Three most important phonemic awareness skills
There are many phonemic awareness skills and while each one is important, research shows that three skills are of primary importance. They are isolation, segmenting, and blending.
Isolation means being able to hear individual sounds in words, to isolate each sound, or to hear each sound in isolation. “Sun” = /s/ /u/ /n/
Blending, of course, is putting sounds together. “What does /s/ and /u/ say together?” /su/ “Now, what does /s/ /u/ /n/ say together? ~ sun!
Segmenting is breaking the word down into syllables. [Doctor = doc tor] Children easily pick up on clapping syllables. For example, elephant has three syllables. Clap and say a syllable each time you clap: el ~ e ~ phant. Another way I taught children to segment was to put their thumb on their chin. Each time your chin goes down, it’s a syllable.
Sounds very simplistic doesn’t it? Yes, it does, but look farther on down the road. Every syllable in our language has a vowel. If a child can segment a word into syllables and they know each syllable needs a vowel, can you see how that would aid in spelling? Also, the brain remembers “segments” of words and will recognize those segments to read new words. Segmenting a word into syllables can aid tremendously in reading and spelling. Looking down the road a bit can help us realize why those seemingly simplistic skills, that seem like optional fun, really are the building blocks of tomorrow’s successful reader.
Keep laying that foundation, Mom! You’re doing a great job!
Happy Reading!
Kay
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Reading 101 ~ Phonemic Awareness ~ Pt. 3 is a post from www.homeschoolreadingspecialist.com
Hi Kay. Although I’m not a homeschool mother, I am a reading/special education teacher who loves to read and learn what others suggest for reading instruction. May I make a suggestion for segmenting syllables that I have found much easier for students that struggle, especially with a learning disability. Clapping and the “chin” drop sometimes is a difficult process for students who can not do “to many” steps at one time. Instead, I have my students hum the word and count each hum with their fingers. So, elephant would have 3 hums and 3 fingers up. This process increases segmenting syllable knowledge and reduces the frustration of multiple steps that many students can not conduct at one time.
You are so right, Denise. Humming is what I do when it is hard to tell where the syllable break is. Thanks for this comment.