Why is phonological awareness important?
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, take apart, and put together the sounds of language. It is one of the most important skills that leads children to become good readers and writers. There are many easy, fun activities that help develop phonological awareness skills. At this stage, the main focus is to teach children to hear and manipulate sounds, starting from larger chunks and gradually moving to smaller pieces. Here are the concepts and some ideas for working on them: Words and Sentences What is important • Understanding that words make up sentences • Counting words in a sentence • Adding words together to make a sentence • Taking words away from a sentence How to help children develop these concepts and skills: • Say a simple sentence and then together take a giant step for each word in the sentence. (Watch the video below for an example of this.) • Say a simple sentence slowly and count the words together. • After counting the words and saying them individually, take o
