Phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness vs phonics

By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated November 1, 2026

Short answer

Phonological awareness is the broad skill of hearing the sound parts of spoken words, such as rhymes and syllables. Phonemic awareness is the smallest and hardest part of it: hearing and changing single sounds. Phonics is different because it uses letters. To tell them apart, ask: can your child do this task with eyes closed?

These three terms show up in reading evaluations and IEPs, often in the same paragraph. They are related, and they build on each other, but they are not the same skill. Knowing which one a goal targets helps you understand what your child is working on and how to help at home.

Here is the short version. Phonological awareness is hearing the sound parts of spoken words. Phonemic awareness is one part of phonological awareness: hearing the single sounds. Phonics is matching those sounds to letters.

The deciding question

Ask: can the task be done with eyes closed?

If yes, and it works with big parts like rhymes or syllables, it is phonological awareness.
If yes, and it works with single sounds, it is phonemic awareness.
If no, because your child has to look at letters, it is phonics.

For example, "What is the first sound in dog?" can be answered with eyes closed, and it is about one sound. That makes it phonemic awareness. "What letter makes the first sound in dog?" needs letters. That makes it phonics.

Side-by-side comparison

	Phonological awareness	Phonemic awareness	Phonics
What it is	Hearing and playing with the sound parts of spoken words	Hearing and changing the single sounds (phonemes) in spoken words	Knowing which letters stand for which sounds, and using that to read and spell
Size of the sound unit	Words, syllables, rhymes, first part and rest of a word	Single sounds	Sounds matched to letters and letter groups
Uses letters?	No	No, though it is often practiced with letters once a child knows some	Yes, always
Example task	"Clap the parts in butterfly." (3)	"Say each sound in ship." (/sh/ /i/ /p/, 3 sounds)	"Read this word: ship."
When it usually develops	Early parts often begin around age 3 to 5	Usually kindergarten and 1st grade	Taught from kindergarten on
Basis	Reading research and practice; not defined in special education law	Reading research and practice; a subskill of phonological awareness	Reading research and practice; taught in the general reading curriculum
Who usually teaches it	Pre-K and kindergarten teachers, reading teachers, sometimes the speech-language pathologist	Classroom and reading teachers, special education teachers, sometimes the speech-language pathologist	Classroom and reading teachers, special education teachers
Where you see it in the IEP	Present levels, reading goals, sometimes speech-language goals	Present levels and reading goals	Present levels and reading goals
Example IEP goal	Your child will clap the syllables in 2- and 3-part words, 9 of 10 times	Your child will say each sound in 3-sound words, 35 sounds in 1 minute	Your child will read 18 of 20 new silent-e words correctly

None of the three terms is defined in federal special education law. The IEP team decides which skills to target based on your child's evaluation and present levels. Goal pages for each skill are in the library: phonological awareness goals and phonics and decoding goals.

How the three skills fit together

Think of phonological awareness as an umbrella. Under it are skills that move from big sound parts to small ones:

Hearing separate words in a sentence.
Hearing and making rhymes.
Clapping syllables.
Splitting a word into its first sound and the rest (/c/ ... at).
Hearing single sounds, which is phonemic awareness.

Phonics comes next and depends on phonemic awareness. To sound out "map," your child has to know the letter sounds and also blend /m/ /a/ /p/ into one word. That blending step is phonemic awareness. A child who cannot blend spoken sounds will struggle to blend letter sounds, even after learning every letter.

The What Works Clearinghouse guide for early reading recommends teaching children to hear the sounds in speech and to link those sounds to letters.^[1] The National Reading Panel report also found that phonemic awareness teaching worked better when children practiced with letters.^[2] In practice, good teaching moves back and forth between the two, which is why the line between phonemic awareness and phonics can look blurry in a lesson.

Three classroom scenarios

Scenario 1: The rhyming game

A kindergarten teacher says, "Cat, hat, dog. Which one does not rhyme?" A child says "dog."

Answer: Phonological awareness. The task uses rhymes, a large sound unit, and no letters.

Scenario 2: Sound boxes with chips

A 1st grader hears the word "frog," then pushes one chip into a box for each sound: /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/.

Answer: Phonemic awareness. The child is working with single sounds, and the chips are blank. If the teacher swaps the chips for letter tiles, the same activity becomes phonics practice too.

Scenario 3: The word list

A 2nd grader reads a list of words like "rain," "play" and "boat" aloud, and the teacher marks each one right or wrong.

Answer: Phonics. The child has to know that "ai," "ay" and "oa" stand for certain sounds. The task cannot be done without looking at the letters.

When your child needs work on more than one

Many children who struggle to read need help with both phonemic awareness and phonics. That is common, and a good intervention teaches them together. A child might warm up by blending spoken sounds for 2 minutes, then build the same words with letter tiles, then read them in a short story.

An IEP might have one goal for phonemic awareness and one for phonics, or a single phonics goal with phonemic awareness work built into the lessons. Either can be fine. What matters is that the goal matches what the evaluation found. To learn how teachers plan this work, see the guide to phonemic awareness interventions. For phonics, see phonics interventions.

Questions you can ask the IEP team

"Is my child's reading goal about hearing sounds, or about reading letters?"
"What did the evaluation show about my child's phonemic awareness?"
"How will you measure progress on this goal, and how often?"
"What can we practice at home that matches what you are teaching?"

At home, sound games in the car or at dinner build phonological and phonemic awareness with no materials at all. Try "I'm thinking of a word that starts with /m/ and is something we eat," or ask your child to say "sunshine" without "sun."

For definitions you can share with family members, see the glossary entries for phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics. For help with the IEP process in your state, your Parent Training and Information Center can explain your options; the Center for Parent Information and Resources lists every center.^[3]

Frequently asked questions

Is phonemic awareness the same as phonics?

No. Phonemic awareness is hearing and changing the single sounds in spoken words, with no letters involved. Phonics is matching those sounds to letters. A child needs phonemic awareness to use phonics well, so the two are often taught together.

Which comes first, phonological awareness or phonics?

Phonological awareness usually develops first, starting with rhymes and syllables in the preschool years. Phonics is taught from kindergarten on. The two overlap: once a child knows some letter sounds, teachers often practice phonemic awareness with letters.

Can a speech-language pathologist work on phonological awareness?

Yes. Speech-language pathologists often support phonological awareness, especially for children with speech or language needs. The IEP lists who provides each service. Phonological awareness is different from a phonological disorder, which is about how a child says sounds.

Use it in IEP Atlas

Sources

Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Center for Parent Information and Resources, CPIR

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.