Phonological vs. phonemic awareness: Key differences & similarities

Understanding phonological and phonemic awareness

Everyone can agree that reading is perhaps one of the most important academic and life skills young children can learn when they begin school. The body of research about the most effective approach for teaching foundational reading skills continues to grow and change as researchers spend more time with studies, as well as more time in schools understanding the impact of different strategies. Here we are going to discuss the skills that usually come first when children are learning to read: phonemic awareness vs phonological awareness.

When educators are thinking about phonological vs. phonemic awareness, both of which sit at the beginning of understanding spoken and written language, there are many things to consider. “One of the most important nuances to understand about these early literacy skills,” says Chief Academic Officer for 95 Percent Group, Laura Stewart, “is that the ‘stair step’  approach that has been popular for a while (larger units of sound to smaller units of sound) represents phonological development.

While this is a helpful infographic to understand the general order in which most children learn these early skills,” she added,  “it may not be appropriate to use the same infographic to represent an instructional path. Children don’t need to master the larger units of  phonological skills in order to move on to what we might consider ‘more advanced’ skills, like phoneme awareness.”

Let’s look further into the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness.

What is phonological awareness?

Phonological awareness refers to the overall awareness of the sound structure of language; phonological awareness includes an awareness of the larger sound structures of spoken words: syllables, rhymes, onsets, and rimes. These structures and the activities that help to reinforce them are now often being referred to as phonological sensitivity. While these activities have sometimes sat at the heart of early literacy instruction with an assumption that they were skills children needed to acquire before they could move on, we now know that mastery of these “skills” isn’t necessary for children to begin direct instruction on phonemes, the smallest units of sound in spoken language.

“Ideally,” Stewart reflects, “young children would come to preschool and kindergarten already engaged in word play with poems, songs, syllable games, rhyming games, etc. Literacy instructors would continue that word play while also building their phoneme awareness and letter recognition.”

The most recent research even suggests that children who are lacking in phonological sensitivity are completely capable of mastering phonemic awareness skills—a subset of phonological awareness skills— with explicit, direct instruction.

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the smallest units of sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. As it stands, it is one of the key skills in preparing children for fluent reading, and one of the earliest indicators and predictors of reading difficulty. Using a diagnostic screener in order to understand what your students know and what they still need to learn is an effective way to gather information.

Previously, researchers believed that working with the sounds first, followed by introducing the letters was the path to reading acquisition. But as we learn more about the neural pathways involved with language and literacy development, these views are changing.

Laura Stewart weighs in on some of the nuances involved. “While phonemic awareness should begin with focusing on the sounds in a spoken word, a quick progression(often in the same lesson) to working with both the phonemes and the graphemes ( the associated letter(s) that represent the sound) is important. It is especially helpful for our struggling readers, as the grapheme is an anchor to securing the phoneme.”

When teaching phonemic awareness skills there is usually a suggested continuum that begins with an easier skill and moves on accordingly when students are ready. Phonemic awareness skills that are critical to building a strong literacy foundation are:

• Phoneme isolation:
  • Starting the initial phoneme in a word:  /b/ in the word bat
  • Continuing with the final phoneme in a word:  /t/ in the word bat
  • Moving on to the medial phoneme in a word” /a/ in the word bat 
• Phoneme Segmentation and Blending:
  • Segmenting phonemes in a word means being able to listen to a word and identify each of the sounds inside the word: cat → /k/ /a/ /t/
  • Blending phonemes means you can hear separate phonemes and put them together in order to say a whole word /ch/ /i/ /p/ → chip
• Phoneme Manipulation: Addition, deletion, and substitution of phonemes within words.
  While not necessarily a “gate keeping” skill in terms of reading fluency, practicing manipulation of sounds with letters can be helpful to reading and spelling.
  • Addition: adding a phoneme to an existing word. If you start with the word top, and you add /s/, now you have stop. As students become more comfortable with this, they can add multiple phonemes simultaneously.
  • Deletion: the opposition of addition. Instead of adding a phoneme, you take a phoneme away. So if you start with the word glove and you take away /g/, now you have the word love.
  • Substitution: this is a bit like combining both addition and deletion. You first take away a phoneme and then add another—creating an entirely different word. If you start with the word cape, and delete the /k/ (leaving ape), and then you add /sh/, you end up with a completely new word: shape.

