Phonemic awareness
Last updated
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and change the individual sounds, called phonemes, in spoken words.
Topic: Reading and writing instruction
In plain terms
Phonemic awareness includes isolating sounds ("what is the first sound in sun?"), blending ("/s/ /u/ /n/"), segmenting ("say each sound in sun"), and manipulating sounds ("say sun without /s/"). It is the part of phonological awareness most closely tied to learning to read and spell, and it grows fastest when connected to letters.
How it shows up in an IEP
Goals name the task and the word types: "will segment CVC words into individual phonemes with 90% accuracy." Pairing oral practice with letters helps students apply the skill in reading.
Example
Asked to say "stop" without the /t/, a first grader says "sop." The teacher records accuracy on 10 deletion items each week.
Related terms
- Phonological awarenessPhonological awareness is the ability to notice and work with the sound parts of spoken language, such as words, syllables, rhymes and individual sounds.
- PhonicsPhonics is instruction that teaches how letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language, so students can decode and spell words.
- Orthographic mappingOrthographic mapping is the mental process of connecting a word's sounds to its letters so the word is stored in memory and read instantly.
- DecodingDecoding is using knowledge of letter-sound patterns to read a printed word by turning letters into sounds and blending them.
- CVC wordsCVC words are three-letter words built from a consonant, a short vowel and a consonant, such as cat, sit and mop.
On IEP Atlas
This page describes special education terms and federal rules in general terms and is not legal advice. Our editorial policy explains how IEP Atlas writes and reviews content. Browse all 244 terms.