Phonological awareness is an umbrella term used to describe an awareness of parts of spoken language (not written language). This includes awareness of words, syllables, onset and rime, as well as phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest spoken part of a word that makes a difference in meaning. If someone couldn't hear the difference between the word lot and got, they may have trouble with phonemic awareness in not being able to hear differences in sounds. Oftentimes, people consider phonemic awareness a skill that can be taught in the dark because it should only involve hearing sounds. If a student can't hear the difference between certain phonemes, it could translate into a reading difficulty.
How do you assess it?
Once a student has learned to decode, work with phonological awareness is no longer needed. However, if a student continues to struggle with distinguishing sounds, help may be needed, even in older children. You can assess phonological awareness problems by using several screening and diagnostic tests. Some of the following tests could be used:
- AIMSweb Test of Early Literacy (Phonemes Segmentation Fluency)
- DIBELS (Initial Sound Fluency/Phoneme Segmentation Fluency)
- Fox in a Box
- Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test
- Teaching Reading Sourcebook by CORE
- Consonant/Vowel Phoneme Chart
- Phonemic Awareness/Alphabetic Principle Activities
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