This resource allows you to record your own reflections after watching the video below.
Video transcript
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Researcher in early years English and literacy
Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are terms that you'll actually see in the QKLG and they are really important in forming the foundations of later reading and writing success. So phonological awareness are those larger units of sound so such as rhyme and syllables. So for example, with phonological awareness, those larger syllables, if you’ve got the name Jamie it is Ja-mie.
Phonemic awareness are those smaller units in oral language, so in words, so it’ll be like the J-a-m-ie.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
Are you ready, all together, let’s say Toby. To-by [clapping].
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Building phonological awareness through playing with names children actually can come up with rhymes so they’re developing their understanding of the patterns of language as well.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
Ready, let’s do that together. Ri-ley [clapping].
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
So a name is personal to the child, it belongs to them so when you have something that the children have some you know attachment to, such as their name, they’re really more willing to experiment and explore with the sounds related to their name.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
Ready, how many syllables in Mikhael? Mi-khael [one child clapping]. How many was that? Two [child response]. Oh, so everyone together, Mi-khael [group clapping].
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Educators and teachers can support children's understanding of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness through play-based learning. Especially through group activities where they're playing with rhyme.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
What rhymes with a jar? Par [child response]. Par, what else?
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Other activities that educators and teachers can do is maybe, perhaps have, different items that they've collected. And then children actually identify those items so it could be say an octopus and they’d be clapping oc-to-pus. And so clapping those syllables.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
Whose name also make a ‘r’ sound for rainbow?
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Another way that educators and teachers can support young children in developing phonological awareness is sorting objects that start with the same sound.
When engaging in shared reading, for example, teachers can draw attention to, say, matching sounds for alliteration.
Kindergarten teacher 2 and children
[Teacher reading and pointing to text] They both begin with an s, ‘ssss’.
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
So it's thinking about purposefully selecting books, often with children's interests in mind that contain rhyme. Modelling for children, the rhyme that's occurring, getting children to predict the rhyme that's going to happen as well, especially if you've read the book several times
By developing that really strong understanding and those foundations in hearing those sounds in oral language you’re supporting children in then mapping those sounds to alphabet letters.
Kindergarten teacher 1 and children
[singing] Barramundi, barramundi, cockatoo, cockatoo.
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
The research says that children who are supported in phonological awareness and phonemic awareness in kindergarten, where they're really paying attention to hearing those sounds, the larger units of sounds, and those small units of sounds, form a very strong foundation for developing a really good understanding of phonics, which is mapping those sounds to letters, when they start school.
- Last updated:
- 24 February 2026
