Building Strong Readers Starts With Listening

Not just looking

By: Bailey Coutteau

When we think about helping kids learn to read, our brains often jump straight to letters:
What letter is that? What sound does it make?

Letters absolutely matter — but there’s an important skill that comes before reading letters on a page, and it’s one that often gets overlooked.

It’s called phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness is a child’s ability to hear and play with the sounds in spoken language. That might look like noticing rhymes, clapping syllables, hearing beginning sounds in words, or eventually breaking a word apart into individual sounds (like cat: /k/–/a/–/t/).

The key thing to know? This skill develops through listening and speaking, not through looking at letters. It’s all about sound.

Before letters make sense, kids need to be tuned in to the sounds themselves.

A helpful way to think about it is music. Before a musician reads notes on a page, they learn to hear rhythms, patterns, and melodies. Reading works the same way. If a child can’t hear and work with language sounds yet, letters can feel confusing or overwhelming.

When we focus on sounds first — instead of jumping straight to letters — we’re giving kids the foundation they need for reading, spelling, and writing later on.

So what does this actually look like in real life?

The good news is you don’t need special materials or extra “learning time.” Phonological awareness fits naturally into play and everyday routines.

For younger kids, it often starts with simple sound play. Imagine you’re playing with cars on the floor:

“Wow, that car goes mmm… mmm! I hear mmm!”
“Mmm!”
“Yes! Mmm! Let’s make it go again — mmm!”

There’s no pressure to repeat or perform. You’re just exaggerating sounds, having fun with them, and giving your child a chance to notice and join in if they want. This kind of sound play works with animals (moo, baa), food (mmm for yummy), or actions (sss for sliding).

As kids get a little older, sound awareness can turn into playful games that still feel low-key and fun.

During a car ride or while getting dressed, you might say:
“I’m thinking of a word that starts with /b/… it’s something you bounce.”

“Ball!”

You can also play with changing sounds:
“Say cat. Now change the first sound to /h/.”
“Hat!”

Or:
“What happens if we change the last sound in cap to /t/?”

These simple moments help kids understand how sounds work together to make words — a critical skill for reading.

When children can hear, separate, and play with sounds easily, reading becomes less about memorizing words and more about understanding how language works. That leads to stronger decoding, better spelling, and more confident readers over time.

You don’t have to do this perfectly. Even small moments count. One sound, one rhyme, one playful pause at a time — you’re helping build a reader from the inside out.

If you’d like to learn more, Reading Rockets is a trusted, research-based resource for parents and educators. Their guide on phonological awareness explains these skills in clear, approachable language and shares ideas for supporting early literacy at home:

And of course, the team at Simply Spoken Therapy is always here to answer questions about phonological awareness — and anything else related to your child’s communication and learning.