Phonological awareness refers to the sound structures of oral speech and how they are manipulated. Phonological awareness encompasses things like rhyming, recognizing syllables in words, and alliteration that will later assist children when learning how to read. On a more scientific level, phonological awareness leads to phonemic awareness, where kids begin to recognize individual sounds within words, one step closer to reading.
Phonological awareness is crucial for reading development. If children don’t learn these sound structures, it will be harder for them to decode words when reading or spelling later on.