Activities To Develop Phonological Awareness

• Activities for Younger Pre-School Children

  • Listen out for the sounds. Turn off the TV and listen to all the sounds you can hear in the house/garden or walking down the street. For example ticking clock, washing machine, dog barking, aeroplane etc.
  • Play games that encourage waiting, turn taking and listening. For example ‘ready steady go’ before popping a bubble, playing musical statues/bumps, squeak piggy squeak.
  • Dance, clap, stamp your feet, bang a drum to the beat of music/songs.
  • Sing nursery and action rhymes such as 'Wind the bobbin up', 'Wheels on the bus'. Sing the same songs over and over again. Or make up your own simple songs. 
  • Read books with a repetitive rhyming pattern. For example ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. Read the same ones again and again so your child gets to know them and can start joining in the story with you.
  • Make up silly rhyming patterns. For example, make up rhyming words with your pet’s name, objects, toys etc. For example, Fred, bed, head or Riley, miley, smiley etc.

  Visit nursery rhymes collections

• Syllable Awareness - Older Pre-school Children

  Words are made up of different numbers of ‘beats’ or syllables. For example:

  • ca-ter-pi-llar = 4
  • ba-na-na = 3
  • ta ble = 2
  • chair = 1

  Syllable awareness starts with being able to copy a rhythm. For example dancing to a beat, clapping out a rhythm. Playing with musical instruments can help this skill.

  Children often find it easier to talk about the ‘claps’ or ‘beats’ in a word rather than the ‘syllables.’ For example “how many claps are in the word ‘ba-na-na?”

  • Use children’s names, toys, every day objects and clap the syllables as you say the word. It may help to break the spoken word down slightly by saying ‘di-no-saur’, rather than ‘dinosaur’.
  • Demonstrate lots of examples before asking them to have a go. See if they can count the number of syllables in the word e.g. El-lie has 2 claps, O-li-ver has 3 claps.
  • Play simple ‘I spy’ games e.g I spy the ‘ta- ble, bas-ket, com-pu-ter’

  Saying the whole word again after saying the individual syllables will help the child hear how the syllables blend together, for example “ta- ble has 2 claps,  table”.

• Rhyming Awareness - Older Pre-school Children

  Reading books with repetitive rhyming patterns is one of the best ways to develop your child’s awareness of rhyme.

  • Play Pairs games like matching rhyming pictures, odd one out games or finding the picture that doesn’t rhyme. For example, bed, head, car. Remember it’s the rhyme sound you are matching not the spelling.
  • Play ‘I spy’ games such as finding something in the room that rhymes with ‘pear’. Find something on your plate that rhymes with ‘lips’. Find a part of your body that rhymes with ‘bed’.
  • Make up rhyming strings (these don’t need to be real words) like Millie, fillie, nilly, dilly.

• Listening To Speech Sounds In Words

  It’s really important in these activities to say the ‘sound’ the letter makes NOT the letter name. For example, ‘c’ not ‘see’, h not ‘aych’ , ffff not ‘ef’.

  • Point out items that start with the same sound e.g ball, bear and bunny all start with the ‘b’ sound, carrots, crisps and coffee all start with a ‘c’ sound etc
  • Play simple ‘I spy’ games during every day activities, for example, 'I spy something on your plate that begins with f'.
  • Play pairs games with everyday objects/pictures and match the ones that start with the same sound OR odd one out games. Select a few objects that start with the same sound and one that doesn’t. For example ‘bear, ball, bag and car’. Name the items and see if your child can identify the ‘odd one out’.
  • Sound hunt – ask your child to find something in the room/garden that starts with a specific sound. For example, find something beginning with ch, m.

  Find a sound sorting box activity here

• Playing With Sounds

  Encourage young children to experiment with making sounds by:

  • Copying any attempts at sounds they make. Try to vary the sound by making it louder/quieter or higher/lower.
  • Making silly sounds like blowing raspberries, popping your cheeks, smacking your lips, rolling your tongue. Pause and see if your child will copy you.
  • Listen and copy sounds/noises in the house/garden/street, for example, a phone ringing 'ring ring', sirens blaring 'nee nor', car horns 'beep beep', doorbells ringing 'ding dong', animal sounds 'woof woof', 'miaow', 'tweet tweet'.
  • Make sounds in everyday activities, for example, 'mmm' when eating food, ‘shhh’ when filling up the bath with water, ‘whee’ when going down the slide,  ‘uh oh’ when you drop something.