Phonological Awareness

An understanding that words are made up of a variety of

sound units and can be broken down into different parts
(phenomes, syllables, onset, rime)
An umbrella term that encompasses many sub-skills that
help develop the foundation for many reading writing
abilities (e.g. phonemic awareness and phonics)
The ability to utilize different skills when reading such as
being able to identify rhymes, blending phenomes into
syllables and words, and see smaller words within bigger
words
Example: A student clapping to hear how many syllables
are in their name

Phonemic Awareness
An understanding of how to focus on, hear,
identify, and manipulate a variety of individual
sounds (phenomes) in speech
A foundation for spelling and word
recognition skills
Important for developing reading abilities and
strategies
Example: A student being able to hear each
sound in the word dog

Phonics
The understanding that sounds and print
letters are connected
Provides one of the foundations for
developing reading and writing skills
Teachers can approach phonics instruction in
different ways (e.g. different phonics
programs)
Phonological awareness provides the
foundation for phonics
Example: A student being able to match the
/sh/ sound with the print letters /sh/