Phonological Awareness

Child psychology and even education research papers often delve into the ability of children to develop speaking and listening skills. Phonological awareness is part of hearing and listening and integral to child development. Paper Masters can custom write a research paper on phonological awareness for you or you may use the information below to help you get started on your own writing project.

Phonological awareness means that a person is able to hear and change sounds. There are three different levels that this happens. According to literacyworldwide.org, these levels are:

1. Syllables
2. Onsets and rimes
3. Phonemes

Phonological awareness is only one component of the process that it takes for an individual to speak and listen. It is a metalinguistic skill that requires a person to be aware of the structure of the language when they are using it.

Developing Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness usually develops in young children around the age of three and continues to develop until they are five. Phonological awareness develops in steps. Children need to be able to make a distinction between words with like or unlike sounds before they can do harder skills like changing sounds or blending sounds. The development is not linear; children can learn new skills while still working on developing and fine-tuning skills they are already using. Children who lack communication skills or have communication disabilities, such as Dysphasia, usually struggle with their phonological awareness.

It is important to have phonological awareness when learning to read and spell. There is a direct correlation between phonological awareness and ones ability to read. Usually high readers have high phonological awareness and vice versa. This correlation can begin to be seen as early as preschool years. It is a good predictor as to how children will do in the future years with their reading skills.

Phonological Awareness Interventions

There are interventions that can be used to improve phonological awareness. These interventions have been proven to be very successful. Improved literacy can also help improve phonological awareness. In order for students to make improvements in their phonological awareness, students must have developed listening skills. Since listening is a foundational skill, most interventions with young children start as practice with listening and recognition of word sounds. One way to do this is to use nursery rhymes, games, and songs to expose students to sound patterns like rhyming words. It is important that students not only hear the sounds but also are required to listen and show an action when it is heard like raising hands or clapping when they hear certain sounds.