How To Improve Children’s Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is recognition of the spoken language. When people converse with others, they develop this skill. Over time, children will learn that colloquialisms are made up of words, syllables and phonemes.

Once children develop this skill, they can begin to manipulate sounds in their spoken language. When this happens they will be able to recognize letters visually. Therefore, printed figures should not be used to develop phonological awareness to ensure that no steps are skipped in this process.

The following activities will help you recognize sounds before you begin literary exercises.

Exercises to develop phonological awareness

The listening game

The first sounds a child will learn to recognize are those that occur in everyday life. 

• Ask children to sit in silence for a few minutes.
• Then ask them what they heard during these minutes.
• They will probably mention the sound of cars, the opening and closing of doors and the air-conditioning.

The onomatopoeia game

This game is perfect to do with the family.

• Sit in a circle and have your child sit in the center with his or her eyes closed.

• Then have someone stand up, walk somewhere and make an animal noise there.
• The child should point to where the sound came from. This game is important because it improves auditory skills and concentration.

Rhymes to improve phonological awareness

Rhymes are also very good for improving phonological awareness. They help children realize that there are sounds that sound almost the same and help them imitate patterns in language.

The best way to use rhymes in everyday life is to sing songs and read poetry and riddles. Don’t hesitate to articulate some words well as this will make the activity a lot more fun.

The photo game

Once children are familiar with rhymes, you can challenge them even more.

• Take a box and put in it pictures of objects that rhyme with each other.
• Your child should then take the pictures from the box and combine them with the other picture that rhymes with the word.

The syllable game

Understanding how to divide words into syllables is an important foundation for spelling and understanding the elements of language. The whole family can participate in this activity.

• Sit in a circle and have each family member say their name while clapping by syllable.
• Then move on to longer words.
• You can also use photos to name things or look around and name the objects around you.

A syllable song that promotes phonological awareness

Syllable songs help children learn how to divide words into syllables.

As you can see, phonological awareness is an important skill for proper development and other communication skills. That is why it is essential to stimulate this skill through simple activities such as the games we have mentioned in this article.

Remember that it is very important to improve your child’s listening skills so that they can develop their literacy skills.