by Laura Berkowitz M. Ed.

“Phonological Awareness”, “Phonemic Awareness”

If you haven’t heard these phrases before and you are the parent of a young child, you will!

Although the latter refers to a slightly more advanced skill, in conversations, these are often

used interchangeably.  A “phoneme” is the technical name for a sound, which is represented by a letter.  An older child with good phonemic awareness will know that there are three different sounds in the word BIG, a younger child with good phonological awareness will know that PIG and WIG rhyme with BIG, even if they can’t isolate the precise number of sounds in these words.  Thus, in general, these phrases refer to your child’s growing awareness that words are made up of separate sounds, which is essential for learning to read and write.  Many formal and informal activities build this awareness.

In order to increase your child’s phonological awareness, pay attention to the words you hear, and point out similar sounds at the beginning, middle or end of a word.  For example, if your child is dressing up as a wicked witch or a scary skeleton for Halloween, be sure to point out that wicked and witch, or scary and skeleton have the same beginning sounds. Then ask “What sound do you hear at the beginning of wwwwicked and wwwitch?” Of course, reinforce the answer, no matter what it is.  If your child says “h”, say,  “Good try! The sound at the beginning of wwwwitch is a ‘w’, just like ‘window’ and winter’.” Remember that beginning sounds are easier to hear and will be learned first.  Don’t expect the same ease of responding if you ask about the ending sounds or (even harder) the middle sounds.  Another fun game is to make up riddles as you are driving in the car or sitting at the dinner table.  For example:  “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with “my”, but we eat it for dessert...”  Feel free to add clues if your child doesn’t respond fairly quickly, such as:  “My favorite kind is pumpkin…”  You can take it further using the same rhyme: “Another word that rhymes with ‘my’ and ‘pie’ is something I do when I’m very sad. Once children become aware of the concept of rhyming, most will find “rhymes” everywhere, but many won’t actually be rhymes.  This is fine and is to be encouraged.  For example, if your child says “Cheese, chips… Daddy, they rhyme!” instead of saying “No, those don’t actually rhyme, honey”, say “Great job, you heard that they both start with CH sound! You know rhymes with chips:  sips, dips, nips and lips.”  Any form of word play, even nonsensical

rhyming practice builds phonological awareness.

There are many artists recording great music for children and virtually all of it reinforces phonological awareness.  Your local library probably has a selection and much of it is enjoyable for adults as well as children.  This is important because you will have to listen to some of this music possibly thousands of times.  I have also found collections of children’s music for sale on e-bay.  Although you may end up with a few recordings you don’t like, the mileage you’ll get out of the gems you find can make the whole purchase worthwhile. The recordings produced by Sesame Street make rhyming and word play into high art that’s fun for everyone and of course children love to make up their own rhyming songs, which can get pretty funny.  If you can’t wade through the abundance of books that increase phonological awareness, I have yet to find anything that beats Dr. Suess for creative rhyming.

In kindergarten children continue to learn about how books and print work.  To enhance your child’s understanding of books in general, it is fun to talk about the author of each book you read.   At least, after reading the title aloud, also read the names of the author and illustrator.  Often children’s books include their pictures on the back flap with child-friendly biographical information, such as the name of their dog or how they got the idea to write the book.  Also point out when the author has illustrated her own book.  If you are reading a chapter book, read chapter numbers and titles to increase awareness of the flow of a longer story.   To build comprehension abilities you and your child can make predictions about what might happen in the story based upon chapter titles.  (Predicting is a wonderful activity to do at any point in any book, even a picture book!)  Be sure to look over a book’s table of contents and explain how it is used.  If a book has a glossary or index at the back, talk about these as well.  Another good text awareness builder is to decide how to mark a book you have not yet finished.  At our house when we didn’t have a bookmark handy, we had to think of other ways to remember where we left off.  This led to a brainstorming session and experimentation.  Some nights we memorized page numbers and other nights we used pictures cues (we are two pages past the picture of the boy in the canoe).  I am sure your family can figure out other ways to come back to the place you left off and the discussion could lead to an examination of paragraphs, sentences or the first word of a section.

