The Importance of Phonemic Awareness in Learning to Read

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Learning to read is the most important milestone in a child's academic life. One foundational skill necessary for early and long-term reading success is phonemic awareness.  Phonemic awareness, the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words, is where the journey to proficient reading starts, and is a significant predictor of future reading achievement.

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Understanding Phonemic Awareness

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Phonics, a term which many of us are familiar with involves sound-symbol relationship, for example, a says /a/ as in apple. Phonemic awareness isolates the sound or the phoneme and focuses only on a student's ability to manipulate those sounds separate from their associated symbols.

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The National Reading Panel (2000) found that phonemic awareness is a critical predictor of a child’s ability to read and spell. Children who develop phonemic awareness skills early on are more likely to become proficient readers. Students who benefitted included:

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    Normally developing readers
    Children at risk for future reading problems
    Disabled readers
    Preschoolers
    Kindergartners
    1st graders
    2nd through 6th graders (most of whom were disabled readers)
    Children across various SES levels
    Children learning to read in English and other languages.

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The Role of Phonemic Awareness in Reading

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   Phonemic awareness facilitates several key aspects of reading:

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1. Letter-sound correspondences: Children can learn to identify individual sounds in words, such as the /d/ sound in the words "dog," "dish," and "mad".

2. Blending sounds: Children can blend sounds to decode words.

3. Segmenting sounds: Children can break words into syllables, such as clapping out the syllables in the word "butterfly" as "b/u/-ter-fly".

4. Manipulating phonemes: Children can substitute, reverse, or delete phonemes.

5. Decoding Skills: Phonemic awareness helps children decode words by sounding them out. This skill is essential for reading unfamiliar words and contributes significantly to reading fluency.

6. Spelling: Understanding that words are made up of individual sounds allows children to spell words correctly. Children can better grasp spelling patterns when they can segment words into their phonemic components.

7. Comprehension: While it may seem that phonemic awareness is far removed from comprehension, the two are interconnected. Children who struggle to decode words efficiently often expend so much cognitive energy on decoding that they have little left to comprehend the text.
    

The Statistics Speak Volumes
 

The impact of phonemic awareness on reading is well-documented through various studies:
 

• The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that 88% of poor readers in the first grade displayed weak phonemic awareness skills. Conversely, students with strong phonemic awareness were significantly less likely to encounter reading difficulties.

• A study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology revealed that kindergarten students who received phonemic awareness training demonstrated significantly higher reading achievement by the end of second grade compared to those who did not receive such training.
   

Implementing Phonemic Awareness in the Classroom
 

Given its importance, how can educators effectively incorporate phonemic awareness into their teaching?

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1. Start Early: Phonemic awareness instruction should begin in preschool and continue through the early elementary years.

2. Curriculum: Choose an excellent curriculum.

3. Explicit Instruction: Teach phonemic awareness explicitly and systematically.
    

Conclusion

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Phonemic awareness is a vital component of early reading instruction that lays the groundwork for successful decoding, spelling, and comprehension skills. The statistics underscore its significance. By making phonemic awareness a priority in the classroom, educators can help ensure that every child develops the foundation necessary for reading success.