What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and visually image the number, order, and identity of sounds and letters within words. These abilities underlie accurate word attack, word recognition, reading fluency, and spelling. Prior to learning to read, it is necessary for a child to understand that words are composed of strings of speech sounds called phonemes. Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills. Weakness in these functions causes individuals to add, omit, substitute, and reverse sounds and letters within words while reading and spelling.