Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

Empirical data supports the concept that early speech stimulation enhances later oral word output. One means of accomplishing this is to encourage phonics and phonemic awareness in early activities. Phonics is when the child names or identifies an alphabet letter by its name; for instance, the child sees the letter [m] and says “mmm.” Phonemic awareness is the reverse: the child recognizes the appropriate alphabet letter that the adult pronounces; for instance, the parent shows the child three alphabet letters [m, t, d], says “Where is the ‘tah’? Show me ‘tah’.” The child then selects the letter [t].

An activity to assist the child in this task is to use a magnetic white board, a small dry erase marker, and magnetic alphabet letters (i.e., Fridge Phonics® Leap Frog.) Fridge Phonics is a talking device that orally labels magnetic letters when inserted into a slot. The device states “[m] says mmm, every letter makes a sound, [m] says mmm.” Fridge Phonics comes with capital (upper case) letters; but, lower case letters can be purchased separately. Lower case letters are recommended since 85 percent of written words are lower case.

Using a multisensory approach, the child is asked to identify (phonemic awareness) a letter from an array of three that are placed on the top of the white board (i.e., [m, t, d]) after the adult says, “Where is the ‘mmm’?” The child then places the letter on the lower section of the white board. Then, the child is asked to take the dry erase marker (the adult may need to help child by hand-over-hand assistance), draw two horizontal lines, and write the letter [m]. While writing the letter, the child imitates and repeats oral stimulation “mmm.” Directions on how to write the letter are provided: “one hump, two humps.” The letter is held up to the side of the child’s mouth, while the adult speaks or makes the letter’s sound “mmm.” The child then places the letter into the Fridge Phonic’s holder and listens to the phrases.

The child gets to write the letter, name it, hear the letter’s sound, and select the letter from an array. Only a few letters should be used in the initial stages of the activity. Recommended letters are: [m, t, d, o, n, a].