Lack of phonemic awareness skills is the leading cause of reading problems in 1st grade.Some of you are working with young children who are at the emergent reading stage and are not reading, yet. Here is a video that discusses Phonemic/Phonological Awareness. You will learn more about it in later chapters, but I want you to have some understanding now, in case it may help some of you who are working with children who are at the very early stages. Skills in phonemic awareness come before phonics developmentally. If they do not have a good foundation in phonemic awareness, phonics and other areas of reading will be difficult. Sometimes children have problems with phonics because their phonemic awareness skills have not yet developed fully, and they need instruction and/or practice in this area.Phonemic awareness has to do with children being able to HEAR the various parts of the word (beginning, middle, end) and “manipulate” themWITHOUT ANY PRINT being used. Pictures can be used, but not letters or words. For instance, if you ask a child what rhymes with cat, and he says sat, mat, or pat, then you are working on phonemic awareness. Another example would be when the child sees a picture and can tell you the beginning, middle, or ending sound of what is in the picture. The child sees a picture of a pig and can make the beginning sound /p/, or the middle sound /i/, or the ending sound /g/ when you ask for it. Then you may want them to choose another picture that starts with the same sound (not letter) as pig (a picture of a princess). There are tons of ways to practice without words or letters! Double-check to see if the child you are working with is able to complete those tasks.Watch the following videos.Which was your favorite activity? If you see a way to adapt it somewhat and still focus on phonemic awareness, how would you do it? Also, please share any other activities you know about or have used. Remember, this is not phonics. No letters or words are used in phonemic/phonological awareness activities. It is hearing/speaking only. (Remember, children who are just learning to read, or who are struggling to read at the beginning levels, are the only ones who would benefit from phonemic awareness activities–reading on a 1st grade level and below.) Think about phonics (sounds of letters and sounds). If a child has trouble with phonics and sounding out words, many times the reason is the child does not have strong phonemic skills already in place. Why do you think this is true? www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyWzM9g5C8M www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtfVMiVTcCc
