Children typically learn to manipulate whole words before moving on to individual sounds.  Skills tend to develop in the order presented here.  Click on a skill to see practice activity ideas.

Word Level Manipulations:

1. Blending Syllables: When the syllables of a word are said with spaces in between, the child can put them back together to tell what the word is (“bu – tter – fly = butterly”)

2. Segmenting Syllables: When given a multi-syllabic word, the child can separate the word out into its individual syllables (“butterfly = bu – tter – fly”)

3. Rhyme Detection: When given two words, they can tell if the two words rhyme

4. Rhyme Production: When given a word, they can come up with a word that rhymes

Beginning and Ending Sounds:

1. Alliteration: Children can first identify if a word starts with a given sound (“does ‘toe’ start with /t/?”); then children learn to identify if two words begin with the same sound

2. Final Sounds: The same phonological awareness skills can be used on final/ending sounds as on beginning sounds.

Sound Manipulation Skills:

1. Blending Sounds: When the sounds of a word are spoken with spaces between, the child can put them together to make the word (“c…a…t = cat”)

2. Segmenting Sounds: When a word is spoken, the child can separate out the individual sounds of the word (“cat = c…a…t”)

3. Manipulating Sounds in Words: Child is able to create new words when a word is spoken and then the child is told to change one sound from the word (“what happens if you take the word “bat” and you replace the /t/ with a /g/”)

Source: Paulson, Lucy Hart, “The development of phonological awareness skills in preschool children: From syllables to phonemes” (2004). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 9522. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/9522 

Several of these skills have been closely linked to success in learning to read and spell. Children who require speech therapy are at a higher risk for reading problems later on so developing strong phonological awareness skills in children with speech delays can be extremely helpful in learning to read. Even children without speech delays benefit from strong phonological awareness skills before formal instruction on reading.

Phonological awareness skills can also be helpful for older children who have difficulty sounding out words to read or spell them.

Phonological awareness skills begin to develop in the preschool years. This means, you can start working on these skills around age 3 years. These continue to develop up through formal reading instruction, about age 6-7 years. However, older children can benefit from these skills as well, especially if they are struggling with reading or spelling.

Phonological awareness skills are great for families, teachers, and therapists to work on because you really don’t need any materials to do them. You can practice while waiting in line at the grocery store, while walking down the hall to speech therapy, or while sitting in the closet during the fire drill. Here are some tips on teaching each skill:

Here are some sample IEP goals that can be used for targeting phonological awareness skills.  Remember to individualize these goals to what each child needs:

1. Rhyming: When provided with a word, Client will name a word that rhymes with 80% accuracy.
2. Segmenting Words into Syllables: Client will correctly segment a word into individual syllables by clapping out each syllable with 80% accuracy.
3. Syllable Blending: After hearing the syllables of a word separated out (“um…bre…lla”), Client will blend the syllables back together to make the full word with 80% accuracy.
4. Alliteration: When provided with a word, Client will name a word that starts with the same beginning sound with 80% accuracy.
5. Identifying Same Final Sounds: When provided with a word, Client will name a word that ends with the same final sound with 80% accuracy.
6. Segmenting Words into Individual Sounds: consonant-vowel (CV), vowel-consonant (VC), and consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) Client will correctly segment CV, VC, and CVC words into individual sounds by saying each sound in isolation with 80% accuracy.
7. Segmenting Words into Individual Sounds: CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC Client will correctly segment CCVC, CVCC, and CCVCC words into individual sounds by saying each sound in isolation with 80% accuracy.
8. Sound Blending: After hearing the individual sounds of a word separated out (“d..o…g”), Client will blend the sounds back together to produce the full word with 80% accuracy.
9. Manipulating Sounds in Words: Client will follow directions to manipulate one sound in a word to create a new word (“cough” without the /k/ makes “off”) with 80% accuracy.
10. Letter-sound Correspondences: Client will produce the sound that a particular letter makes with 80% accuracy.

Below are activities you can use to practice each of the different phonological awareness skills.  For more resources on teaching phonological awareness, click here to purchase our no-prep therapy kit.

