As Fort Myers speech therapists at FOCUS Therapy, we often see parents and caregivers who are focused on the immediate goal of clear speech. While helping your child say their /r/ or /s/ sounds is crucial, our work is about so much more than just articulation.

We view speech and language as the foundation for the single most important academic skill: reading. The way your child perceives, processes, and produces the sounds of their native language is directly tied to their ability to unlock the alphabet’s code. This is where the powerful connection between articulation (making sounds) and phonological awareness (hearing sounds) becomes the key to literacy.

What is Phonological Awareness? The Hidden Skill of Reading

Phonological awareness is your child’s ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structure of spoken words. It’s a foundational auditory skill that exists before they even see a letter. It progresses from simple skills to more complex ones:

• Word Awareness: Knowing that a sentence is made up of individual words.
• Syllable Awareness: Clapping out the parts of a word (e.g., ba-na-na).
• Rhyme Awareness: Recognizing that cat and mat sound similar.
• Alliteration: Noticing words that start with the same sound (e.g., silly snake).
• Phonemic Awareness: The most complex level—the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in words (e.g., hearing that /c/ /a/ /t/ makes “cat”).

The Foundational Role of Articulation

The goal of articulation therapy is to teach your child to physically produce sounds correctly. If a child has difficulty pronouncing a sound, such as saying “wabbit” for “rabbit,” they may also have difficulty perceiving and isolating the /r/ sound when reading.

Why?

• If their internal speech-sound map is inaccurate, their reading brain will struggle to link the letter ‘R’ to the accurate sound /r/.
• By helping a child master a sound (articulation), we strengthen their underlying phonological system, making it easier for them to recognize that sound in a written word (literacy). This is why addressing speech sound disorders early is critical for maximizing reading potential.

🔬 The Evidence: Why SLPs Focus on Sounds for Reading

This connection isn’t just theory; it’s backed by decades of research.

The U.S. government’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and other researchers have consistently identified phonological awareness as a key early literacy skill and a precursor to reading. Deficits in phoneme awareness are repeatedly shown to be a major predictor of later reading and spelling difficulties.

In a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, researchers found that the relationship between early speech sound production accuracy and subsequent reading outcomes was strongly mediated by preliteracy skills, specifically phonological awareness and letter-name knowledge. Put simply: How well a child hears and processes the sounds of speech directly influences their ability to decode print.

🪁 Easy At-Home Exercises to Build Phonological Awareness

The best part? You don’t need a formal lesson to help. Our Fort Myers speech therapists recommend turning these skills into fun, low-pressure games you can play anywhere—at home, in the car on the way to the beach, or while waiting in line at the grocery store.

Skill to Target	What to Do (The Game)	How it Helps
Rhyme Awareness	Rhyme Time: Read books with strong rhyming patterns (Dr. Seuss, nursery rhymes). Stop before the rhyming word and let your child fill in the blank. Ask, “What rhymes with tree?” (Be open to silly or nonsense rhymes like blee!)	Teaches that words share patterns of sound, a building block for word families (cat, bat, sat).
Syllable Awareness	Clap it Out: Say multi-syllable words and have your child clap once for each word part (e.g., com-pu-ter = 3 claps). Do this with family names or favorite foods.	Teaches that words can be broken down into bigger, manageable chunks.
Alliteration (Beginning Sound)	I Spy the Sound: Play a version of “I Spy” by focusing on sounds, not letters: “I spy with my little eye something that starts with the /b/ sound” (not “the letter B”).	Teaches the child to isolate the first sound in a word, moving toward phonemes.
Phoneme Blending	Robot Talk: Tell your child you’re talking in “robot talk.” Say the sounds of a word slowly, separated by a pause, and have them put the sounds together (e.g., “I see a /c/ /a/ /t/.” Child says “Cat!”).	Teaches decoding—the ability to blend sounds into a whole word, which is the act of reading.

If you’ve noticed that your child is struggling to produce certain sounds or seems confused by rhyming games that their peers enjoy, our multidisciplinary team is here to help. Early intervention in speech and phonological awareness provides your child with the strongest foundation for a successful academic journey.

FOCUS Therapy offers pediatric speech therapy, ABA therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy to kids from Estero, Fort Myers, Cape Coral and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.

Additional Resources:

How young children learn language and speech: Implications of theory and evidence for clinical pediatric practice, Feldman, 2019, Pediatric Review

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A Look at How Fort Myers Speech Therapy Supports Child Literacy