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Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds of a language. That is the ability to combine sounds together (e.g., /p/, /a/, and /t/ becomes “pat”) or take them apart (the word “pat” is made up of /p/, /a/ and /t/). It also includes the ability to rearrange the sounds of a word (e.g., “swing” becomes “wings” when the /s/ is moved to the end) or remove sounds from a word all together (e.g., “clap” becomes “cap” without the /l/). Additionally, skills such as the ability to identify or produce words that rhyme also falls under phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness skills are an important precursor to learning to read and spell. A child needs to be able to manipulate the sounds of a language in order to successfully read and write. Decoding written text is dependent on the ability to map a written letter to its corresponding sound and the reverse is true for the ability to spell. A child needs to be able to segment the individual sounds of a word they hear and map those sounds onto the corresponding letters.

References:

Bauman-Wängler, J. A. (2020). Articulation and phonology in speech sound disorders: A clinical focus. (No Title).

Gillon, G. (2002). Phonological awareness intervention for children: From the research laboratory to the clinic. The ASHA Leader, 7(22), 4-17.