Phonemic Awareness

This is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual phonemes/letters (such as saying /c/, /a/,
and /t/ correctly). A person then has the ability to say these individual sounds and realize that these
separate sounds come together to form words (If a child was asked what word is made when the SLP says
the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/ the student should know that the blending of these sounds make the word cat).This
component lets the child understand the alphabet system as letters represent sounds.
Heres an online therapy activity to do with your child to develop phonemic awareness called Wilsons
farm and is a blending of the phonemes activity:
http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/farm3.html
Phonics
Words are made up from units of sounds called phonemes (for example the letter/sound /p/ is a phoneme).
A child should be able to listen and identify the phonemes that make up a word. They should understand
that the sound and grapheme/ symbol/letter of phonemes are related. If a child is instructed to point to
the /d/ phoneme, then the child should be able to understand that letter has a sound and say /d/.
Heres an online therapy activity to do with your child to understand phonics and it that has them
identify the next letter in the alphabet:
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/abcd.html

Lets talk about Literacy!
Reading/ writing is crucial in relation
to the quality of ones life. It is a
fundamental skill needed for a child
to do well in school and to be a
functioning member of society. The
research is clear: children who are
less read to/ exposed to these skills
performer poorer academically from
the start. Your child needs to
understand and utilize the 5
components of literacy in order to
read and write.
What are the 5 components
of literacy?
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension


Fluency
This is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, correct expression, in a smooth manner. When a child
reads aloud, they should sound like they are fluent and transitioning each word nicely. A child who hasnt
developed fluency sounds awkward, and choppy.
A therapy activity you could do with your child is have them read their favorite story aloud, and if they
are choppy/ not fluent have them imitate you as you read the story aloud and encourage them to have
smooth speech/ easier transitions.
Vocabulary
This is the body of the English language, its the words used in it (other languages apply to). Someones
vocabulary are words they know.
A therapy activity you could do with your child is purchasing picture flashcards that have a set categories
(animals, fruits, or vegetables, etc.) Show the flashcard to your child and have the child say the name of
what the picture is. This builds up their vocabulary/ lexicon.
Comprehension
Comprehension is simply understanding something written, spoken, and read. This is when your child
understands what they read/ write (characters, plots, words, theme etc.).
A therapy activity you could do with your child is making 10 sentence strips (a sentence on a strip of
paper) that corresponds to 10 pictures and lay them all randomly down on a table. For example, a
sentence strip could say The boy is playing with a fire truck and then the picture is of a boy playing with
a fire truck. Have your child match all ten sentence strips/ pictures on the table. Here is a link to this
game and other comprehension activities:
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/C_Final.pdf
Sources / Additional Activities
http://www.learner.org/libraries/readingk2/front/components.html
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/C_Final.pd
http://pbskids.org/games/vocabulary/






CONTACT INFO
MS. RACHAEL KOFOD, SLP-CCC
KOFO9786@FREDONIA.EDU