The Reading Hut®
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Phoneme Articulation and Phonemic Awareness Mastery
- BEFORE Learning about Letters!
"The most common source of reading difficulties is poor phonemic awareness."David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D.
Phonemic Awareness (PA) has received immense publicity in reading education circles and even in public debate on the teaching of reading, especially in the US and the UK. Research indicates that about 20-30% of children struggle with phonemic awareness and need explicit instruction to develop these skills.
Of course, even when children have good phonemic awareness and can learn phonics, more is needed to become a 'reader'. In addition to learning the specific symbol-sound mappings of the orthography being learned, the learner must "get inside words," go below the level of meaning, and understand their sound structure. This phonological analysis, or "meta-linguistic" awareness, is an essential prerequisite for literacy learning. It enables the learner to exploit the combinatorial nature of writing, decipher novel letter strings, match spellings with pronunciations, and begin building the orthographic lexicon by chunking sub-lexical symbols into higher-order meaning units—key to rapid, automatic word recognition.
Any difficulties that a novice reader may have in processing speech sounds or in processing the nuances of phonology (e.g., speech sound disorder, dyslexia) will almost invariably impair learning to read. The evidence is clear and extends beyond phonemic awareness to early pre-literate spoken language competencies in processing the sounds of speech, both receptive and expressive. Phonology, therefore, is a major source of variability in reading ability and a core deficit among struggling readers, whether dyslexic or not. However, to give the most children the best chance of becoming readers, we must ensure that they start school with good phonemic awareness.
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Sources:
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National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD):
According to the NICHD, about 20-30% of children face difficulties in learning to read due to deficits in phonemic awareness, which necessitates explicit instruction.
National Reading Panel: The National Reading Panel's report highlights that explicit instruction in phonemic awareness is essential for children who do not develop these skills naturally.
Rose, J. Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum (England). 2009. Available online: https://apo.org.au/node/14370
Research on Dyslexia and Reading Difficulties:
Studies on dyslexia, which affects about 10-15% of the population, often emphasise the importance of phonemic awareness instruction for children who do not naturally acquire these skills.
These findings support the notion that a significant minority of children, approximately 20-30%, require explicit instruction to develop phonemic awareness, which is critical for their reading development.
After learning to isolate, segment and blend speech sounds using 'Duck Hands' and through a focus on our unique 'Speech Sound Mapping' approach using PAM children can:
Identify the phoneme these 'Phonemies' make
Confidently 'follow the monster sounds to say the word ie blend the Phonemies into 'Visual Prompt' words
Can build the Visual Prompt words in Phonemies on the Speech Sound Lines.
Avery will demonstrate below!
This can take less than an hour, a few days or a few weeks. Allow 6 weeks so you don't feel rushed
(10 - 15 minutes per day) Use the Teacher Handbook.
Why do we also screen for phoneme articulation, if phonemic awareness is the focus?
For decades practitioners have noted subtle sub-clinical “signs” of spoken-language abnormalities in speech processing among dyslexic learners. These signs are not obvious because these children are, to a large extent, competent speakers of their native tongue. However, because phonology is so crucial for learning to read, they only become “visible” in literate societies. We are interested in early screening for phonemic awareness but also paying attention to other skills even before they map those phonemes to graphemes. At present we only know what we know. We want to know more.
You will need:
Getting Started Bundle on SpeechSoundPlay.com
Spelling Piano app for tablets / ICRWY Lessons app (all devices)
Why should 'teachers' be
grown-ups?
The 'learning to read for pleasure' journey starts with Speech Sound Play, facilitating PAM, with a focus on reducing cognitive load ie phonemes first (before graphemes) For some children only a few hours are needed, some (like Alf) need a lot more.
To bypass the lack of teacher training and awareness around phonemic awareness (and why this specific aspect of phonological awareness matters) and the IPA, I am developing a range of tech solutions that children can quickly use independently after working through the Speech Sound Play Plan. Parents and Early Years teachers can follow the handbook and ensure that their child is able to go from 'speech to print' and also from 'print to speech' and have fun mapping words without constraints. Phonemic awareness is key.
