Glossary

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words, without any letters involved.

It includes blending sounds into a word, segmenting a word into sounds, and swapping one sound for another. It is a listening and speaking skill that underpins phonics.

Example

Hearing that the word cat has three sounds, or that changing the first sound of cat to m makes mat.

Why it matters for the record

Early trouble with segmenting often explains later trouble with spelling. A note in the record connects the two.

Related terms

Rate each skill as you teach it

Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.

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