What is phonological awareness? Phonological awareness is the ability to analyze the sound structure of language. Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness – a phonemic awareness task requires a child to isolate or produce individual sounds in words. I developed this handout to help educators and parents understand phonological awareness. When you download this handout, you have permission to share it with educators and teachers in its current form (i.e., do not alter the handout).