I am often asked the questions about phonological awareness vs. phonics.
Today, I will talk about the differences between the two.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness refers to the awareness of the sound structure of a spoken language and the ability to manipulate sounds.
Examples:
- Identify words that rhyme
- Recognizing alliteration
- Segmenting a sentence into words
- Identifying the syllables in a word
- Blending and segmenting onset-rimes
- Manipulating phonemes
Phonics
Phonics refers to the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between spoken sounds (phonemes) and the letters or letter combinations (graphemes) that represent those sounds.
What is the Main Difference Between the Two?
Phonological awareness refers to oral language while phonics refers to print.
Who is the Expert in Each Area?
We, speech-language pathologists, are the expert in oral language. That‘s why we help children develop their phonological awareness.
If you are looking for an advice on how you support your child with phonics, followings are the right specialists to contact with:
- Reading specialists
- Special Education Teachers
- Classroom Teachers