Pajama Story Time at the San Jose Public Library

Did you know that every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month the San Jose Public Library hosts a Pajama story time for kids. They encourage you to bring your kids in their pajamas and with their teddy bear. That's great in my opinion since you can get home after story time and go right to bed!

The next story time is this Thursday February 12th at 6:30 PM.

We all know that reading to our kids is important. But one of the most important reasons it is important is because when reading to our kids, we are fostering phonological awareness skills.

Phonological awareness is the ability to understand that words are made of sounds. Your child does not need to be able to explain that, but the way they play with words (according to a fairly specific developmental hierarchy) tells us that they are wrapping their mind around this concept. As parents and educators, it is critical to remember that people are born with the innate ability to learn to speak. So, assuming you expose a typically developing child to speech models (e.g adults, older peers), they will learn to talk.

Yet, we are not born with the innate ability to read. Reading is a learned skill that requires teaching at a developmentally appropriate time. Phonological awareness is one step in that climb towards learning to read.

Some important facts about Phonological Awareness: 

- Phonological awareness is a much broader concept than phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes (the smallest sound unites that differentiate meaning)
- Includes the ability to identify and manipulate larger units such as syllables and words
- Includes awareness of other aspects of sound such as rhyming and intonation
- Phonological awareness and early reading skills are highly correlated

Fostering and promoting phonological awareness is done in sequence from the whole components (the word) to part components (the sound). Younger kids should engage in activities with adults that utilize the auditory modality only. So reading books and playing word games while driving will be great. Here are some ideas (listed in in a hierarchy from word to phoneme) to help you promote phonological awareness with your kids:

Word Awareness: as you say each word in  nursery rhyme hold up a finger; point to each word as you read your child's favorite story. This helps internalize that the word you say corresponds to a single unit.

Syllable Awareness: during dinner each member of the family should tap the table or clap their hands for the syllables in their name. For example "Danny" would tap-tap (two syllables), "Emily" would tap-tap-tap (three syllables). Who has the most syllables in their name?

Rhyme Awareness:  There are so many wonderful picture books available that have rhyming words Dr. Seuss's Fox in Socks because it is so simple and get to the rhyming quickly. Another is The Goodnight Train. Just remember that they don’t need identify the words in print, they just need to hear them.

Initial Consonant Awareness: Pick a favorite doll or stuffed animal. Right now, Teddy only likes carrots. Go around the house to hunt for other things teddy might like that start with the /k/ sound (cake, cookies...)

Alliteration: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." That's hard to say! Make up other silly sentences with friends names with all words that start with the same letter. "Daddy digs a dog a day!"

Onset/Rime Awareness: The onset of a word is the first consonant sound (or consonant blend) in a word (e.g. in the word "stick" /st/ is the onset). The rime of a word are the vowel and consonant sounds following the initial consonant sound ( e.g. in the word "top" /op/ is the rime). Play a rousing round of "I Say, You Say." Take turns calling out a 1 syllable word such as "pat." Then one person will say the onset: /p/ and the other will sat the rime: /at/. Make sure to switch roles  so everyone gets a chance to say the onset or rhyme.

Phonemic Awareness (Segmenting, blending, manipulation): This is the skill we all think about when we think about reading (and later spelling) abilities.

Segmenting means breaking up a word into its component phonemes (or sounds). Say the word "dog" and have your child segment the sounds (not the letters!). They should make the sounds /d/ /o/ /g/. Another helpful way to visualize this concept for kids is to use sound boxes. Take a look at  Another helpful activity is the use of sound cups. Take 3 or 4 plastic cups, pom-poms (or other small items), paper and marker. Place the pom-poms in front of each cup.  Say a word such as "cat". Your child can put the pom-pom in the cup as they segment the word into phonemes. So for "cat" they would put three pom-poms in three cups as they say /c/ /a/ and /t/.

Blending is the opposite of segmenting. Play a guessing game and say the individual phonemes. Ask your child to blend them into the word. If you say /m/ /i/ /t/, your child should guess "mit".

Manipulation is tricky. Pick a song and substitute various sounds. For example, sing to the tune of  "Zippity Do Da":

Bippity boo ba

Bippity bay.

My Oh my what a wonderful day!

Plenty of sunshine comin' my way.

Bippity boo ba

Bippity bay!

Opportunities to encourage phonological awareness are all around. What are your favorite activities or books?

For more information on phonological awareness, take a look at a great resource on reading called Reading Rockets. Here is an abridged version of their chart on the ages at which 80-90 percent of typical students have achieved a phonological skill:

Age 4: Rote imitation and enjoyment of rhyme and alliteration
Age 5: Clapping, counting syllables
Age 5½: Producing a rhyme; Matching initial sounds; isolating an initial sound
Age 6: Blending of two and three phonemes
Age 6½: Phoneme segmentation of words that have up to three or four phonemes (e.g. b-a-t)


Michelle Lachman
Schedule your free consultation today: 1.408.365.4423 / mlachman.speech@gmail.com