Read Part 1 of this 2-part article
This is the second in a series based on the findings of the National Early Literacy Panel (2002) and the instructional practices that best support emergent literacy in children from birth to 5 years old. Their report, Developing Early Literacy (2008), identified a set of foundational abilities developed in the preschool years that strongly predict later reading success.
The SEEDS of Learning Professional Learning Framework for 3–5-year-olds created the Big 5 Early Literacy Skills based on the 11 literacy-related variables that consistently predict conventional literacy outcomes. The relationship between these variables and their positive outcomes is significant, highly reliable, and stable.
For memory and ease of recall, the 11 variables have been combined into the “Big 5” early literacy predictors:
- Oral language
- Phonological awareness
- Print concepts
- Alphabetic principle
- Vocabulary and meaning
Our first article discussed oral language. Below we take a close look at phonological awareness and share important updates from the growing body of science of reading research that is refining how we should teach it.
The Components of Phonological Awareness: What to Teach and When
Each component of phonological awareness has value—but the instructional priority and timing matter.
Phoneme Awareness (Priority Focus)
What it is: Identifying and manipulating the individual sounds (phonemes) in words. For example, cat has three phonemes: /k/, /æ/, /t/.
Why it’s important: Phoneme awareness is the skill most directly connected to decoding and spelling. When children can hear and think about individual sounds in words, they are ready to learn which letters represent those sounds—and learning to read accelerates.
How to teach it: Begin with initial sound isolation using CVC words. Link each phoneme immediately to its corresponding letter. Use letter tiles for blending, segmenting, and manipulation activities. Progress from simple to complex syllables.
Rhyming
What it is: The repetition of sounds at the end of words (cat, hat, bat).
Updated perspective: Rhyming is an enjoyable part of early childhood literacy. Nursery rhymes and songs expose children to language’s sound structure in a natural way. However, research does not support requiring mastery of rhyme production or recognition before beginning phoneme awareness instruction. Children with limited vocabularies may find generating rhymes particularly difficult, and it should not be a gating skill.
Alliteration
What it is: The occurrence of the same consonant sound at the start of words—for instance, “baby bear blows blue bubbles.”
Updated perspective: Alliteration can actually support early phoneme awareness. Using alliterative sequences to draw attention to a beginning sound (e.g., “Tommy talks to Tess—/t/ /t/ /t/ /t/!”) can be a natural bridge to focusing on initial phonemes. This makes alliteration a tool for phoneme work, rather than a separate prerequisite skill.
Sentence Segmentation
What it is: Breaking sentences into individual words.
Role in instruction: Helpful for building early understanding that language has structure, but not a prerequisite for phoneme awareness work. Counting words on fingers in a familiar sentence is a simple, low-stakes activity.
Syllable Awareness
What it is: Breaking words into syllable parts and blending them together.
Updated perspective: Syllable awareness has clear value—but primarily in the context of spelling and decoding multisyllabic words, not as a prerequisite to phoneme awareness. Teachers can introduce the concept that every syllable must have a vowel when children are beginning to write one-syllable words, and revisit syllables when teaching syllable types and division strategies for longer words. Clapping syllables as a standalone activity does not need to be a major instructional block in the path to phoneme awareness.
Onset and Rime
What it is: Separating a word into the initial consonant sound (onset) and everything else (rime). In fan, /f/ is the onset and /an/ is the rime.
Updated perspective: Onset-rime awareness may help children begin noticing that words can be broken into sound chunks. However, it is not a necessary stepping stone to phoneme awareness. Research does not support an onset-rime structure as a required precursor in children’s explicit phoneme awareness development.
How to Support Children’s Phoneme Awareness Development
Phoneme awareness is a purely auditory practice at its foundation, but it becomes most powerful when linked with print. Here are evidence-aligned strategies.
Target Initial Phonemes First
Ask: “What is the first sound in map?” Begin with words where the initial phoneme is not part of a blend (CVC words). Choose phonemes produced near the front of the mouth that can be stretched out—like /m/, /f/, /s/—as these are easier to perceive and demonstrate.
Link Phonemes to Letters Immediately
Once a child identifies the /m/ in map, show the letter m and say: “The letter m stands for that sound.” Let the child trace or write the letter. This begins building the alphabetic principle—the insight that letters represent sounds—right from the start.
Use Names
Children are naturally motivated by their own names. “What is the first sound in Sam? /s/! And here is the letter s that stands for /s/.” This makes the phoneme–grapheme connection personal and memorable.
Comparing and Sorting Sounds
Compare initial sounds with picture cards: “Do these two words start with the same sound?” Sorting pictures by their beginning phoneme into piles (e.g., /m/ vs. /s/) builds categorization and reinforces phoneme identity.
Build Words with Letter Tiles
Once a small set of phonemes and letters is known (e.g., a, m, s, f, l, i, t, p), children can begin building words like sat, map, lip, fit. Manipulation tasks—adding, removing, or switching letters—reinforce phoneme awareness while simultaneously building decoding and spelling skills.
Use Mirrors for Articulation Awareness
Have children observe where in their mouths they produce specific sounds. Focusing on the articulatory features of a phoneme—where the tongue is, whether lips are involved, whether the sound can be stretched—helps children perceive and distinguish sounds.
