The ability to hear and manipulate phonemes plays a causal role in the acquisition of beginning reading skills. There is considerable evidence that the primary difference between good and poor readers lies in the good reader's phonological processing ability. The effects of training phonological awareness should be the largest very early in the acquisition of reading skills. There is evidence that phonemic awareness and learning to read are mutually supportive. Phonological awareness is necessary but not sufficient for reading acquisition.
Phonological awareness is teachable and promoted by attentions to instructional variables.
A phoneme is a speech sound. It is the smallest unit of language and has no inherent meaning. The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words, and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds. Phonemic awareness deals with hearing language at the phoneme level. The ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language.