Phonological Awareness, The Best Tool To Correct Dyslexia

Have you ever heard of the benefits of phonological awareness training? According to various studies, it is the best method to correct dyslexia.  It is implemented at an early age and prevents this disorder from becoming a headache shared by students, parents and educators.

In some ways, this strategy involves developing an important pre-reading skill. Now, what does it consist of and why is it so effective ? Find out in this article the solution to one of the most frequent childhood problems today.

Phonological awareness, what is it exactly?

Phonological awareness consists of developing the ability to manipulate the sounds of language mentally. Its particularity lies in the total absence of written language. That is, to reinforce the spoken word without rushing beforehand to the field of reading and writing.

That is why an enormous diversity of activities is appealed to in which this rule is present. For example, deciding whether a certain sound is in a word, separating it into syllables or replacing one phoneme with another. It is also possible to approach this method through playful tools that are as effective and useful as they are fun.

The choice of specialists in the field of this type of strategy is not accidental. Well, a series of studies and investigations confirmed a shocking relationship. A phonological deficit has been identified in the vast majority of dyslexic students.

This no-less detail goes hand in hand with a certainty from the world of science and education. The phonemic identification task is precisely one of the most predictive at the reading level. This is also supported by various studies on early detection of dyslexia.

The key to its success and effectiveness

This is simple. For a child to learn to perform mathematical operations, it is essential to previously teach him the value of numbers. Likewise, for the student to learn to read, they should have certain pre-reading skills developed in advance.

Generally, most dyslexics did not develop these pre-reading skills correctly. It is for this reason that they often face learning to read without being prepared for it. Hence the so-called “school failure” and child frustration.

In this way, these children are unable to advance in the acquisition of basic and elementary knowledge of their stage. This is precisely what generates their overwhelm, dealing with a set of symbols and sounds that do not make sense.

A true knowledge is not absorbed until it is owned. This necessarily implies that the student integrates it into their previous knowledge, being able to understand, analyze and relate it. Obviously, all this without the need to resort to external stimuli.

Precisely the training in phonological awareness allows the student to understand the segmental structure of language. This develops their abilities to discriminate, categorize, associate and synthesize the linguistic information received.

Phonological awareness: no minor considerations

Of course, when referring to a pre-reading skill, it is necessary to develop it – as the name implies – before starting to read and write. As the learning of reading begins and as the boy ages, the training in phonological awareness will lose its effectiveness.

However, generally, students are considerate and treated when it is too late. That is, parents and educators tend to wait to treat the child when the delay with respect to their peers is more than considerable.

For this reason, in the case of those little ones who are already learning to read, this tool is included in the intervention program, but without going too deep into them. You simply combine the (most basic) method with alphabetic principle activities.

Of course, the focus will always be on the difficulties it shows and the segments that generate the most confusion. Hence, it is essential to program a suitable and adequate training, avoiding implementing activities that do not have an effect due to the age of the child and its complication.

In sum, specialists argue that phonological awareness training should be practiced on infants between 4 and 7 years old. It is also recommended to adopt a procedure of increasing progression of difficulty to achieve wonderful results in learning to read and write.