Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, distinguish, and manipulate individual sounds or phonemes in spoken words. This includes the ability to isolate, blend, segment, and manipulate the sounds in words. For example, a student with phonemic awareness can identify the beginning sound in the word "cat," blend the sounds together to form the word "cat," and segment the word into its individual sounds "c-a-t."
Phonemic awareness is a crucial skill for learning to read and write because it helps students understand the sounds that make up words. It is considered a precursor to phonics instruction, which teaches students the relationship between sounds and letters.
Tier 1
Core, universal instructional practices.