Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate, or ‘play with’ the spoken sounds in words and sentences. Through the investigation and exploration of words, sounds and patterns in spoken language, children may begin to develop phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness is an umbrella term for a wide set of skills. Children will grasp different aspects of phonological awareness at different times and may need to revisit areas as they learn to read.

Skills which fall under the umbrella term of phonological awareness include attention and listening, auditory and visual discrimination, word awareness, syllable detection and blending, rhyme awareness and production, alliteration awareness and production, and phoneme manipulation. Further explanation of these terms is provided in the video and glossary which accompany this theme.

Phonological awareness supports children to make connections between letters and sounds and encourages them to notice the sound structure in words. Awareness of these sound parts or structures is key to being able to join sounds together to read words at a later stage (Hulme et al., 2005).

We can support development of phonological skills through providing opportunities to play with sounds, words and print in a variety of spaces (Education Scotland, 2020).

Play experiences are the natural vehicle for children to develop phonological awareness. We can use children’s interests to develop meaningful experiences across a range of spaces. These spaces may feature props and resources both indoors and out. Exploring rhymes, songs and texts are an important part of early years practice which support phonological awareness.

Through our interactions, we can support children to begin to make connections between sounds they hear, and print they see, in their environment. We can encourage children to notice familiar letters and their corresponding names and sounds as they explore their environment.

Phonological awareness is a key component of early reading development.

Castles, A., & Coltheart, M. (2004). Is there a causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read? Cognition, 91(1), 77–111.

Hulme, C., Snowling, M., Caravolas, M., & Carroll, J. (2005). Phonological Skills Are (Probably) One Cause of Success in Learning to Read: A Comment on Castles and Coltheart. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(4), 352.

The Highland Council. (n.d.). Emerging Literacy Phonological Awareness.

Victoria State Government Department of Education. (n.d.). Literacy Teaching Toolkit: Phonological Awareness.

Provide opportunities to hear, explore and play with the sounds and patterns of language.

Education Scotland. (2017). Curriculum for Excellence Literacy and English Experiences and Outcomes.

Education Scotland. (2020). Realising the Ambition: Being Me.

Scottish Book Trust. (n.d.). Bookbug Song and Rhyme Library.

Through our interactions, we can support children to begin to make connections between sounds they hear and print in their environment.

Weitzman, E., & Greenberg, J. (2010). ABC and beyond: Building emergent literacy in early childhood settings (pp. 93-95). The Hanen Centre.