2 Phonemic Awareness Activities to Boost Reading Ability

Try these 2 fun games to improve your student'(s) phoneme awareness (perception of individual sounds in words). Then she will read better!

Game #1 Segmenting the Sounds

Phonemic segmentation (or separating a word into its smallest units of sound) is highly predictive of reading achievement. When our students can separate each individual sound (phoneme) in words, they are better able to connect these sounds to specific spellings (i.e., /sh/ /ow/= “sh” and “ow”).

If your student isn't good at the skill of phonemic segmentation yet, no worries! It's easy to develop through activities like the one in this video below. Enjoy it for a few minutes when you're in the car or waiting in line with your child.

Game #2 Blending the Sounds Together

Now try the opposite of the above segmentation game!

Challenge your student(s) to listen carefully so he can blend the sounds together to hear a real word. This phonemic skill of blending is what he will need to read unfamiliar words.

Curious about next steps if you want to help your student(s) learn to read?

Try Build It (here), if your student does not know most letter-sounds.

Try Switch It (here), if your student does know more than 7 letter-sounds.