Helping Children Develop Phonetic Awareness
Numerous studies have repeatedly proved that the perception of speech in humans is shaped according to what we hear, and not what we read or write. Proper hearing capabilities are necessary for infants to repeat words they hear for the first time. In the world of literature and language, phonetics is the term used to define the ability of being able to focus attention on those sound segments that are present in a word or sentence. Phonetic awareness or phonemic awareness is this ability through which a listener can hear a sound and then identify and manipulate the smallest units of sound known as phonemes.
Phonetic awareness is different from the genre of phonics. It is more like a forerunner to understanding the concept of phonics, a science that teaches the sound of written words. During the primary stages of literacy, it becomes very important to be phonetically aware. This has to be studied in detail and applied to the various fields of early child education to ensure the growth of all types of literacy skills.
Various researchers have dubbed phonetic awareness as a necessity since it demands that readers of all ages become more aware of the sounds made by each letter in the alphabet. For first time readers, developing phonetic awareness becomes all the more important as it helps them identify alphabets based on the sounds. In the English language, even though there are only twenty six alphabets, the sounds produced by those alphabets are more than twice that number as many of the alphabets can be pronounced in several ways. Phonetic awareness allows the auditory processes to identify sounds, which can later be printed out to match the appropriate alphabets.
Phonemic awareness is a part of the education process in many kindergarten and primary schools. It is taught and assessed as a part of the entire educational curriculum of the school. In order to teach phonemic awareness thoroughly to young students, each child is introduced to a similar sounds present in many different words. Children are coached on how to listen for different sounds in a word. Those children who are introduced to this method while learning to read and write become strong readers later on in life.
In order to help your child read better, it is advisable to increase his/her awareness of phonetics from a very young age. Children who get proper education on phonetics from a young age can learn to read at the age of two or three. Even when a child has already learnt to speak different sounds, the association of sounds with the different letters has to be taught to him/her. Therefore, if a child begins the phonetic education early on in his/her life, there are more chances of the child to become a better and faster reader than his/her counterparts.
Those parents who read out loud to their children on a regular basis notice that their children have a better sense of phonetics. During the process of reading out loud, the child comes to understand what each written word sounds like. It is the parents’ job to point out each word with the fingers as it is being read so that the child develops a strong phonetic awareness.
So, as a parent or teacher, it’s your job and responsibility to develop phonetic awareness skills in the child.
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