Kindergarten children can begin to appreciate books as sources of information and as doorways to further learning and deeper understanding.  Asking questions while reading is a great way to stimulate good thinking.  Looking at a cover you could ask:  What do you think this book is going to be about?  Once you start reading you may stop to ask:  What do you think is going to happen next?  I wonder how she’s going to get out of this mess!  What would you do in this situation?  At the end of a book you might reflect on other ways the plot could have gone, or how your child might have felt in those situations.  Do you think you would have liked living out on the prairie?    What would be the best part of it for you? Finally, encourage your child to illustrate scenes, act them out or write (or dictate) additional scenes.  Introduce non-fiction books by choosing those on topics your child is unfamiliar with but might be interested in.  Be sure to explain new words or concepts and answer all questions.  Not knowing the answer to your child’s question provides the perfect opportunity to return to the library and model the use of books (and librarians) to get answers.

Your child’s growing reading skills are accompanied by and reinforced by his early attempts at writing.  Just as you have book stashes around the house, leave scrap paper and writing utensils in places your child can reach without help.  And, just as you sent him to go read a book, you can send him off to: “Go write me a story” or “Go write a letter to Nana.” By the end of kindergarten most children will be able to write most of the letters of the alphabet and even spell some words correctly.  The desire to write comes naturally and begins with his own name.  But, even before your child can manipulate a pencil and form letters, he can play with magnetic letters on the refrigerator and soft ones in the bathtub . Access to a keyboard can also facilitate letter recognition and enable children to experiment with writing.  Make some time to take dictation, as well.  This is a good way to produce thank you notes, letters to Santa, or notes to other friends.   Label your child’s drawings with his descriptions of what he has drawn.  Eventually, your child will begin to write on his own with all sorts of creative spellings and letter shapes.  If your child is motivated to do it right, you can make your own sheets with letters they can copy on lined paper, or invest in early learning workbooks.  My son liked his teacher’s technique of “dotting” a letter (forming it with a dotted line) for him to write over.   If your child is less of a perfectionist, an occasional lighthearted comment like:  “Try making the point on your A go up”, or “Would you like to see how I write an A?” is all that’s necessary at this age.

A final word about writing:  Journals.  In recent years the “journal” has become as commonplace as the pencil in your child’s classroom.  When referring to her journal your child may be talking about something as simple as a blank notebook or as complex as an art project that includes homemade paper, homemade ink and a guest instructor for binding.  Journals can look gorgeous or pretty ratty, with the rattier ones being the ones most used.  Long before my son could write I kept some pencils and crayons and a black and white composition book in the car which we called his journal.  He tore up the pages, scribbled in it, and stuck the pages together with stickers from the bank drive-through. Before all the pages were used up it even included a lifetime wish list that began “Swimming with dolphins”, and a list of state’s license plates we saw on our drive to Ohio. We also had a journal on his bedside table which I intended to use to record nightly dictation of something he wanted to remember about the day.  If you do this more consistently than I did, you may be instilling a wonderful habit that could last a lifetime and provide untold riches for the journal writer and for future generations.

Preschool and kindergarten are critical times for building solid foundations for academic success and literacy.  Our children learn best when we consciously support them by being relaxed and positive about all of their attempts to read, write and communicate.  And children will learn in spite of those things we do not do…so as parents, (and children) doing our best is good enough.

There are many resources with lots of ideas supporting your child in becoming a reader. One that I consulted for this article is:  Starting Out Right – A Guide to Promoting Children’s Reading Success by the National Research Council, NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1999.   If you have access to the internet, type in “Supporting Early Readers” to find many informative articles and lots of fun ideas for parents to do with their pre-readers.  Have fun!

                               

          Published in the February 2006 issue of Parent Express.

          Learning to Read at Starfall

          Reading is Fundamental; Reading Planet for Kids