There you are, sitting in a too-small plastic chair, and the teacher of your child says, “I’ve talked with the reading teacher and with the speech-language pathologist. All of us agree that the reason your child is having difficulty learning to read is because he doesn’t have a solid phonological awareness and in particular his phonemic awareness skills are especially weak.”

Your mind stumbles in confusion, and you blurt out, “What the heck is phonological phonemic awareness and what am I supposed to do now?”

In an effort to avoid being like the fictional teacher in this situation, I consulted with Judy Stickles, a speech-language pathologist at the University of Maine, and she defined both terms for me.

“Phonological awareness involves the explicit [conscious] awareness of the sound structure of language at the word, syllable and sound levels and the ability to manipulate [play with, blend, segment] that sound structure,” she explained. “Phonological awareness skills are both inherited and learned.”

Phonemic awareness she describes as “a subskill of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness occurs at the sound level. It involves the explicit awareness of the individual sounds in words and the ability to manipulate these sounds. It includes tasks such as detecting, blending, segmenting and manipulating sounds in words.”

She went on to cite research that demonstrates the importance of these skills in learning to read, explaining that “phonemic awareness is more highly related to learning to read than tests of general intelligence, reading readiness, and listening comprehension.” She points out that phonemic awareness “can be developed through instruction and can accelerate a child’s subsequent reading and writing achievement. Without direct instructional support, phonemic awareness skills elude approximately 25 percent of middle class first-graders and substantially more of those children who came from less literacy-rich backgrounds.”

So, what can parents and teachers do to facilitate the development of phonological awareness skills? Stickles had some advice, as well as information.

In her professional opinion, it takes teamwork between parents, caregivers and teachers to provide the instruction necessary to develop fluent and efficient readers. This teamwork begins with making sure every child everywhere is read to daily. “Reading to your child helps the child develop background knowledge about a variety of topics, builds vocabulary, increases familiarity with rich language patterns, develops familiarity with story structure and the reading process, and identifies reading as a pleasurable activity,” Stickles said.

This practice of reading to children should begin when they are infants and continue well past when a child has learned to read. Not only does it help them acquire literacy skills, it also is a pleasant experience that both adults and children can enjoy together.

Both Judy and I have had students whose parents complain that their child doesn’t sit still for stories or finds the learn-to-read books boring. For the active child, there are several strategies that can be tried. Interactive books with lift-the-flaps, pop-ups, and sound buttons are often popular. Listening to books on tape while in the car is another method of getting in a daily dose of reading. Stickles used “bathtub” books with her own active toddler since he enjoyed sitting still in the tub. Many learn-to-read books are boring. What the adults need to do is find a book that was a favorite of theirs as a child or ask a librarian or teacher for a good read-aloud title. The grown-ups should enjoy the reading time as much as the child.

Stickles has more advice. She says learning the alphabet letters and their sounds is a complex process that can take up to two years for a child to master. Playing games with the alphabet from matching the visual shapes and sounds to making ABC books are things that will help. ABC books can be simple; they can be themed; they can even be put online like the one Leah Tondreau did with her kindergarten students when she taught in Garland. Leah now is a first grade teacher in Hampden, and her book can be found at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogid=116407.

Stickles recommends that preschoolers should participate in activities that “include talking about words rhyming and later identifying rhyming words, counting, tapping or clapping words in a phrase or sentence, clapping or tapping syllables in a compound word, blending compound words – for example, ask: “What word can you make from these parts snow – man?”

She continues that kindergartners should be able to “produce rhymes for a given word (“What rhymes with cat?”), match sounds, produce words that begin with the same sound, isolate beginning and ending sounds in words, and segment words into syllables. All of these activities can be done in game format and in short periods of time. Two Web sites that have these kinds of activities are www.starfall.com and http://pbskids.org/lions.

Once a child reaches school, you might hear teachers and administrators talk about a “balanced literacy” program. This means that it includes all types of instruction. According to Stickles, this should include “a phonological awareness component that should be repeated and practiced regularly.” Ask how phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are taught in your child’s classroom. Ask what you can do to support the acquisition of these essential skills at home.

Reading is a vital skill, not only to get through school, but also to enrich our lives. Reading allows us to access the richness of the past, the complexities of the present, and the amazing chaos of the future. Phonological awareness is one of the keys needed to unlock the tool of reading.