What is Syllable Awareness?

Welcome to our Phonological Awareness blog series, an important series for parents and teachers that covers phonological awareness, phonological sensitivity, and phonemic awareness.

This week’s topic is the second level of Phonological Sensitivity: Syllable Awareness.

You can also read this information in a convenient, easy-to-print eBook. Check it out here!

Syllable awareness information for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS TOPICS

Check out the other topics in this Phonological Awareness blog series:

You can also check out my Phonological Awareness playlist on YouTube for more information:

Phonological awareness information for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL SENSITIVITY: SYLLABLE AWARENESS

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sound properties of spoken words. It can sometimes be called an “umbrella term” because it can be broken down into two separate groups:

Phonological Sensitivity: the ability to hear and manipulate units of language larger than phonemes, including words, syllables, and rhymes

Phonemic Awareness: the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words.

Today’s topic is all about the second level of Phonological Sensitivity: Syllable Awareness.

Syllable Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate syllables in spoken words.

A syllable is a word or a word part with one vowel sound.

Usually, the syllable has a vowel and one or more consonants:
- Ex: an, bug, three
But the syllable may also be a stand-alone vowel:
- Ex: I, a, open

ALL syllables have a vowel sound, but NOT all syllables have a consonant sound.

Vowel sounds are made by opening the mouth so air flow isn’t impeded by our teeth, lips, or tongue. Our chins drop each time we say a syllable.

Our first goal is to help our little ones develop the ability to identify and count these syllables in words, which strengthens their auditory discrimination and awareness.

But we also want them to complete more complex tasks, such as blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting syllables, in order to show a solid grasp of the concept.

HOW DO WE PRACTICE SYLLABLE AWARENESS IN PRESCHOOL, PRE-K, AND KINDERGARTEN?

Here are 7 fun activities to practice syllable awareness in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.

When introducing syllables, it’s best to start with one-syllable words (such as “cat”) and two-syllable compound words that are made up of one syllable words (such as “snowman” or “baseball.”) Then you can move on to other multisyllabic words.

Since syllables can be such an abstract concept, it’s best to give your little one a “hands-on way to hear them.” By making this multisensory, we’re helping them internalize this concept.

You also want to make sure you’re following an “I Do, We Do, You Do” routine, so you can model for your little one and do it with them before they attempt these on their own.

SYLLABLE ACTIVITIES:

SYLLABLE ISOLATION:
- CHIN DROP:
  - Have your little one place their chin in their hands and say the word “dog.” They should feel their chin drop one time into their hands.
  - Then try it again with the word “doghouse.” They should feel their chin drop two times.
- CLAP, SNAP, OR STOMP:
  - Have your little one clap, snap, or stomp every time they hear a syllable in a word.
  - Another option is to use rhythm sticks or straws.
  - It’s also fun to talk in a robotic voice while doing this since robots speak in syllables.
- HUMMING:
  - Have your little one “hum” a word by saying it without opening their mouth.
  - The number of times they wanted to open their mouth is the number of syllables in the word.
  - This one is really fun for kids!

SYLLABLE COUNTING:
- In my Word Awareness blog post, I shared a variety of activities you can do to count words in a sentence…but you can actually use ALL of those activities to count syllables in a word, too! The activities are:
  - Move It
  - Smash It
  - Build It
  - Hopscotch It
  - Tap It
  - Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes
    - But instead of having them complete an action for each word, they will do it for each syllable and count the number of syllables in the word.
    - Head to my Word Awareness post to read all about them!

SYLLABLE BLENDING (Parts to Whole):
- Pulling syllables together into words
  - Directly connects to reading
- Say the syllables of a word separately and have your little one blend them together to say the word.
  - “Repeat after me. For. Est. What’s my word?” (forest)

SYLLABLE SEGMENTATION (Whole to Parts):
- Breaking syllables
  - Directly connects to spelling
- Say a whole word and have your little one say the syllables separately.
  - “Say harder. What syllables do you hear?” (hard-er)

SYLLABLE ADDITION:
- Adding syllables to a word
- Say a syllable and have your little one add a syllable to either the beginning or the end.
  - “Say dream. Now say dream and add er at the end. What’s the new word?” (dreamer)
  - “Say shine. Now say shine and add sun at the beginning. What’s the new word?” (sunshine)

SYLLABLE DELETION:
- Taking syllables away from a word
- Say a word and ask your little one to say the word without the first or second syllable.
  - “Say timer. Now say timer without time. What’s left?” (er)
  - “Say bookshelf. Now say bookshelf without shelf. What’s left?” (book)

SYLLABLE SUBSTITUTION:
- Replacing syllables in a word with something else
- Say a word and ask your little one to replace the first or second syllable with something new.
  - “Say mailman. Now say mailman, but change man to box. What’s the new word?” (mailbox)
  - “Say kindness. Now say kindness but change kind to sad. What’s the new word?” (sadness)

Looking for a resource that has all of these games included in it? Check out my Phonological Awareness Sound Games! I’ve created games to go along with the themes I teach to my little ones.

SYLLABLE AWARENESS ON YOUTUBE

Want to see a video explaining this topic? Head to my YouTube channel to watch my Syllable Awareness video:

Syllable awareness video for parents and teachers of preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS E-BOOK

Would you rather have this information as a PDF download so you don’t have to navigate to all the different pages on my website? Check out my Phonological Awareness eBook and save yourself time!