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Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words. This skill includes activities like sound identification, sound segmentation (breaking words into individual sounds), sound blending (combining sounds to form words), and sound manipulation (adding, deleting, or substituting sounds).
Importance for Literacy Development:
Phonemic awareness is crucial because it directly impacts a child’s ability to decode (sound out) and spell words. It is a strong predictor of future reading success, especial when academics ramp up and children go from learning to read to reading to learn. Developing a strong phonemic awareness helps children understand that words are made up of sounds, which is essential for reading and spelling.
Children with literacy-based challenges may have difficulty isolating and manipulating sounds within words. These difficulties can lead to struggles with reading accuracy and fluency. Early identification and intervention are key to addressing these challenges.
Orton-Gillingham Approach
The Orton-Gillingham approach supports phonemic awareness through multisensory techniques, such as using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities to help children understand and manipulate sounds. Research by Torgesen et al. (2001) shows that explicit instruction in phonemic awareness significantly improves reading skills in struggling readers. This research underscores the importance of a structured, systematic approach to teaching phonemic awareness, as it enables children to develop the foundational skills necessary for successful reading and spelling.
Research Reference
Torgesen, J.K., Wagner, R.K., & Rashotte, C.A. (2001). “Prevention and remediation of severe reading disabilities: Keeping the end in mind.” Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), 257-295.
