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What are phonological and phonemic awareness?

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What is phonological awareness? What is phonemic awareness? Learn how to help your students develop these important skills – and download a free cheat sheet!

If you teach children ages 3-6, you’ve heard the terms phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. Whether or not children have them is a strong predictor of reading success.

But what are they, exactly? And what activities will help your students develop them?

Today I’ll be sharing definitions of these important terms. I’ll also provide links to free activities to help develop them.

And if you scroll to the end of the post, you can print a free cheat sheet with even more ways to teach phonological and phonemic awareness – no printer ink necessary!

What is phonological awareness?

When children have phonological awareness, they know that language is made of words, syllables, rhymes, and sounds.

Are phonological awareness and phonics the same thing?

Phonological awareness is different than phonics because it’s about sounds and not letters. Children can develop phonological awareness with their eyes closed.

Phonological awareness includes:

  • understanding of word
  • rhyming ability
  • understanding syllables
  • phonemic awareness

Let’s break each of these down.

1. Children understand concept of word when they can recognize how many words are in a sentence.

Develop concept of word by inviting students to clap for each each word they hear.

2. Children understand rhyming when they can identify rhyming words and generate their own rhymes.

Develop rhyming by playing rhyming games, reading rhyming books, singing songs that rhyme, and learning nursery rhymes.

Free printables to teach rhyming

What is phonological awareness? Get a free printable with ways to develop this important skill!
Our rhyming clip cards are a popular freebie.

3. Children understand syllables when they can clap or count the syllables in a word and blend syllables together to make a word.

Develop the understanding of syllables by teaching children to clap the parts of a word. Ba-na-na. Also challenge your students by saying a word slowly, by syllable. Ask them to put the syllables together to make the word.

Free printables 

What is phonological awareness? Get a free printable with ways to develop this important skill!
Children can sort our syllable cards in a pocket chart.

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Phonemic awareness is one component of phonological awareness, and a very important one. When children have phonemic awareness, they know how to segment, blend, or manipulate individual sounds in words.

Children have phonemic awareness when they can identifying beginning sounds in words, blend sounds together to make a word, and count the individual sounds within a word.

Develop phonemic awareness by playing games with words and teaching children to identify individual sounds in words.

Free printables

What is phonological awareness? Get a free printable with ways to develop this important skill!
Children can identify phonemes using Elkonin boxes.

Get more activities !

Want simple, no-ink-required activities to develop phonemic and phonological awareness? Grab the free download below!

Get your free printable!

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Phonemic Awareness Games & Activities

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The research is in! Children with a strong foundation of phonemic awareness become better readers. Our bundle is your one-stop shop for teaching all levels of this important skill.

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The ultimate guide to decodable booksGarden pocket chart sentences14 rhyming words sorting mats

Reader Interactions

55 Comments

  1. maggic

    Hi, Anna. thanks a lot for sharing your teaching ideas and free printables, it really helped me a lot. I just finished reading “What are phonological and phonemic awareness? “, I do have some confusions. I am confused that for kids who are learning english as second language, without development of phonological and phonemic awareness, what will cause. hoping to reveive your reply.

    Reply to this comment

  2. Petra Hess

    Hi Anna,
    I have just read your blog about “What are phonological and phonemic awareness? “ and was hoping to download the cheat sheet, but the link doesn’t seem to work. I have gone on to your website, I have used google chrome, and when I try to click on the link I can’t even ‘save it as’ as the link doesn’t seem to be there to do it. Please help. I love all the work you do, and really would like this particular sheet.
    Thanks
    Petra

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      You just click on the link, add your email address, and it will pop right up. The email list is for our emails about teaching reading in K-2. I send out emails for that once a week. If you don’t want to be part of the group you can unsubscribe when you receive the first one.

      Reply to this comment

  7. Ingrid

    Hi Anna 🙂
    Just wanting to ask you a quick question as I’ve been thinking about it here…I’m just a little bit worried about the potential for confusion between phonemes and syllables when it comes to teaching them to new 5 year olds. I basically engage the children using a long stretchy snake to say the phonemes and work on the sounds we hear that way. I’m just a bit worried about the syllables aspect and how to being it all together if I do both. Incidentally, I’ve got kiddies who arrive with very little pre school experience and quite often don’t speak in full sentences or the proper articulation. Thank you for any insight you can gives me.

    Regards,
    Ingrid

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      HI Ingrid!

      This is a great question! I think that in terms of complexity, clapping syllables is easier than identifying phonemes. So if you are looking for a teaching order, start with syllables. That said, I know that you many need to teach both at different points in your day and not in a particular sequence. I think it’s good to remember that kids don’t need to know the words syllables or phonemes. They don’t need to be able to label what they’re doing: breaking words into syllables or phonemes. Maybe you could use vocabulary that they can identify. When doing syllables, you could say, “Let’s clap all the BIG parts of a word.” When doing phonemes, you could say, “Let’s stretch out the word to hear all the little pieces.” Does that help?

      Reply to this comment

  10. Doreen

    Questions about phonological awareness. I must confess. I have been focusing primarily on letter knowledge, and to some extent rhyming. I know realize I need to spend more time on onset-rhyme as well as alliteration. Is there a daily routine that would encompass all of this?

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      That’s a great question, Doreen! At this point I do not have a particular routine that I recommend on my site, but I’m sure that most commercial programs have a recommended sequence or routine. The important thing is to adjust it as needed to fit the needs of your learners.

      Reply to this comment

  12. Debra

    I just read that someone else had the problem. I am using Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. I enter the information in the box for the cheat sheet. When I click the red box for “yes, I want it,” nothing happens. The box just freezes.

    Reply to this comment

  13. Maggie

    Thank you for all the wonderful sheets you share. I am a Grandmother helping a dear little boy lost in the school system and your work sheets keep me up to date with what and how to help him.

    Reply to this comment

  16. Yvette

    I am really bless to have found you ladies. I am learning soo much and i am enjoying imparting my knowledge to emergent readings.

    Thank you and may God continue to bless you abundantly.

    Yvette

    Reply to this comment

  17. Ashley Swedell

    Anna,
    Thank you for all the freebies that you are willing to share. I am using Google Chrome and I am able to get everything but the freebie on Phonological and Phonemic Awareness cheat sheet. Any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Ashley

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna G

      I’m so sorry for taking so long to answer your comment, Ashley! My inbox got backed up. I don’t know why this isn’t working for you. I work through a third party called Leadpages. Maybe they were having a bug? Let me know if it still won’t work.

      Reply to this comment

  20. Neha

    Hi Anna,
    Thanks for explaining this in such an easy way. Can you start these skills with a three year old? If yes what should be the main focus on – rhyming ? Will you do a post detailing which age group should do whthe can skills? It would be so helpful . Thank you again . Waiting for your reply.
    Regards
    Neha

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna G

      Yes, for sure with a 3 year old! I like to start with rhyming and move on to syllables and then isolating beginning sounds. I wouldn’t say that you can exactly line them up to specific ages, because it depends on the child.

      Reply to this comment

    • Kate Dowling

      Hi Kathy!

      This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. I just downloaded it myself to make sure it works. I’m using Safari. I clicked on the red bar that says, “SIGN ME UP!” Then I was given a chance to enter my email address (the one I already use on this website). I entered it and the file immediately opened up for me. In entering my email address, I signed up for a free series of informational emails, to which I can unsubscribe if I choose. Please try this and see if it works!

      Reply to this comment

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