Phonemic Awareness: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. It is essential for learning to read in an alphabetic writing system and is a strong predictor of early reading success. In other words, if a child can complete phonemic awareness tasks, they are more likely to be a good reader.

To understand phonemic awareness, it's important to know that it is the most advanced skill within phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of individual sound parts. Phonemic awareness exists under the umbrella of phonological awareness, which includes other levels of sound awareness.

These levels progress from larger sound units to the smallest. Phonological awareness includes the ability to distinguish sounds at the word, syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme levels. Phonemic awareness specifically focuses on the smallest unit of sound, where you can identify, categorize, isolate, blend, segment, add, delete, and substitute individual phonemes in words.

What does Phonemic Awareness look like?

Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill. It involves the task of pulling apart words into their individual phonemes, the smallest unit of sound, when heard.

Purposeful phonemic awareness instruction includes:

• Identifying: Recognizing the first sound in a word.

  • Example: What is the first sound you hear in "cat"? /k/
    

• Matching: Noticing when a beginning sound is the same as other beginning sounds.

  • Example: Choose a picture that matches the first sound /d/. Dog and Door.
    

• Categorizing: Grouping beginning sounds that are the same.

  • Example: Is the /k/ in "cat" the same as the /m/ in "map"? Is it the same as the /k/ in "cap"? Is it the same as the /k/ in "can"? Cat, cap, and can all start with the same sound.
    

• Blending: Putting phonemes together to say a word.

  • Example: What word is made up of the sounds /k/ /ă/ /t/? "cat."
    

• Segmenting: Saying each phoneme in a word.

  • Example: What are all the sounds you hear in "cat"? /k/ /ă/ /t/
    

• Deleting: Removing a phoneme to change a word.

  • Example: What is "cat" without the /k/ sound? "At."
    

Substituting: Changing a phoneme to make a new word.

• Example: What word would you have if you changed the /t/ in "cat" to an /n/? "Can."
  

• Adding: Adding a phoneme to make a new word.

  • Example: Add /k/ to "rash." What is the new word? "Crash."

    
    

How do we teach phonemic awareness?

• Keep lessons short—less than 15 minutes.

• Focus on 1 or 2 phonemic manipulation activities in each lesson.

• Use materials that reduce memory load and help represent sounds. For example, using pictures to help children remember words or using a 3-square strip or blocks to represent sounds in a word.

• Tie instruction to reading and writing. Present an auditory task focused on phonemic awareness, then use the same target sounds in words that students practice reading or spelling.

• Once children can blend and segment sounds easily, introduce letters during lessons as a transition to phonics. Seeing the letters helps children associate sounds with letters.

  
  

Why is phonemic awareness important?

Phonemic awareness helps children get ready for reading and writing by helping them understand that words are made of smaller sounds. It also helps them sound out words as they read and write. One of the key differences between readers who struggle and those who don’t is strong phonemic awareness.

First graders who cannot blend sounds into words or segment words into sounds are likely in need of phonemic awareness intervention. Some students may also need word-level and spelling instruction to explicitly link sounds to print.

Suggested Citation:

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2025). Phonemic Awareness: What Is It and Why Is It Important? Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from improvingliteracy.org.