like birthday. I managed to find a great example of this on the internet, the teacher goes around to each of the students and asks the to clap out the sounds in their name and then the rest of the class has a go. It is a great way to start off introducing syllables as a child's name is one that they are familiar with, so it is easy to work with. [|Click here.]

__Rhyme:__ knowledge of nursery rhymes has been shown to be related to the development of phonological skills. There is alot of different activities that use rhyming words, I found one on the internet which I think is very good because the teacher starts with a word and then children have to think of a rhyming word themselves. It is in a small group so they are able to help each other. [|Click here to view.]

__Alliteration:__ 2 or more words of a word group begin with the same sound. [|Click here for tongue twisters]

__Analysis of phonemes:__ actual isolation of sounds in words. I found some footage of a child playing a computer game which isolates the sounds in words. One activity in particular on the computer was very good in sounding out the word. The word 'jump' is split up into puzzle pieces and as he places the pieces in the right order the sounds are sounded out as he goes, once the word is complete the word is sounded out again and then the word is put into a sentence. I think this is a great activity for children as it constantly reminds them of the sounds that letter makes and also the sounds that letter combinations make. [|Click here to view.]


 * Levels of Phonemic Awareness:**
 * 1) Hearing sounds in words when listening to rhymes
 * 2) Oddity tasks- children hear rhyme or alliteration of sounds.
 * 3) Syllable splitting, children must hear and produce sounds in isolation.
 * 4) Phoneme segmentation: words can be analysed into a series of sounds 'c-a-t'
 * 5) Phoneme manipulation: children add, delete or move any designated phoneme and create another word.

These types of activites should be done daily in either groups or individually, there should also be a variety from day to day, to draw children's attention to the many aspects of sound and print and also maintain their attention by avoiding boredom.
 * Effective programs which help build phonemic awareness are:**
 * Children clapping syllables
 * Engaging children in daily literature and writing activities
 * Read rhyming text aloud, and do activities with the text,
 * Play with the sounds of language- alliteration,
 * Do shared writing frequently
 * Encourage children to listen, sing and create rhyming songs,
 * Letter tiles/magnetic letters to develop sound-letter relationships