Phonological Awareness; Blue Slide Playground at Frick Park

Phonological awareness is the awareness of the sound structure of a language.  It includes awareness of words, syllables and sounds.  Researchers believe that strong phonological awareness skills often correlate to strong reading and writing skills later on in a child's life.

Activities to increase phonological awareness often involve rhyming, alliteration and phonemic awareness (discussed below).  A fun place to practice these skills is at Blue Slide Playground at Frick Park.

Image retrieved from http://www.kidsburgh.org/features/parent-tested-playgrounds.

Rhyming: Encourage your child to practice rhyming by asking her to name five words that rhyme with "blue" and "slide" each time she takes a ride on the slide.  Targets for "blue" may include "shoe," "new," "do," "moo" and "zoo;" targets for "slide" may include "ride," "glide," "fried," "bride" and "tried."  Explain to your child that rhyming words end with the same sound, such as "blue" and "new."  If she has difficulty, then ask her to name words that end with the "oo" sound.

Alliteration: Encourage your child to practice alliteration (when words share a sound in the beginning, middle or end of the word).  An easy way to start is with beginning sounds in words.  Ask your child to practice alliteration by having her name five words that start with the "b" sound as in "blue" and five words that start with the "s" sound as in "slide."  Have her name five each time she takes a ride on the slide.  Targets for "blue" include "bed," "banana," "ball," "bird" and "bug;" targets for the "s" sound include "sock," "sun," "six," "sit" and "say."

Phonemic awareness: This is the highest level of phonological awareness.  It is the ability to identify sounds as the building blocks of syllables and words, and to manipulate those sounds.  It includes synthesizing sounds into a word.  For example, understanding that the sequence of sounds /k/.../a/.../t/ is "cat".  It also includes the reverse: breaking a word up into sounds.  For example, understanding that "cat" is segmented  into the sounds /k/.../a/.../t/.  Here are some ways to practice phonemic awareness:
1. Ask your child how many sounds are in the words blue, slide, park, etc.  For the more advanced, try the word "playground."
2. Segment a word into sounds, and ask your child what it is.  For example, "/b/.../l/.../u/.  What word is this?"  (Blue.)
3. Ask your child to tell you the three sounds in "blue."  (/b/, /l/, /u/.)
4. Ask your child to tell you "blue" without the /b/ sound.  (-lue)
This last part can get a little tricky.  A good way for you to instruct your child is to review several examples of the task.  For example, that "cat" has three sounds, "dog" has three sounds, "sock" has three sounds, "house" has three sounds, etc.  With repeated exposure, she should start to understand.  As this task is the most involved, it might be best to practice the skills during a rest break from the slide.  Please post below or e-mail me if you have any questions.

*Tip: CBS reports that sitting on a piece of cardboard can help children slide down more easily...just please be careful!