7 Pre-Reading Skills You Can Practice Anywhere

Phonological awareness is the ability is the ability to recognize and manipulate phonemes. Phonemes are distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another. While there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are approximately 44 phonemes. Having strong phonological awareness skills helps young learners develop an ear for subtle differences in words, while providing them with a number of strategies to use when attempting to decode a new word. Phonological awareness is considered to be a critical pre-reading skill. I’m going to share with you 7 pre-reading skills you can practice anywhere.

1) Rhyming

Word Strand: Start with one word, then your child says your word and provides a rhyming word, then you say your word, your child’s word, and another rhyming word. For example:
• You: Cat
• Child: Cat, Bat
• You: Cat, Bat, Sat
• Child: Cat, Bat, Sat, Mat
• Etc.

Guess my Word: Choose a word and give your child a hint that tells them what it rhymes with. If your child guesses incorrectly, add another clue. Once your child has guessed correctly, it’s their turn to provide the clues. For example:
• You: I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with cat.
• Child: Bat!
• You: My word rhymes with cat and you can wear it.
• Child: Hat!

2) Alliteration

Silly Sentences: Have fun making up silly sentences or stories with the same beginning sounds. For example:
• Sally Sue sells sea shells at the Seahawk Stadium.
• Billy Bob baked blueberry bread and brought it to a big black bear.

3) Syllables

Guess my Word: Choose a word and give your child a hint that tells them how many syllables are in your word. If your child guesses incorrectly, add another clue. Once your child has guessed correctly, it’s their turn to provide the clues. For example:
• You: I’m thinking of a word that has 3 syllables.
• Child: banana?
• You: My word has 3 syllables and protects you when it’s raining.
• Child: Umbrella!
*Bonus points for adding in a hint with rhyming. 😉

Syllable List: Think of a list of items that are relevant to what you are doing, or where you are going. For example, on the way to the beach you might have sunscreen and an umbrella. Take turns choosing a relevant word and breaking it into syllables. This activity also builds vocabulary and language skills by having your child brainstorm for items. For example:
• You: We are going to the beach today! How many syllables are in the word beach?
• Child: Beach *claps once* One!
• You: Good job! What do we need to take to the beach with us?
• Child: Sunscreen.
• You: How many syllables are in sunscreen?
• Etc.

4) Blending Phonemes

Chanting: Chant phonemes and blend them together in a fun sing-songy fashion. Use words that are related to what you are doing or where you are. For example, if you’re playing with blocks you might chant the words build, blocks, tall, short, big, and small.

5) Isolating Phonemes

Normal Conversation: One way to practice isolating phonemes is to periodically ask questions about the first or last sounds your child hears in words. For example, if you’re at the zoo looking at a tiger you might say:
• What is the first sound you hear in tiger? (/t/)
• What is the last sound you hear in tiger? (/er/)

Beat Box Isolation: To make phoneme isolation a little more fun and engaging, try beat boxing with your child. For example, if you’re at the zoo looking at animals, you might beat box: /l/ /l/ /l/ lion! /t/ /t/ /t/ tiger! /b/ /b/ /b/ bear! Oh my!

6) Deleting Phonemes

Crazy Words: Have fun creating crazy words with your child. Choose a word relevant to what you are doing or where you are and ask them to delete a phoneme. For example: What crazy word would we make it we took off the /m/ from monkey? (onkey)

7) Substituting Phonemes

Secret Language: Have fun talking to your child using a “secret language” by substituting the first or final phonemes in words. (switch /m/ in monkey to /s/ to get sonkey)