The word Phonology comes from greek and can be divided into two parts: phono comes from "phonos", wich means voice, sound; and logy comes from "logos", wich means study. Therefore, phonology means the study of voice and sound.
Phonological Awareness is the perception of individual sounds in spoken language, allowing the to be manipulated. A fun fact: because this skill is entirely focused on sounds, it can even be developed with eyes closed.
This skill is also often described as a “umbrella term” by experts in the field, as it encompasses five other key abilities:
Sentence awareness: the understanding that sentences can be broken down into words;
Syllable awareness: the understanding that words can be broken down into syllables;
Rhyme awareness: identifying words with the same ending sounds;
Alliteration awareness: identifying words with the same beginning sounds;
Phonemic awareness: identifying the individual sounds in words.
Phonemic awareness can also be divided into smaller skills that should be developed in children. These skills are:
Phoneme isolation: identifying specific sounds in words;
Phoneme blending: combining sounds to form words;
Phoneme segmentation: breaking down words into individual sounds;
Phoneme addition: adding new sounds to form new words;
Phoneme deletion: removing sounds to create new words;
Phoneme substitution: replacing one sound with another to make a new word.
The development of phonological awareness skills should begin around age 3, during the pre-literacy phase, and continue through the first grade of elementary school, where literacy should be solidified.
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