"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 can aid readers in chunking multisyllabic words for reading or writing. However, "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). In fact, Dr. Susan Brady (2020) highlights a collection of research which indicates that 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.

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: