What is the main purpose of phonemic awareness in early reading development?

The primary purpose of phonemic awareness in early reading development is to help children recognize and manipulate sounds in spoken words. This ability is crucial as it lays the foundation for reading because phonemic awareness involves understanding that words are made up of individual sounds (or phonemes). When children can identify and manipulate these sounds, they become more adept at decoding words as they learn to read.

Phonemic awareness activities may include tasks such as rhyming, blending sounds to form words, segmenting words into individual phonemes, and deleting or substituting sounds. These skills are essential for developing literacy because they allow children to connect the sounds they hear in spoken language with the written symbols that represent those sounds. Building strong phonemic awareness skills ultimately supports reading fluency and comprehension.