What is Phonological Awareness?

Phonological awareness is the ability to attend to the sounds of language, as distinct from its meaning (NRC, 1998). It is comprised of two levels: phonological sensitivity, meaning a “conscious awareness of larger, more salient sound structures within words, including syllables and sub-syllabic elements (onsets and rimes)” and phonemic awareness, meaning explicit awareness of the individual phonemes—the distinct units of sound—that comprise spoken words (Brady, 2012, p. 20). In their meta-analysis of the research on teaching reading, the NRP found that “teaching children to manipulate the sounds in language helps them learn to read.”