Recently, I was in a meeting discussing phonological awareness (PA) skills and their importance. These skills are essential not only for laying the foundations for future reading and spelling success, but also for supporting speech sound development.
It quickly became apparent that there was some confusion around the terms phonological awareness (PA) and phonics. When advice such as “go back and work on PA skills” was given for children who weren’t making expected progress in their acquisition of phonics, it was clear that the terms PA skills, phonics, phonetics, and phonemic awareness, which sound similar and are often discussed together, actually mean different things!
Before training as a speech and language therapist (SaLT), I was a higher-level teaching assistant in a mainstream primary school. Part of my role was to run phonics intervention groups in the reception classes and across key stage 2. In these groups, we worked on skills such as identifying the number of syllables in words, recognising rhyming words, producing alliteration in sentences, identifying sounds at the beginning or end of words, and exploring sound manipulation (e.g., saying “bat” without the “b” or “rainbow” without “rain”). However, I didn’t fully understand why working on these skills was so important or that they had specific names.
In my first job as a SaLT, I ran early sounds and phonological awareness groups in community clinics. It was here that the penny dropped! I realised that these skills (alongside others) I’d been supporting pupils with, came under the umbrella of Phonological Awareness (PA). I quickly established the important link between the development of PA skills and some children’s ability to produce clear speech sounds, as well as developing early literacy skills that would support their ability to learn phonics in school.
Understanding Key Terms
Phonological Awareness – the sounds in the spoken word
- Definition: Phonological awareness refers to the ability to recognise and manipulate the sounds of spoken language, including words, syllables, onsets, and rimes
- Importance: It is crucial for speech sound production as well as reading and spelling development
- Development: This skill typically develops from early childhood and is essential for understanding the structure of language, and how it can be broken down into smaller sounds
Phonemic Awareness – comes under the umbrella of phonological awareness skills
- Definition: Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness. It involves the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
- Skills: This includes blending and segmenting words into sounds, as well as playing with sounds in spoken words (e.g., adding – add /s/ to ‘at’ = ‘sat’, deleting sounds – say ‘play’ without the /p/ = ‘lay’ and changing sounds – say ‘card’ without the /d/ = car, deleting, or changing sounds)
Phonics – the sounds in the words on the page
- Definition: Phonics refers to the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) used to represent them
- Teaching Method: It is the method used to teach the link between letters and sounds, helping children decode (read) and encode (spell/write) words
Importance of Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness skills are very helpful for many children with speech sound difficulties. However, the level of benefit can vary depending on the individual’s needs and the underlying cause of their speech difficulties. It is important to note that some children may require different types of intervention or additional support, especially if their speech sound difficulties are due to physical or neurological issues. These children would benefit from discussions with local specialist services for further support.
Phonological awareness skills will help children to notice the difference between sounds, this in turn will help them to produce sounds accurately in their own speech (e.g. sound discrimination). If a child is unable to hear the differences between sounds, they won’t be able to monitor their own production, resulting in them not being able to correct their own errors when talking. You may have noticed in your sessions that the child can produce the sound(s) they are working on correctly however, the minute they are back in class, or chatting with friends, and the focus has switched away from the speech sounds, the child’s target sound(s) have reverted back to the one they substitute it with!
This is one of the reasons it is really important for children to be able to self-monitor their speech production. When the child is physically able to produce their target sound(s), the skills of self-monitoring and self-correction are key! They need to know that by using the wrong sound in a word, this changes the word they are trying to say. For example, saying “I want tips for tea” instead of “chips”, or “I saw a nail” instead of “snail” This will help them to make progress using their target sounds, as they will be much more aware of their errors and know how to correct them.
Being able to manipulate sounds supports children’s understanding of how sounds work, and how they go together in speech. Awareness of sounds and sound patterns, such as in rhyming words, helps children predict and produce sounds more effectively.
As a therapist, I am often asked how to work on a child’s speech targets when there is so much else to cover within the school day. By including phonological awareness activities such as, identifying and creating rhyming words, clapping out syllables and playing sound manipulation games, at a whole class level will ultimately support all pupils phonological processing abilities as well as and their articulation skills. All crucial skills needed for future speaking, reading and spelling success.
Practical Activities for the Classroom
Here are a few practical activities that teachers and assistants can use to support phonological awareness in the classroom:
1. Rhyming Games: Encourage children to identify and generate rhyming words through songs, poems, and simple rhyming games. Use pauses to let children think of a rhyming word to use in the song or poem
2. Syllable Clapping: Have children clap or jump the syllables in words. Use topic, key, or new vocabulary words that are important for all children to learn
3. Sound Matching: Play games where children match words with the same initial or final sounds. Use physical objects, like sorting items that start with the same sound into a bucket or pile
4. Blending and Segmenting: Practice blending sounds orally to form words and segmenting words into individual sounds. Use blocks, felt squares, coins, or other manipulatives, or encourage children to move their arms for each sound as if they are robots
5. Sound Manipulation: Engage children in activities where they change one sound in a word to make a new word (e.g., changing the /c/ in “cat” to /h/ to make “hat”). For older pupils, have two teams compete to see which team can change the word ten times first
Remember if you already subscribe to our Speech Link package, take a look at our ‘Listening Games’ tab (on your speechandlanguage.support login), which has sound specific fun interactive listening games, that you could use for small group or whole class sessions. You’ll also find our Phonological Awareness programme within Speech Link, which gives you twelve thirty minute sessions. These can be used at whole class or small group level, focusing on key phonological awareness skills such as recognising and manipulating sounds within words, syllable clapping, and detecting and generating rhyming words.
If you are not a Speech Link subscriber have a look at our Parent Portal Speech Activities for a range of activities such as ‘Syllable Steps’, ‘Farmyard Sounds’ and ‘Rhyme Detectives’. You’ll also find the “all sounds” version of our interactive listening games such as ‘Pirate Island’, Circus’ and ‘Haunted House’.
Finally
Think about the pupils in your class, whatever age you are working with, who continues to have difficulty with their speech production, or who is still struggling to grasp the basics in reading and spelling. Why not consider incorporating specific activities like those mentioned above to support their phonological awareness skills and see what difference it can make!