Last week we introduced the five elements of learning to read. For the next five weeks, we will explore each of these elements in greater depth.
The first of these elements is Phonemic Awareness.
Think about your child’s language development. What do they do first? They begin by listening to your speech and learn to speak. Then they read and finally write.
Phonemic awareness relates to children’s ability to understand the sounds in the spoken language—the sounds they hear when they listen and the sounds they use to form words and speak. At this stage, the emphasis is on children learning to play with the sounds of the spoken language.
Phonemic awareness skills are pre-reading skills. Children must first understand how to put together and take apart sounds in spoken words before learning to do the same with sounds in written words.
What can you do to foster phonemic awareness at home? You play with words and sounds. That sounds easy, but what exactly is playing with words and sounds?
Listen to find out more.