The graphemes don't really matter at first, even though we embed the monsters within them (so that when they are ready, they start to take notice)
I will be designing teacher training courses so that teachers and tutors can deliver this here in the UK, and in Australia if using the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach. It would be easier in Australia as there are so many amazing and highly skilled Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach teachers, but 'Speech Sound Monsters' are a totally new concept to UK teachers as they link with IPA phonetic symbols rather than graphemes. At this point, due to DfE recommendations around how phonics be taught, I am not launching the SSP approach here for KS1 classrooms because it is not 'synthetic phonics'. The phonics content is learned in half the time, however - with children passing the PSC before starting Year 1.
I offer a 1:1 Speech Sound Mapping package, delivered by myself over 10 weeks with EHC-funded students, whereby I train the teacher to understand that child's needs. My doctoral work centres around 'Orthographic Interference': most skilled readers (who may be teaching phonics) cannot accurately map an alarming number of everyday words that children use in KS1. This skill is vital if they are to help children develop phonemic and orthographic awareness and transition towards orthographic mapping. My doctoral work also focuses on 'Screen and Intervene' strategies for teachers tasked with teaching phonics.
This is why early screening of 2 and 3-year-olds matters so much: we can avoid the issues so many children in England currently face.
The journey towards 'orthographic mapping' (reading without conscious effort) is different for each child because we are building on their schema. It starts with Phonemic Awareness Mastery and transitions to Orthographic Awareness and the development of Orthographic Knowledge via word mapping mastery.
Avery (just turned 3) would understand the content in the clip shown below, but not necessarily an 8-year-old who has been learning with print-to-speech (synthetic) phonics. After phonemic awareness 'Discovery Screening', children work through their own Phonemic Awareness Mastery Program, which transitions to include Sound Pics (graphemes). I design this program based on each child’s needs. Clips like this (below) are also used to train adults. Even though they may seem as if designed for children, I prefers to train in this way as it is easier for adults to apply new learning directly to their child or student. I gives 'the grown-ups' what they need when they need it, just as I want parents to learn to do with their child.
Many children simply need t develop phonemic awareness via Speech Sound Play and will then be able to learn to read more easily, even with a synthetic phonics programme. Phonemic awareness—the ability to identify, segment, and blend speech sounds—is the magic ingredient. The learning journey is designed around the child, and their age (and any learning differences) impacts this design. It is easier to start when children are babies as there is no 'rush' to phonics or to read fluently.
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This is, in part, why we are seeking grant funding to roll out phonemic awareness Discovery Screening sessions with 3-year-olds, whom we again check at 4 before they start school. By identifying at-risk children, we can give parents (and their EY teachers/childminders) the information and support they need as we predict they will have difficulties learning to read when they start school and are going to have to learn with synthetic phonics (if they attend a government-maintained school). As 1 in 4 children start Reception without phonemic awareness, and 1 in 4 leave primary school unable to read at minimum levels, this early prediction of difficulties is vital.
Young children with EHC plans can request Phonemic Awareness Screening to identify a range of related factors and a Phonemic Awareness Mastery program if there are identified risks, ideally delivered by a Speech Sound Mapping specialist. Children later diagnosed with dyslexia have poor phonemic awareness. Identifying this deficit early and sending them to school with phonemic awareness changes lives for children who learn differently. This is also applicable to autistic children, as they will gravitate towards 'Miss Emma' in Speech Sound Cloud Land and the Phonemies (called Speech Sound Monsters as 'Phonemies can be hard to pronounce) and those with ADHD as it is fast-paced and multisensory. The Speech Sound Monsters are also used across Australia by speech therapists as standalone therapy for children with speech delays and verbal dyspraxia. The monsters are alternatives to phonetic symbols.
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