3. Levels of Phonological Awareness
(extracts from ‘Phonological Awareness – from Research to Practice’ – Gail T Gillon)
SYLLABLE AWARENESS
Phonological awareness at the syllable level requires an awareness that words can be divided
into syllables. Understanding that a word such as number can be divided into num-ber is an
example of syllable awareness.
Tasks used to evaluate children’s awareness of the syllable structure of words include:
 Syllable segmentation eg ‘How many syllable (or parts) in the word coffee?’
 Syllable completion eg ‘Here is a picture of a rabbit. I’ll say the first part of the word.
Can you finish the word ra______?’
 Syllable identity eg ‘Which part of compete and compare sound the same?’
 Syllable deletion eg ‘Say finish. Now say it again without the fin.’
ONSET-RIME AWARENESS
‘Onset-rime awareness requires an understanding that syllables and words can be divided
into onset-rime. Eg, in the word sit, the s is the onset of the syllable, and it is the rime of
the syllable. In the word start, st is the onset and art is the rime unit of the syllable. Most
commonly, this level of awareness is measured through rhyming tasks, because in order to
understand that words rhyme, there first must be an awareness that the words share a
common ending (rime unit) that can be separated from the beginning of the word (onset).
Different measures of onset-rime awareness include:
 Spoken rhyme recognition eg ‘Do these words rhyme: shell bell?’
 Spoken rhyme detection or rhyme oddity task eg ‘Which word does not rhyme:
fish, dish, hook?’
 Spoken rhyme generation eg ‘Tell me words that rhyme with bell.’
 Onset-rime blending eg ‘What word do I get if I blend (join) c
at (cat)
sh
op (shop)
Teaching Rhyming Skills should NOT be the major focus of the preventative programme.
Rather the programme MUST progress to activities that improve the child’s phonological
awareness skills at the phoneme level.
Helping children gain success in understanding the written code by understanding the
links between speech and print, MUST be the key focus!
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
A third way that a word can be broken down into smaller parts is by using the individual
sound or phoneme level. A “phoneme” is defined as the smallest unit of sound that influences
the meaning of a word. Eg The word tree has three phonemes: /t/ /r/ /ee/. If one of these
phonemes is changed, a new word or non-word will be created. eg if the first phoneme is
changed from /t/ to /f/, the word free would be heard.
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Phonemes are an abstract concept. When words are spoken, the listener does not hear the
separated phonemes in words. Rather, phonemes are blended into syllables within the sound
stream. Individuals must learn to perceive phonemes in speech.
A range of phonological awareness activities at the phoneme level is necessary to develop
children’s skills in
1) Phoneme Identity (identifying sounds in words)
2) Phoneme Blending (blending sounds to form words)
3) Phoneme Segmentation (segmenting words into individual sounds)
4) Phoneme Manipulation (identifying and describing sound changes in words through
deletion/addition of a sound or substitution of a sound)
PHONEME IDENTITY
 Games involving identification of sounds – beginning/end of words
 Activities that involve grouping of pictures based on a target initial or final
sound.
 Activities that require selection of odd-one-out based on initial or final sound.
- odd picture eg pictures of fish, phone, boat
- odd spoken word eg box, dog, socks
 Initial phoneme Bingo Games where pictures are matched if start with the same
sound.
 Picture card Games – word pairs, memory, snap – involving pictures that have
the same sound at the beginning/ the end/ or the middle
PHONEME SEGMENTATION and BLENDING
 Picture cards and use of coloured blocks/pegs to represent differing phonemes.
eg Picture of horse. Use of pegs/coloured blocks to show sounds in ‘h-or-se,
b-ar-n, h-ay, m-a-ne, t-ai-l, l-e-g-s,
 What’s my Word? – sounds in word have been stretched out.
 How Many Sounds in ____? eg horse (3), barn (3), hay (2)
 Speech to Print – use of sound boxes to record sounds
in words where each box represents one sound.
 Bingo Game with numbers 2/3/4 on the cards. Words called out that contain 2,
3 or 4 phonemes eg dog (3), farm (4), egg (2)
PHONEME MANIPULATION
PHONEME DELETION or ADDITION
 2 Sounds or 4? eg ‘My first word is make. My next word is ache. Have I added a
sound or taken a sound away and where? (taken away the first/m/)
 What’s left? Deleting or Adding – Initial, Final or Medial phonemes
eg ‘Say bark. Now say bark without the /b/ (ark)
PHONEME SUBSTITUTION
1. Word Building by manipulating onsets
New words can be made by swapping the onsets in words. One syllable words lend themselves
to this task. eg “Listen to the word – big. What new word would we make if we swapped the
/b/ in big for a /d/ (dig), or a /p/ (pig)
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2. Word Building by manipulating final sounds
New words can be made by swapping the final sounds in words.
“Listen to this word – big. What new word would we make if we swapped the /g/ in big for a
/n/ (bin), for a /t/ (bit)
3. Word Building by manipulating onsets, final and medial sounds
“Listen to this word – cat. What new word would we make if we swapped the /c/ for a /b/
(bat), the /t/ for a /n/ (ban), the /a/ for an /i/ (bin)
 Identifying Sound changes using coloured blocks/pegs
 Use of letters in Sound Boxes to identify sound changes
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