Phonological Awareness Hierarchy: 12 Key Steps

What Is Phonological Awareness?

Phonological awareness is a metacognitive skill that involves thinking about the sounds in words, the syllables in words, and the words that make up sentences. The phonological awareness hierarchy breaks this skill into building blocks: breaking apart words into sounds or syllables, putting sounds or syllables together to create words, and manipulating the sounds and syllables in words.

It’s important when working on phonological awareness to focus on the sounds in words, not the letters. For example, we spell “gate” with four letters, G-A-T-E, but we say “gate” with three sounds, G-AY-T.

Why Is Phonological Awareness Important?

Phonological awareness is an important skill for reading. It’s the foundation for being able to decode words and ultimately read fluently. According to the International Dyslexia Association, a diagnosis of dyslexia often results from a breakdown or lack of phonological awareness skills.

The Phonological Awareness Hierarchy Explained

The phonological awareness hierarchy allows us to build these skills gradually, beginning with simple tasks and working up to more challenging, complex ones. The tasks below are listed from most challenging to least challenging.

1. Manipulation of Phonemes: changing or moving around the sounds in words to create a new word (“Replace the t sound in tuck with the d sound.”)
2. Addition of Phonemes: adding a sound to create a new word (“Say nail with the s sound at the beginning.”)
3. Deletion of Phonemes: removing a sound from a word to create a new word (“Say slip without the l sound.”)
4. Segmentation of Phonemes: breaking apart a word into individual sounds (“What sounds make up the word pizza?”)
5. Blending of Phonemes: putting sounds together to generate a word (“What word do these sounds make: p…i….g?”)
6. Identification of Phonemes: identifying the beginning, middle, or ending sound in a word (“What sound is at the beginning of the word soup?”)
7. Deletion of Syllables: removing a syllable from a word to create a new word (“Say doghouse without dog.”)
8. Segmentation of Syllables: breaking apart a word into syllables (“How many syllables are in the word potato?”)
9. Blending Syllables: combining single syllables to generate a word (“What word do these sounds make: cow….boy?”)
10. Segmentation of Words in Sentences: breaking apart a sentence into words (“How many words are in the sentence: I like to eat spaghetti?”)
11. Production of Rhyming Words: generating a rhyming word when given a word (“What rhymes with cat?”)
12. Discrimination of Rhyming Words: determining which words rhyme with each other (“Does cat rhyme with hat or dog?”)

ETLC Is Your Best Resource for Understanding Phonological Awareness

Does your child seem to be struggling through the steps of the phonological awareness hierarchy? We can help. At Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center, we’re your trusted partner in helping your child learn, grow, and succeed. We use proven approaches and methods to support your child’s speech and language development. Contact us today for a free screening and to learn more.