Home / Educators / Professional Development (3 - 5 YEARS) / Having Fun with Phonemic Awareness
- phonemic awareness: the ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of separate sounds (phonemes, the smallest units of sound), and to manipulate those sounds in speech
- phonics: the understanding that letters represent the sounds in words
- phonemes: the smallest units of sound
- phonological awareness: the ability to recognize that words are made up of a variety of sound units
- nonsense words: made-up words, used for the phonemic principle being taught
- sound matching: the ability to match words that begin or end with the same sound
Wrap Up
Now you're ready to implement the best practices you’ve learned with the children in your program. Complete the second half of the Self-Assessment to discover how much your skills may have improved.
Congratulations! Whether your progress was subtle or dramatic, you've undoubtedly increased your understanding and strengthened your skills. But this is just the beginning—there are many ways to improve and support your children’s learning experience. Look for more informative self-paced tutorials in the Professional Development section of this website.
For a summary of best practices, download the Best Practices (PDF). To see the standards this module correlates to, download the Standards (PDF).