"A spoken word always has at least one syllable because it always has at least one vowel sound. The number of syllables is equivalent to the number of vowel sounds in a word." (Louisa Moats, 2020).

Syllables are meaningful "chunks" of words, organized around vowels. The ability to segment and blend syllables is a phonological sensitivity skill that helps readers in chunking multisyllabic words for reading or writing. 

Beginning readers do not need to master the awareness of syllables before working at the individual speech sound (phoneme) level of words. In an article on phoneme awareness and phonics, Dr. Susan Brady (2020) highlighted a collection of research indicating how instruction and practice at the phoneme level (isolation, blending and segmenting of individual speech sounds) is not a progression from previous work with larger chunks of words, like syllables or onset/rime.  Authors and educators Jan Burkins and Kari Yates agree that, "work on the phoneme level should not be delayed until students have full mastery of phonological awareness tasks with larger units of speech, such as rhyming and syllable clapping." (Burkins & Yates, 2021). 

Watch Linda Farrell explain how an understanding of vowels and syllables supports reading of multisyllabic words:

Children who can identify vowel letters, have an accurate sense of syllables in spoken words, and have the ability to read one-syllable words, can work to read and spell unfamiliar multisyllabic words. 

Watch Linda Farrell working on reading multisyllabic words side-by-side with a learner:

Feeling the drop of their chin while saying words is an accurate and playful way for children to feel syllables in words. The video below offers a demonstration of feeling chin drops: