Independent Speech, LLC

Phonological Awareness Skills

Phonological awareness is the understanding that oral language can be
broken down into smaller parts (for example, sentences into words, words in
to syllables, syllables into sounds) and that we can manipulated those parts.
One can manipulate these parts in many ways such as blending sounds to
create words, segmenting words (such as breaking down compound words),
and creating rhymes to name just a few.

Phonological awareness skills are necessary to grasp written language.

Children who are learning how to read must be able to understand and
manipulate the structure of words in order to benefit from reading
instruction. Research has indicated that good phonological awareness skills
at the Kindergarten level is a strong indicator for reading success later in
school and that this relationship remains consistent. Thus children who
struggle with these early skills may have difficulty with reading and spelling
throughout their school years.

Signs of weakness in phonological processing may include difficulty with:

1) Recognizing and producing rhyming words or patterns
2) Orally breaking down words into syllables or sounds
3) Identifying whether a specific sound occurs at the beginning, middle
or end of a word
4) Identifying the number of sounds in a word
5) Manipulating the sound within the word
6) Blending phonemes to make a word
7) Comprehension of letter-sound relationships
8) Decoding words
9) Rapid-naming tasks
10) Repeating multisyllabic words

If you have concerns about your child's phonological skills you should have a
speech-language evaluation completed to determine if they would benefit
from therapy designed to improve their phonological awareness skills.
Research has indicated that carefully planned instruction can develop these
critical phonological awareness skills and thus have a positive impact on the
child's reading and spelling skills. Do not wait until they are in school and
struggling with reading. There is a great deal of research that indicates that
therapy designed to address phonological awareness skills is beneficial for
children as young as 4 years of age and that if therapy has begun before the
child has learned to read that it assists the child in acquiring reading skills.

Independentspeech.com ~ 28731 N 25th Glen, Phoenix, AZ 85085 ~ 877-480-

7913
To speak with a speech pathologist about your child's phonological
awareness skills, please feel free to call us at 1-877-480-7913 or visit our
website at www.independentspeech.com to learn more about online speech
therapy and how it may benefit your child.

Research Articles
(Adams, 1990; Liberman, Shankweiler, Fischer, & Carter, 1974).
(Ehri & Wilce, 1980, 1985; Liberman et al., 1974; Perfetti, Beck, Bell, &
Hughes, 1987)
(Calfee, Lindamood, & Lindamood, 1973; Shankweiler et al., 1995).
(Ball & Blachman, 1991; Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley,
1989, 1991; O'Connor, Jenkins, Leicester, & Slocum, 1993).
(Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1991).
(Smith et al. 1998)

Independentspeech.com ~ 28731 N 25th Glen, Phoenix, AZ 85085 ~ 877-480-

7913