Learn more about interactive phonemic awareness activities here.

Phonological awareness vs phonemic awareness breakdown

When speaking about phonological awareness vs. phonemic awareness, there is a tendency to compare them as different skill sets. The truth is that phonemic awareness is a subset of skills that falls under the umbrella of phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness: The broad ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structures of spoken language, including words, syllables, onsets, rimes, and phonemes. This includes skills such as identifying rhymes, counting syllables, and recognizing alliteration.

Phonemic awareness: A more specific skill within phonological awareness that involves the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes (the smallest units of sound) in spoken words. It is the most advanced level of phonological awareness and is essential for learning to decode and spell words.

While children who are phonologically sensitive at an early age can often move into complex skill acquisition more quickly, phonological sensitivity isn’t a prerequisite for beginning phonemic awareness instruction. In fact, teaching phonemic awareness skills while children are still developing broader phonological sensitivity is not only appropriate—it’s highly encouraged.

The role of phonemic awareness in literacy

The role that phonemic awareness plays in language and literacy development hasn’t always been as clear. For a long time, these skills were glossed over in terms of direct instruction, undervalued as a crucial foundational skill or perhaps something that teachers assumed children would learn before they arrived at formal schooling.

As research deepened, educators began to recognize the critical role of explicit phonemic awareness instruction. It also helped explain why some students read at grade level in the early years but start struggling with reading and spelling around third or fourth grade.

Phonemic instruction helps students understand that words are made up of smaller units of sound. With direct and in-depth instruction on phonemes and their corresponding graphemes, the work of both decoding (breaking down a word into its sounds in order to read it) and encoding (putting sounds/graphemes together in order to build a world in written language) becomes much easier; even for more sophisticated, multisyllabic words that become more common in the upper elementary grades.

The role of phonological awareness in literacy

Phonological sensitivity begins with modeling the way language works with young children. Ensuring that young children have plenty of exposure to songs, poems, and stories—which often include a multitude of opportunities to notice and talk about rhythm and rhyme—immerses children in the components of phonological awareness. While many children come to school already having some phonological sensitivity, all children benefit from this essential “language play” in school, especially pre-K and Kindergarten.

If you’re beginning to introduce phonemic awareness skills and notice knowledge gaps, it is sensible to back up and engage children in a better understanding of the larger sound structures of spoken words: syllables, rhyming, onsets, and rimes while continuing with phoneme awareness activities. That said, children do not require explicit instruction or mastery of these large sound structures, before moving on to phonemic awareness instruction.

Strategies for teaching phonemic awareness

When children understand the graphemes that represent phonemes early on, it strengthens both reading and spelling. Here are some strategies that help ensure you are meeting the needs of all children with phonemic awareness instruction.

1. 1. Focus on teaching students what they hear with each sound and how it should feel in their mouth. There are so many phonemes in the English language that it can feel confusing for students to be able to articulate them all in the beginning. Teaching what students should hear with each sound and how it feels in their mouth and throat, for example, when a phoneme is “voiced” or “unvoiced,” helps them understand the articulation and auditory qualities of the phoneme. Additionally, some teachers have found it helpful to offer a photo to show how the mouth forms each phoneme, or  a mirror so students can see what shape their mouth makes when they say /p/ or  /b/ compared to /m/ or /n/.
   2. Connect phonemes to letters (grapho-phonemic connections). Phonemic awareness instruction should always begin with just sounds. This helps children focus on the phoneme sequences in spoken words. Typically, linking letter knowledge and phonemes to read and spell words can begin soon thereafter, depending on the students’ proficiency with phonemes. Even after reading and spelling begins, you should still continue to teach phonemic awareness skills in a way that parallels phonics instruction. When phonemic awareness instruction is connected to the representative letters or graphemes, it helps children with orthographic mapping and makes it easier to retain and recognize words when they see them again.
   3. Incorporate multisensory techniques. Research on working memory and cognition shows us that there are benefits of multisensory experiences when teaching different literacy skills. When teachers create instructional opportunities, for example, where  students hear the phoneme, say the phoneme, see the letter that represents the phoneme and write the letter, it activates and stimulates the neural pathways in a comprehensive way that is shown to be beneficial, especially for our students who may experience challenges.
   4. Follow the “I do, We do, You do” model. A gradual release model gives students the opportunity to first see a skill explicitly modeled, then practice it alongside the instructor with immediate feedback and reteaching as needed, and finally apply it independently. This approach builds confidence, promotes ownership of learning, and increases the likelihood of long-term skill retention through repeated practice.
   5. Assess, monitor, and differentiate accordingly. When students experience difficulty in acquiring phoneme awareness, teachers can assess and provide reinforcement and reteaching as needed. Using a diagnostic assessment such as the 95 Phonemic Awareness Screener for Intervention™—which maps skill deficits directly to specific lessons in the 95 Phonemic Awareness Suite™, allows teachers to confidently and efficiently make instructional decisions based on each student’s needs.