Environmental Sound Games
Listening games that develop general auditory discrimination—identifying sounds indoors and outdoors, guessing sounds—build the listening attention that underpins phoneme awareness work.
A Note on PreK Instruction
The goal for PreK is to send children into kindergarten with some beginning phoneme awareness skill, corresponding letter knowledge, and a beginning understanding that each sound has a letter (or letter team) that stands for it. This is an achievable and meaningful target.
Rather than spending the bulk of PreK time on rhyming activities, consider:
- Working on initial phoneme identification in CVC words (beginning with consonants produced near the front of the mouth)
- Linking each phoneme to its corresponding letter and practicing letter recognition, tracing, and beginning writing
- Using alliteration playfully to highlight beginning sounds
- Progressing to final phonemes in CVC words once initial phoneme awareness is solid across a range of sounds
Nursery rhymes and jingles remain enjoyable and can enrich language experience—but they do not need to be formal instructional units with mastery checkpoints as a prerequisite for phoneme work.
Don’t Overlook Oral Language
For many students—particularly those from low socioeconomic circumstances or those learning English as a second language—oral language development is an equally critical area of focus. Building vocabulary and the ability to connect ideas in speech (using cohesive language structures like because, so, when, before, after, instead) lays the foundation for listening comprehension initially and reading comprehension later.
If children are using only the most basic connective language (and, and then), building their oral language skills through structured conversation, storytelling, and retelling is time very well spent alongside phoneme awareness work.
Supporting Second Language Learners and Speakers of Different Dialects
Students whose home language is not General American English face additional phonological learning demands. Second language learners must become consciously aware of English phonemes that do not exist in their native language. For example, Spanish-speaking students learning English may confuse /sh/ (not present in Spanish phonology) with /ch/, which exists in both languages.
Speakers of African American English (AAE) may also encounter phoneme awareness tasks differently, given that AAE has its own systematic phonological rules that differ from General American English in specific ways (such as consonant cluster reduction at the end of words).
Teachers should be well informed about these differences to provide appropriate support—including extra attention to the specific phonemes that are challenging for a given learner’s language background—while affirming the linguistic richness of students’ home languages and dialects.
Assessing Phoneme Awareness
Assessment should mirror the developmental sequence of phoneme awareness. Effective assessment:
- Tests phoneme position sequentially: initial → final → medial (for simple syllables), then internal consonants in blends
- Includes isolation and identification tasks (“What is the first sound in ‘bus’?”)
- Includes blending and segmentation tasks
- Incorporates word-building with letters to assess both phoneme awareness and letter–sound knowledge together
- Avoids oral-only manipulation tasks as the primary measure, as these tap orthographic knowledge in skilled readers and may not identify genuine phoneme awareness gaps of struggling readers
Assessment batteries that heavily emphasize phonological sensitivity measures (rhyme, syllable counting, etc.) before reaching phoneme-level measures may provide misleading results or simply delay identification of the phoneme awareness skills that matter most.
Key Takeaways for Educators
1. Begin phoneme awareness instruction right away in kindergarten (and in PreK when possible), rather than working through a sequence of phonological sensitivity tasks as prerequisites.
2. Link phonemes to letters from the start. Instruction that integrates phoneme awareness with letter names, letter sounds, and handwriting produces stronger outcomes than oral-only phoneme work.
3. Follow the developmental sequence: initial phonemes → final phonemes → medial vowel (in simple syllables) → internal consonants in complex syllables with blends.
4. Use phonological sensitivity activities (rhyme, syllables) purposefully for vocabulary, enjoyment, and poetry writing—but not as a required gateway to phoneme instruction.
5. Differentiate instruction based on assessment. Know where each student is in their phoneme awareness development and teach from there.
6. It is never too late. Phoneme awareness can be developed at any age with appropriate instruction.
Resources:
Brady, S. (2020). A 2020 perspective on research findings on alphabetics (phoneme awareness and phonics): Implications for instruction. The Reading League Journal, 1(3), 20–28.
Susan Brady webinar Q&A: Phoneme Awareness: How Knowledge About This Component of the Science of Reading Has Evolved. Reading Simplified. https://readingsimplified.com/susan-brady-phoneme-awareness/
Gritt, A., & Standish, K. (2024, Winter). Word play throughout the day: Phonological awareness in the preschool classroom. Teaching Young Children, 17(2). https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/winter2024/word-play-throughout-the-day
International Dyslexia Association. (2022). Building phoneme awareness: Know what matters [Fact sheet].
Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rehfeld, D., Kirkpatrick, M., O’Guinn, N. & Renbarger, R. (2022). A meta-analysis of phonemic awareness instruction provided to children suspected of having a reading disability. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53, 1177–1201.
Shanahan, T. (2016, March 28). What phonological awareness skill should we be screening? Shanahan on Literacy. https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/what-phonological-awareness-skill-should-we-be-screening
Related:
Developing the Big 5 Early Literacy Skills: Oral Language
Early Childhood Strategies to Support Oral Language and Vocabulary
Play vs. Learning: A False Dichotomy in Early Childhood Education
Early Childhood Solutions from Collaborative Classroom
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