Deep phonological awareness skills

• Awareness that you can change single sounds in a word, thereby producing a new word
  For example, removing the m from mat and replacing it with b to make bat
  
• Awareness that a word can be broken down into single sounds (phonemes); ability to count the number of phonemes in a word
  For example, being aware that the word boot has three sounds, and that they are /b/, /u/, /t/
  
• Segmentation: The ability to identify the sounds in a word singly:
  For example, being able to pronounce each sound of boot separately, in any order: the last sound is /t/, the first is /b/, and the middle sound is /u/.
  
• Manipulation: The ability to move single sounds in a word around, creating new words
  For example, given the whole word cat, being able to produce act or tack
  
• Blending: The ability to put single sounds together to form one or more words For example, when given separate sounds such as /æ/, /t, /p/, being able to use them to form tap, apt, or pat.