Phonological Awareness

Through phonological awareness, children learn to associate sounds with symbols and create links to word recognition and decoding skills necessary for reading.

So what is Phonological Awareness?

Phonological awareness consists of skills that typically develop gradually and sequentially through the late preschool period.  They are developed with direct training and exposure. These skills include: Awareness of sounds in a language; Awareness of rhymes; Awareness that sentences can be broken down into words, syllables, and sounds; Ability to talk about, reflect upon, and manipulate sounds; and Understanding the relationship between written and spoken language.

Why is it important?

According to Gillon (2004), “Phoneme awareness performance is a strong predictor of long-term reading and spelling success and can predict literacy performance more accurately than variables such as intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, and socioeconomic status” (p. 57). 

Will we be doing it in Kindergarten?

You BETCHA!!! :) Here is a great website to support what we are doing in school at home and to learn more information:

http://www.phonologicalawareness.org/  This is also where I get the 5MTOW ideas!