Phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics sound very similar and are all important components of reading. In order to read, a child needs an understanding of phonics. To acquire phonics, he or she must develop phonemic awareness. To develop phonemic awareness, the child must first have phonological awareness. The foundation for literacy success is laid early in a child’s life, long before he or she picks up a book.

Phonological awareness is a group of skills. It is the first step in the journey toward reading development, and phonemic awareness and phonics are destinations along the way. Phonological awareness develops as a child learns to listen to, identify, and manipulate the sounds in spoken language. It ranges from early skills such as naming rhyming words in a song or story to phonemic awareness skills such as creating new words by adding, deleting, and changing sounds from another word (e.g., changing the M in the word “mat” to an H changes the word to “hat.”)

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear individual sounds (phonemes) or sound units in spoken words. It is also understanding that syllables and words are composed of a sequence of phonemes. When a student can hear that the word “cat” consists of three phonemes or sounds, she is practicing phonemic awareness. Without establishing a strong base of phonological awareness, a child will struggle to develop phonemic awareness. Research shows that strong phonemic awareness skills are a strong predictor of reading success.

Phonics, simply put, is understanding the relationship between a letter symbol and a phoneme, otherwise known as a letter sound. For example, when a student learns that the letter D has the sound /d/ or “d,” she is learning phonics. Phonics involves the written form of language and is integral to both reading and writing. If the written form of language is a puzzle, then phonics is the final piece. However, without phonological awareness skills, particularly phonemic awareness, a child will struggle to make sense of phonics.

Children are never too young to work on phonological awareness. Singing familiar songs like “Row Your Boat” or reading nursery rhymes at bedtime exposes children to rhyming, rhythm, and alliteration. Practicing skills like syllable clapping or playing “I Spy” are easy things to do during routines already in place such as riding to and from school, sitting down for dinner, or getting ready for bed. The more often children are exposed to language activities supporting phonological awareness, the more likely they are to obtain the keys to the literacy kingdom.