By Heather Thompson | Structured Literacy Specialist, UFLI & IMSE Trained | Thompson Literacy & Learning
“Before a child can read a single word on a page, they need to be able to hear the sounds that make up that word. That ability — phonemic awareness — is the invisible foundation that everything else is built on.”
What Is Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds — called phonemes — in spoken words. It is a purely oral skill, meaning it has nothing to do with letters or print. It is entirely about sound. When a child can hear that the word cat is made up of three sounds — /c/ /a/ /t/ — and can blend those sounds together, pull them apart, and swap them out, that child has phonemic awareness. And that skill is the single strongest predictor of reading success that researchers have ever identified.
Why Is Phonemic Awareness So Important?
Here is something that surprises many parents — phonemic awareness comes before phonics. Before a child can connect letters to sounds on a page, they need to be able to hear and work with those sounds in spoken language. Without that foundation firmly in place, phonics instruction simply does not stick, no matter how many worksheets a child completes or how many times they practice the alphabet. Think of it this way: phonics is the bridge between sounds and print, but phonemic awareness is the ground that bridge is built on. Skip it, and the whole structure is unstable.
What Does Phonemic Awareness Look Like in Practice?
Phonemic awareness skills develop in a predictable sequence, and each one builds on the last. It begins with broad awareness — recognizing that words rhyme, that sentences are made of individual words, that words can be long or short. From there, children develop the ability to blend syllables, then individual sounds. Eventually they can segment a word into all of its individual sounds, delete a sound and say what is left, and substitute one sound for another. These are not just academic exercises. They are the brain building the exact circuitry it needs to become a fluent, confident reader.
How Is Phonemic Awareness Different from Phonics?
This is one of the most common questions I hear from parents and it is a great one. Phonemic awareness is about sound only — no letters involved. Phonics is about connecting those sounds to written letters and letter combinations. Both are essential and they work beautifully together. But phonemic awareness must come first. A child who is struggling with phonics almost always has gaps in their phonemic awareness that need to be addressed before anything else. This is exactly why every structured literacy assessment looks carefully at phonemic awareness — because it tells us everything about where a child’s reading journey truly needs to begin.
How Thompson Literacy & Learning Builds Phonemic Awareness
At Thompson Literacy & Learning, phonemic awareness is built into every single session — intentionally, systematically, and in a way that feels engaging and even playful for young children. Using UFLI and IMSE trained methods rooted in the Science of Reading, I assess exactly where each child is in their phonemic awareness development and build from that precise starting point. No guessing, no skipping steps, no one-size-fits-all curriculum. Every child gets exactly what they need in exactly the right sequence. And because young children learn best through multisensory experiences, we use movement, rhythm, and hands-on activities to make these critical skills feel like play rather than work.
What Can Parents Do at Home?
The good news is that building phonemic awareness at home does not require any special materials or training. Simple games and everyday conversations go a long way. Practice rhyming on car rides — what rhymes with dog? Ask your child how many sounds they hear in simple words. Clap out the syllables in names and everyday objects. Read aloud daily and draw attention to the sounds in words as you go. These small moments add up to enormous gains over time, especially when paired with the structured instruction we do together in our sessions. For more ideas on how to support your reader between sessions, read The Summer Slide: What It Is and How to Stop It at thompsonliteracyandlearning.com/the-summer-slide-what-it-is-and-how-to-stop-it/.
The Bottom Line
Phonemic awareness is not optional for early readers — it is the foundation. And when it is strong, everything else — phonics, decoding, fluency, and comprehension — has something solid to build on.