Building Phonological Awareness at home

This article originally featured in our newsletter - Facets (July 2003)

Research shows that phonological awareness is an important early step in learning to read and spell. Research also shows that dyslexic children tend to have a phonological deficit that hampers their reading and spelling development. However, a dyslexic child's weak phonological awareness can be developed and increased. You can help your dyslexic child to do so through a few fun-filled games and tasks at home. This sample of activities has been grouped according to 5 levels of phonological awareness tasks (Adams, 1990).
Increasing Ability to Hear Rhymes and Alliteration

Rhyming words are words that sound the same at the end, such as sip and tip.

Alliteration is the repetition of sounds in a sequence of nearby words

Example: Sing your Six Sad Songs.

Suggested Activities:

1. Create a Rhyme Booklet
   Paste or draw a picture of an object on one half of a page. Let the child think of a word that rhymes with this object and draw a picture on the other half of the page. Bind the completed pages together to form a rhyme booklet.
2. Go on a Rhyme Hunt
   Tell the child that you are going to say a word and he has to find something in the room that rhymes with your given word.

Example: You ask, "What rhymes with bear?" Child answers, "chair".

Increasing Ability to Do Oddity Tasks

At this level, the child is trained to compare and contrast the sounds of words. They learn to pick out like as well as unlike sounds.

Example 1: Which word does not rhyme: tip, hip, fan? [fan]
Example 2: Which two words begin with the same sound: fat, can, fit? [fat, fit]

Suggested Activity:

1. Odd One Out
   Draw or cut out pictures of various pairs of objects. Each pair should have the same beginning consonant (e.g. fish, flower). Arrange 3 pictures (consisting of one pair plus one other picture) in a row, and have the child pick out the picture that doesn't belong.

Increasing Ability to Orally Blend words

Individual sounds blend together to form words.

Example: /f/ /a/ /t/ blend together to form the word "fat"

Suggested Activities:

1. What's the Word?
   This is a guessing game. Explain to the child that you are going to say a word in parts. The child has to listen carefully and then say the word as a whole.     
   Example: If you say /d/ /o/ /g/, the children respond with "dog".
2. And the Answer is.     
   Read aloud a short sentence. Choose one word to read in sound segments instead of as a whole word. Ask the child to tell you what the word is.     
   Example:     
   Adult: I was /s/ /i/ /k/ yesterday.     
   Adult: How was I yesterday?     
   Child: sick!

Increasing Ability to Orally Segment Words

We use this ability when we break down words into their component sounds and syllables when we spell, when we want to count the number of sounds in a word or when we compare and contrast the sounds in different words.

Example:
How many sounds can you hear in the word "cup"?
Answer: 3 [/k/ /u/ /p/]

Suggested Activities:

1. Animal Link
   This is a group activity. Its aim is for the children to pick out the last sound of a given word (e.g. /g/ in "do g ") and use this same sound at the beginning of a different word (e.g. /g/ in " g oat") Sit the children in a circle. Start by saying, "There once was a dog ." The next child then says, "The dog wanted to be a goat ." The next child continues in the same way. "The goat wanted to be a tortoise ."
2. What's in the Bag?
   Place a number of objects in a bag. Pick one object at a time without letting the children see what it is. You may want to use clues to help the child to guess what the object is. If the object is a watch, for example, you might say, "What's in the bag? It's something that begins with /w/. I can tell time with it. What is it?"

Increasing Ability to Do Phonemic Manipulation Tasks

Phonemic manipulation tasks include the creation of new words through the addition or deletion of particular sounds (phonemes).

Example: Delete the first sound in "top" and replace it with /h/. [hop]

Suggested Activity:

1. The Riddle Game
   Tell the child that you're going to present him with riddles that he will have to solve. You will say a word and he will have to think of another word that rhymes with your word and starts with a given sound. Example: Adult: What rhymes with "bin" and starts with /t/? 
   Children: tin!

Some dyslexic children may take more time to acquire a better awareness of sounds as the building blocks of English. So do not be discouraged if your child seems to need more time and training. Continue to spend a few minutes each week with your child on some of these activities listed here. You may even come up with your own variations. Remember to make them fun so that your child's learning is maximised in a relaxed atmosphere.

Written by : Elizabeth Monteiro - Specialist Teacher

References

Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print . Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Blevins, W. (1997). Phonemic Awareness Activities For Early Reading Success . New York: Scholastic Professional Books.

Sensenbaugh, Roger. Phonemic Awareness: An Important Early Step in Learning to Read . Bloomington, Indiana: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication.