Defining Phonemic Awareness Skills
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Many students who seem bright actually struggle with reading. When tested, most of their cognitive skills test high — except for one: phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness is the ability to blend, segment, and manipulate sounds.
It is essential to keep an eye on the student’s spelling and reading skills. These signs can indicate deficit in this area. If blending, segmenting, and sound analysis are weak, sounding out words when reading and spelling will be difficult and error-prone.
Studies done between 1985 and 1995 indicate that 88% of all kids with reading problems have great deficiency in phonemic awareness.
Phonemic awareness skills need to be developed as according to an independent study done, it impacts 40% of a general student population with 20% of the students significantly deficient and another 20% weak in this area.
Similar to the automobile engine analogy, deficiency in this skill can severely limit both educational success and work performance.
How can you improve Phonemic awareness skills among the students in your classroom?
From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Cognitive Skills – Understanding Learning Challenges
