Learning to read is a process that depends, in part, on a solid foundation of phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is a set of skills that includes identifying and manipulating (i.e., changing) parts of language, like words, syllables, onset/rimes, and individual sounds.

Building phonological awareness is done by playing with words and parts of words. Here are some key phonological awareness tasks that you can practice with children at home or school.

1. Rhyming: Rhyming pulls out the end of a word and matches it with a new beginning sound. Cat- Hat- Mat- Sat. Kids can first say whether two words rhyme, and then they learn to make up their own rhymes. Rhymes don't have to be real words. In fact, coming up with nonsense rhymes shows proficiency! Mouse- Zouse works!

2. Tapping: Tapping out words in a sentence (*I *Run *Really *Fast) helps children establish clear boundaries for language units. After tapping words comes tapping/clapping syllables (*I *Run *Rea- *lly *Fast). Music is a great activity to use for tapping/clapping/stomping these parts of language).

3. Compound Words: Learning to blend two words into a compound word (rain + bow = rainbow) and take compound words apart (cowboy= cow + boy) further expands children's ability to play with language and language unit boundaries.