Why Phonemic Awareness Matters

August 17, 2022

Why Phonemic Awareness Matters

 

 

According to years of scientific research, the two best indicators of a child’s reading success are phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge! 

 

If reading is your child’s door to the future, phonemic awareness is the key to unlocking that door. Without phonemic or phonological awareness skills, phonics is hard to master, making learning to read, reading fluency and reading comprehension challenging. 

 

Why Phonemic Awareness Matters 

 

From birth, we build our vocabulary and semantics (meaning) through listening, through oral language. The brain identifies every phoneme in every word, stores it in oral word memory and attaches a meaning. 

 

Then, when we read, we translate the text symbols we see on the page to phonemes and thereby connect to words and understanding in our oral word memory. For instance, if your child’s word memory has “dog” stored as having phonemes: /d/ /o/ /g/, then she sees d-o-g as text, she will recognize it immediately. 

 

Phonemes are the connectors of text symbols back to our oral language.  Phonemic awareness is the connection skill. 

 

 

Coach Benjamin Mizrahi. Educator. Learning Specialist. Family Coach. Father. Husband.   

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