Phonological awareness is a broad concept
that relates to the sounds of spoken language.
The term 'sound' relates to a sound we make
when we say a letter or word, not to a letter in print.
A letter may have more than one sound such as the letter 'a'
in was, can,
or father,
and a sound can be represented by more than one letter
such as the sound /c/, in cat,
and kitten.
The word shop has three sounds,
/sh/-/o/-/p/
but has four letters,
's', 'h', 'o', 'p'.
Educators should use the term sound
and letter accurately to help children
clearly distinguish between the two.
Remember the term sound relates to a sound we make
when we say a letter or word,
not to a letter in print.
The foundations of phonological awareness
are based in the development of a child's word knowledge,
also known as metalinguistic awareness.
Word knowledge can be developed
through a range of approaches.
A syllable is a unit of sound within a word,
for example, dog has one syllable.
Puppy has two syllables.
Using actions can be an effective way to emphasis syllables.
- What's that there?
- Rabbit.
- Rabbit, can you clap the syllables for me?
- The, /r/-/a/-/bbit/.
- Oh close, I think that you're clapping the sounds.
Here I'll show you and then you try after me.
/Ra/-/bbit/. You have a go.
- /Ra/-/bbit/.
- That was?
- Two.
- Two syllables, well done!
How about, oh, we might try him.
Alright, what's that one called?
- Crocodile.
- Crocodile, can you clap the syllables for me?
Do you want me to do it first?
Alright, we've got, /croc/-/o/-/dile/.
- /Croc/-/o/-/dile/.
- Well done, alright, how many was that?
- Three.
- Three syllables, well done!
Okay I'm going to choose this one now.
This is a giraffe.
Alright, can you say giraffe for me?
- Giraffe.
- Good boy, now clap the syllables.
- /Gi/-/r/-/affe/.
- So close, I think that you're clapping the sounds again.
Another way to describe it is the beats in the word.
So if I have giraffe, I could go, /gi/-/raffe/.
How many beats did you hear that time?
- Two.
- Two beats, well done.
Now your turn, you ready?
- /Gi/-/raffe/.
- Well done, now on your own.
- /Gi/-/raffe/.
- How many beats was that?
- Two.
- Two beats, well done! Okay.
Let me see if I can find one more.
- Oh I've got one, what's this?
- Horse, how many beats was that?
- One.
- One, well done!
Horse just the one beat.
Alright, what else have we got in here?
- Cow. - It's a cow.
Now I want you to try this one all on your own.
Can you clap how many beats in that one?
- Cow.
- How many was that?
- One.
- Just the one beat wasn't it?
Well done, so one syllable.
Oh now what's that animal called?
- Camel. - It's a camel,
can you clap how many beats are in camel?
- /Ca/-/mel/.
- How many was that?
- Two. - Good boy.
I think you've got this.
Oh that's a long one, I think you've chosen a tricky one.
Now what's that animal called?
I think it might be a rhinoceros.
That's a very long one!
Do you want to give it a go, or do you want to say it first?
- Give it a go.
- Give it a go, okay.
- /Rhi/-/no/-/ce/-/ros/.
- Good boy! How many was that?
- Four.
- Four, four syllables.
Great job, well done!
- Developing a child's ability to hear
and identify rhyme helps build their phonological awareness.
- So we know that rhyming words
all sound the same at the end.
So, we could say, mat rhymes with
cat. - Cat.
- Well done.
- With rat. - And rat.
- And sat. - And sat, well done.
And we know that they rhyme because
they sound the same at the end.
So see how my mouth does the same thing at the end.
Mat, sat, rat.
See how my mouth does the same thing?
Do you know Humpty Dumpty?
Sometimes nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty
have lots of rhyming words in them.
So we're going to listen to Humpty Dumpty
and you tell me when you hear a rhyming word, okay?
Humpty Dumpty, I think they actually rhyme, those two.
- Humpty Dumpty.
- Well done, how did you know they rhymed?
- They have the same letters, but it's just...
- Good boy, so they have a different starting sound,
but they sound the same at the end, don't they?
So Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great ...
which two words rhymed?
- Wall, fall.
- Good job, I think that they rhymed as well.
- All the kings horses
and all the kings men.
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
- Well done, beautiful singing.
Now I think men rhymed with something in that,
at the end of that nursery rhyme?
Men and...
- Again. - Again, well done!
That was a tricky one, wasn't it?
We had to really listen out for that one.
So in that nursery rhyme, I heard Humpty rhymes with?
- Dumpty.
- And wall rhymes with?
- Fall.
- And men rhymes with?
- Again.
- Well done, great job!
- Alliteration is the recurrence
of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of words
in close succession.
For example, orange octopus
and white whale.
- So I have a...?
- Turtle.
- And what sound do you sound at the start of turtle?
- /T/.
- It's it's a T sound, good boy.
So can you think of a name for our turtle
that starts with the /T/ sound?
- Timmy Turtle.
- Timmy Turtle, good boy.
Let's think of a different name for him now.
So, he's actually very little, or he's very small.
What's another word for little,
that starts with the /T/ sound?
- Tiny.
- It's tiny, good boy.
So we could call him?
- Teeny tiny...
Timmy turtle.
- Teeny tiny Timmy turtle.
- Good boy, I think that's a great name for him.
- When children are developing phonemic awareness
they are simultaneously developing phonological awareness.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify,
and manipulate separate individual phonemes in words.
View the video about phonemic awareness for more information
Phonological awareness relates to
the sounds of spoken language
and is a crucial aspect for developing a child's
emergent literacy skills.