• Tell the child, I’m going to say some syllables, I want you to put them back together and tell me what word they make. Then, say the syllables of a word with pauses in between, like “um….bre…lla”.
• Start with 2-syllable words and work your way up to longer words.
• If the child is having trouble, try combining two or more syllables together, like “um…brella” or “umbre….lla”. Then, work toward separating them back out.

• Have the child practice clapping out syllables with you as you segment a word. Say “We’re going to segment the word “umbrella”. Let’s find out how many syllables are in that word. Um…bre…lla. (clap once for each syllable). I heard 3 syllables. Clap with me: “um…bre…lla”.
• Practice doing other actions besides clapping while segmenting words. You can stomp, jump, etc.
• Segment/clap out a word for the child and then have him repeat it back to you.
• Have the child practice clapping/segmenting words by himself.
• Have the child count the number of syllables after clapping it out.

• Read rhyming books with the child. Point out the words that rhyme.
• When you hear two words that rhyme, point them out to the child by using this script (fill in whatever words you’re using): “pot, cot. Hey those rhyme! They both end with “ot”. Listen, pot, cot.”
• Help the child come up with lists of words that rhyme, such as hat, cat, sat, mat. See how many words you can find that rhyme with each one.
• Ask the child if two words rhyme. Say “Do these words rhyme? Dog, cat”. If the child isn’t able to tell, explain it using the script above or by saying “No, those words don’t rhyme. Dog ends in “og” and cat ends in “at”. Dog, Cat. They don’t rhyme.”
• Ask the child to come up with a word that rhymes with a word that you say.

• Point out to the child what sound words start with. You can say “Hey, ball starts with the “buh” sound. Listen, buh..buh..ball.” Use words that are meaningful to the child like her name or favorite toys.
• Help the child come up with a list of words that all start with the same sound: “ball, boy, bat”, etc.
• Ask the child to come up with a word that starts the same way as another word: “what’s a word that starts with the same sound as ball?”
• Ask the child to tell you what sound a word starts with.

• Point out to the child what sound words end with. You can say “Hey, bat ends with the “t” sound. Listen, baT.” Use words that are meaningful to the child like her name or favorite toys.
• Help the child come up with a list of words that all end with the same sound: “bat, cot, boat”, etc.
• Ask the child to come up with a word that ends the same way as another word: “what’s a word that ends with the same sound as cat?”
• Ask the child to tell you what sound a word ends with.

• Start with short words like you did with segmenting. Separate the sounds out and say each sound of the word separately with a pause in between. Remember to say the sounds you hear, not the letters that spell it. Sometimes two letters make up a single sound in English. Examples: c…a…t, .oa….t, u…p, s…m…e…ll
• If the child is having trouble with words that are longer than two sounds, try combining two of the sounds for a while. For example, you could do “c…at” or “ca….t”. Then, work your way back to separating out all sounds.

• Demonstrate segmenting a word out into its individual sounds. For example, for “cat” you would say “c..a…t”. Think about sounds and not spelling. For example, for change, you would say “ch…a…n…..ge” not “c..h…a..n…g…e”. You can clap out each sound if that helped the child before. Have the child listen to this and then do it along with you.
• Start with short words first. Start with consonant-vowel (CV) words like “to” and “go” or try vowel-consonant (VC) words like “up” and “eat”. Once the child can do that, move on to CVC words like “cup” or “cat”. Next would be CCVC words like “trip”, CVCC words like “best”, and CCVCC words like “traps”.
• Segment out a word for the child and then have him repeat it back.
• Have the child segment out a word for you. If he has trouble, try having him do the first or the last sound and then help him with the rest.

• Ask the child to tell you what would happen if you took a letter off of a word. For example, say what would be left if we took the “p” off of “pot”?
• Ask the child to tell you what would happen if you switched one letter out for another one. (What would happen if we changed the “p” in “pot” to a “t”?)
• Practice some pig-latin. Take the beginning consonant(s) from a word and put it on the end of the word followed by the “ay” sound. For example, cat would be “at-cay” and smelly would be “elly-smay”.

• Talk about what sounds are made by which letters. (The letter b makes the “buh” sound)
• Point out letters and print in books in the child’s environment. Say what those letters are called and tell the child what sounds they make.
• Ask the child to tell you what sound a certain letter makes (What sound does the letter “b” make?)
• Ask the child to tell you what letter makes a certain sound (What letter makes the “buh” sound?)