Phonemic awareness is a pre-reading skill. It includes:
- Understanding that letters have a shape, a name, and a sound
- Knowledge that reading flows from left to right direction
- Knowing that words are made of letters and syllables
- Knowing that words have “sound elements” or phonemes
- Being able to work with phonemes by:
- Playing rhyming games
- Saying words that end the same
- Saying words that start with the same sound
- Substituting sounds within words
- Making silly words that rhyme
These skills are frequently lacking in dyslexics.