Once children begin their respective learning journeys, getting to know words and spoken sounds becomes important for them. This is required so as to develop an understanding of languages in them. It is this understanding of spoken sounds that is known as phonological awareness.
The idea here is to acquaint children with the fact that spoken language words can be broken down into individual phonemes, which is the smallest unit of spoken language. Phonological awareness helps children understand the relationship between a phoneme, which is a sound, and a grapheme, which is a letter.
We at the Delhi Public School, Sushant Lok, ranked among the best CBSE schools in Gurgaon, believe that phonological awareness is only possible when children work closely with spoken words, syllables, and sounds. On that note, let us look at some of the best ways to build phonological awareness in children.
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Encourage Focussed Listening:
One of the best ways of unveiling the concept of phonological awareness before children is by encouraging them to give a patient ear to whatever is being read or communicated. It is through listening that children get to know sounds and syllables.
As parents, you can consider investing in books that include repeat sounds and rhymes. For example, a book may repetitively use the word cat. Continued exposure to this word will ensure that your child understands this sound and gets comfortable with the idea of using other words that rely on this sound.
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Time to Follow the Beats:
If you want your child to enjoy the process of phonological awareness, you can take support from fun beats. For instance, you may want to break down the word fish. What you can do here is use beats around individual sounds, in this case, f-i-sh.
At Delhi Public School, Sushant Lok, we motivate children to stand up, stomp, or jump to every syllable, which makes phonological awareness a cakewalk for them.
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Games & Guesses:
If you want your children to understand how sounds work, especially with respect to their presence in letters and words, you can take support from games that are interactive and engaging in nature.
Usually, these games expect participation on the part of the child, who would be more than happy to come up with guesses before deriving the right answer, in this case, the right sound and word. Such learning mechanisms could be a great aid when it comes to creating phonological awareness among children.
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Offer Visual Support:
Even though phonological awareness has a lot to do with sounds and letters, it is 100% possible to support children in this regard by taking assistance from art and craft. Let us say you want your child to relate to a particular sound. In this case, what you can do is create a vision board, which can include cuttings of objects that start with the same sound. This visual treat will not just get your child interested in the process of phonological awareness but will also make sure that necessary awareness is created.
Final Thoughts:
All this while, if you have been looking for ways to create phonological awareness among your children, then the above-mentioned tips and tricks shall come to your rescue. The best part about these tips is that they are capable of attracting children to the process of learning phonemes, which can eventually sow the seeds for long-term reading and help develop children into good readers.
At Delhi Public School, Sushant Lok, one of the best CBSE schools in Gurgaon, we have made it a point to create phonological awareness among our students right from the early years. This is because, in the current times, student success has a lot to do with their phonemic awareness as compared to other variables like intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, and socio-economic elements. No wonder our students are faring pretty well in all the spheres!