Phonological Awareness

 

What is Phonological awareness?

• Phonological awareness refers to sounds not letters
• It is spoken not written
• It is about listening to language and hearing and saying sounds
• Well-developed phonological awareness plays a big part in the successful development of literacy skills.
• It is not to be confused with phonics
• Phonics is about the link between the sounds and written letters which will be taught in primary 1 as children learn their sounds.

Why is it important?

• Phonological awareness teaches learners to tune in to the rhythm and sounds of language
• This allows them to have a better understanding of how language works, for example that sentences are made up of separate words and that words can be made up of more than one syllable

 

 

Rhyme Awareness and Detection

 

• Sing nursery rhymes together and exaggerate the rhymes
• Miss the rhyming words out and ask child to say what comes next
• Rhyming bingo games from websites like Twinkl (make sure they do not have any writing on them – pictures only)
• Give your child three objects (2 which rhyme and 1 that doesn’t) and ask them to pick the odd one out
• Make a rhyming bag using pictures or objects and ask your child to match the items that rhyme

 

Rhyme Production

 

• I spy with my little eye something that rhymes with…
• Pass a ball rhyming words with ‘cat’ until no more words can be thought of
• Work as team to make rhyming books ‘pictures that rhyme with cat’ (again no written words – only pictures)
• Make a rhyming bag filled with things that rhyme
• Make up silly nonsense rhymes
• Play I know a word e.g. ‘I know a word that rhymes with cat, you wear it on your head and the word is…cat’

 

Visual Memory

 

Kim’s Game

1. Lay out some objects in front of your child ask them to try and remember each one (start small)
2. Tell your child to close their eyes and hide one object
3. Ask your child to tell you what object is missing
4. You can increase the amount of objects or the amount you hide as your child becomes more confident

Mirror Mirror

1. Perform three actions is sequence
2. Ask your child to copy the actions in the correct order
3. You can increase the number of actions as your child becomes more confident

 

Auditory Memory

Attention!

1. Give your child a list of verbal instructions to carry out
2. Ask them to carry these out in order
3. Start with a small number of instructions, you can increase the number as your child becomes more confident

 

Granny’s Shopping

1. Adult says ‘My granny went shopping and she bought….’
2. Ask your child to repeat the sentence
3. Again, start small and increase the number as your child becomes more confident

 

Word Boundaries

Pat Pat

1. Adult to say sentence aloud ‘Today is Tuesday’
2. Adult to say sentence aloud a second time, modelling a pat on their thighs for each word that they say
3. Child to tap their thighs every time they hear a word in the sentence

One More Step

1. Adult to layout a sequence of disks/sheets of paper etc. on the floor
2. Adult to say sentence aloud ‘Today is Tuesday’
3. Adult to say sentence aloud a second time, modelling taking one step for each word
4. Child to step every time they hear a word in the sentence

Word Bricks

1. Adult to say sentence aloud ‘Today is Tuesday’
2. Adult to say sentence aloud a second time, modelling placing down a brick for each word
3. Child to place down a brick every time they hear a word

Hop, Skip and Jump

1. Adult to say sentence aloud ‘Today is Tuesday’
2. Adult to say sentence aloud a second time, modelling a hop/skip/jump for each word
3. Child to hop/skip/jump each time they hear a word

 

Syllables

 

Robot

1. Talk like a robot and break a word down into the syllables e.g. ap-ple
2. Ask your child to put the word together
3. Ask your child if they can say a word ‘like a robot’

Clap Clap

1. Adult to say a word and then clap each syllable in the word
2. Ask your child to copy this

Counters

1. Adult to say a word
2. Adult to say word again and model placing a counter out for each syllable
3. Ask your child to place a counter out for each syllable

 

Phoneme (sound) Detection

 

• Play ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with…’
• Ask your child to find things in their room that have the sound….
• Ask your child where in the word can they hear a sound (beginning/middle/end)

 

Alliteration

 

• Give your child three objects and ask them to identify which two start with the same sound
• Give your child an object and ask them to find another object that begins with the same sound