Pillar 1: Phonemic Awareness

Important Definitions:

• Phonological Awareness: The ability to consciously notice, think about, and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language at any level (words, syllables, onsets-rimes, individual sounds)

• Phonemic Awareness: A subset of phonological awareness that deals only with phonemes—the smallest, individual speech sounds in a word—and the ability to blend, segment, delete, or substitute those sounds.

Why it Matters:

All levels of phonological awareness support early literacy. However, phonemic awareness, especially manipulation tasks, is the strongest predictor of accurate word reading and spelling because it underpins orthographic mapping (locking words into long-term memory).

Developmental Milestones:

Access this link to learn more about developmental milestones for phonological awareness.