If you’re looking for ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness, you’re in luck! There are plenty of activities you can do at home to support your child’s learning. Check out these phoneme awareness activities for parents to use with their kids.
Sound Sorting:
This activity is a great way to help your child understand how different phonemes can be combined to create words. The parent writes down a selection of words on individual pieces of paper (such as ‘cat’, ‘dog’, ‘bat’, ‘cap’, ‘dish’, ‘bike’). Read the words out loud on each piece of paper and have your child then sort them into groups based on their ‘beginning’ sounds…not letters! To provide challenges, use words that can be sorted by ending and middle sounds. You can increase the number of words used each time also. Make sure you point to each word on each slip of paper as you read the sounds in the word to your child. Your child can also read the words to you as they point to each word as their ability allows BUT REMEMBER, they must ‘sort’ according to ‘sounds’ not letters.
Sound Matching:
This activity helps your child understand how different phonemes combine to create words. The parent writes down a selection of words on individual pieces of paper (such as ‘cap’, ‘dog’, ‘map’). Read the words correctly on each piece of paper as you point to that word. Ask your child to repeat each word as you point to it. Now, point to a word BUT say another word from one of the other pieces of paper. Ask your child if the ‘beginning’ sound in the word you just said matches with the beginning sound in the word you are pointing to. You may have to say both words out loud again for your child to make an identification. Again, remember you want ‘sounds’ not letters. This activity is much more of a challenge. You can increase this challenge by having them identify ending and middle sounds. Increase the number of words also. But most importantly, ask for sound matching, NOT letter matching.
Word Ladders:
This activity helps children develop vocabulary and understand how different phonemes can create new words. The parent will use a selection of words (such as ‘cat’, ‘dog’, ‘bat’). The child repeats each word out loud, one at a time, preferably. After saying each word ask your child to say another word that begins with that same sound or ends with the same sound. Go on to your next word and do the same thing. To provide challenge, ask your child to increase the new words for each spoken word. For instance, as for one new word for your first word and then increase that to two new words, then three and so on according to your child’s grade and vocabulary level. Repeat this challenge for each of your word selections. For very young children, use pictures of your words and add more pictures for their additional words (such as, a picture of a ‘cat’ and they add a picture of say a ‘cup’ under that for same beginning sound, and so it goes to build a ladder). NOTE: A fun way to gather pictures if you don’t have already made ones is to spend time with your child and tear or cut pictures out of old magazines, let them [or yourself] draw pictures, or introduce them to computers by going online and downloading clip art to use.
Keep the challenges going!
Phoneme awareness activities are a great way for parents to help their kids develop phonemic awareness. There are a variety of phoneme awareness activities that parents can use with their kids. These can be adapted to any age group. By using these activities, parents can help their kids learn to identify individual sounds, blend sounds together, and segment words into their individual sounds.
