Reprinted with permission. The goal of any multisensory structured language program is to develop a student's independent ability to read, write and understand the language studied. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a given language that can be recognized as being distinct from other sounds in the language.
Phonological awareness is the understanding of the internal linguistic structure of words.
An important aspect of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness or the ability to segment words into their component sounds. Additionally, students must master the blending of sounds and letters into words as well as the segmenting of whole words into the individual sounds. Syllable division rules must be directly taught in relation to the word structure. Morphology is the study of how morphemes are combined from words. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in the language.