Practical activities to enhance phonemic awareness

Teaching phonemic awareness through playful activities is a powerful tool for retention. Try these either at home or at school.

• Word construction: When you have a few spare minutes (like during a car ride, or while kids are lining up) challenge children to listen closely and guess the word you’re thinking of. Break the word into individual sounds and say them one at a time. For example, if the word is grape, you’d say /g/ /r/ /ā/ /p/. Bonus points if students can explain why the letter a makes the long vowel sound!”
• Word deconstruction: Similar to the activity above, say a word and ask students to tell you what sounds they hear inside the word. Ex. “what sounds do you hear in the word ‘late’”? Students should say, “/l/ /ā/ /t/.
• Phoneme manipulation: You can play these same types of games with phoneme manipulation (addition, deletion, substitution). It might sound like “if I start with the word “late” and take away the /l/, what is the new word? Or, “if I start with the word “ran” and change the /r/ to /p/, what is the new word?” The idea of changing one sound to make an entirely new word is often a pretty surprising idea for children!

Looking for more? Check out a longer list of phonemic awareness activities on our Insights page!

Frequently asked questions

What are the main phonological awareness skills?

Phonological awareness (more often called phonological sensitivity) begins at home. It refers to the idea that children become more and more aware of the large structures of spoken language such as words, syllables, onset and rime, and rhyming. Within these phonological awareness skills are those at the phoneme level—which are referred to as phonemic awareness skills. As stated previously, while children need an understanding of these large units, we don’t need to explicitly teach them or for children to master these concepts before they are operating at the phoneme level.

At what age should phonemic awareness be introduced?

Phonemic awareness can be introduced to children as soon as they can understand words. Very young children can understand rhyming words and notice when words begin with the same sound. An important precursor to all of this work is to teach basic listening skills and for kids to ideally be immersed in a language-rich environment–both spoken and written. Speaking to children in a way that helps to increase their working vocabulary and reading to them regularly all helps to cultivate a greater awareness of understanding of how we use language.

Incorporating phonological and phonemic awareness skills

As teachers work to build strong foundational reading skills in emerging readers—while also addressing gaps for students who may have missed key instruction—effective, easy-to-implement resources are essential.

95 Percent Group’s 95 Phonemic Awareness Suite is designed to empower teachers with evidence-based methods, giving them access to multiple resources,  tools, manipulatives, scripts and options for wrap-around professional learning and coaching to help make these critical skills easier to teach.

Sources

1. Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cam-bridge, MA: MIT Press
2. Ashby, J., McBride, M., Naftel, S., O’Brien, E., Paulson, L. H., Kilpatrick, D. A, & Moats, L. C. (2024). Teaching Phoneme Awareness in 2024: A Guide for Educators.
3. Castiglioni-Spalten, M. & Ehri L.C., (2003). Phonemic Awareness Instruction: Contribution of Articulatory Segmentation to Novice Beginners’ Reading and Spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), p. 25.
4. Davidson, Marcia, USAID, and Global Education Summit. “Scripted Reading Lessons and Evidence for Their Efficacy.” United States Agency for International Development, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2024. https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/Davidson.pdf.
5. Farrell, Mary L., White, Nancy Cushen; Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, Ch. 2, p.48
6. National Reading Panel (U.S.) & National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (U.S.). (2000)
7. Teaching to the whole brain. (2021, June 2). ASCD. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/teaching-to-the-whole-brain
8. The Reading League. (2022, June). https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Reading-League-Curriculum-Evaluation-Guidelines-2022.pdf. Retrieved January 31, 2024, https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Reading-League-Curriculum-Evaluation-Guidelines-2022.pdf