What skills are included in phonological awareness?

Phonological awareness refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate components of the sound structure of spoken language. This includes various skills such as identifying and producing rhymes, segmenting words into syllables, and manipulating phonemes (the smallest units of sound). Therefore, manipulating units of oral language is essential to phonological awareness, as it encompasses the processes involved in breaking down and playing with sounds in speech.

While identifying written text pertains more to print awareness rather than phonological awareness, and understanding complex grammar structures relates to syntactic awareness, both of these are separate skills that do not directly reflect the foundational auditory focus of phonological awareness. Similarly, reading fluency and comprehension involve higher-level skills that emerge after developing phonological awareness, which is critical for successful reading development. Thus, manipulation of oral language units remains the core skill of phonological awareness.