Phonemic Awareness
Before a child can match letters to sounds, they have to hear the individual sounds inside spoken words. That skill is called phonemic awareness, and it's the foundation everything else is built on — and it's done entirely by ear, with no letters in sight.
Watch: the Phonemic Awareness Drill in action, then try it with your child.
Why it comes first
Reading is a code: letters stand for sounds. But a child can't crack that code if they can't yet tell the sounds apart in the first place. Strengthening phonemic awareness — even for just five minutes a day — makes everything that follows (the Sound Cards, blending, spelling) click into place faster.
The four moves to practice
Keep it by ear
Phonemic awareness happens with your eyes closed. No flashcards, no letters — just sounds. Five minutes in the car or at bath time is perfect.
Blend three sounds
Pick five simple words (cat, sun, map, dog, fish). Say each one sound by sound and have your child blend it. Note which were easy and which were tricky.
The Sound Cards
Once your child can hear the sounds, the Sound Cards connect each sound to the letter (or letters) that spell it. They're the workhorse of the whole curriculum — quick daily drills that build instant, automatic letter-sound recall.
Watch: how to introduce and drill a Sound Card.
How the drill works
Show the card, your child says the sound (not the letter name). Keep the pace brisk and the deck short — review known cards daily and add new ones only when the old ones are automatic. Three minutes a day beats twenty minutes once a week.
Try it: the Sound Cards
Tap a card to flip it and hear the sound. This is the same deck you'll teach with — use it for review on the go.
Follow the Scope & Sequence
Introduce sounds in the order the curriculum lays out — it builds from simple to complex so every new word is decodable. See the Scope & Sequence chart →
Decodable Word Generator
Generate practice that uses only the sounds your child has learned so far — the heart of structured literacy.
Blending & Scooping
Now we put it together: turning a row of sounds into a smoothly-read word. “Scooping” is the multisensory technique that stops choppy, letter-by-letter reading and builds real fluency.
The scooping technique
As your child reads, they draw a small “scoop” under each chunk of the word with a finger or pencil, sweeping the sounds together as they say them. The motion physically connects the sounds into a blend.
Left: the scooping symbols. Right: the scooping drill.
Backward scooping & the tile mat
Once forward scooping is smooth, “backward scooping” builds accuracy by checking the word from the end. And the tile mat lets your child build and break words with their hands — finding a sound, then spelling words tile by tile.
More demos — and the whole technique library lives in the Video Library.
Decodable text only
Have your child scoop words made only of sounds they've been taught. Success builds confidence — guessing builds bad habits.
Scoop five words
Write five decodable words. Have your child scoop under each one as they read it. Did scooping make the blend smoother?
Ready to teach the sounds?
Five quick questions on Module 2. You'll get instant feedback on each.