Supporting phonemic awareness: Design of a children's picture book

July 2024, xv+94 pages The main objective of this study is to create a picture book designed to support phonemic awareness in children aged 48 to 84 months and to gather the opinions of teachers and parents regarding the book. To this end, the first part of the research involved reviewing relevant literature, similar books, and theoretical frameworks related to early literacy development to draft the book. The draft was presented to a panel of 8 experts, and the feedback received was used to revise the draft. The revised form was then used in pilot tests to identify potential issues during the implementation phase, and necessary adjustments were made to address these issues. The book, designed to support phonemic awareness skills in children aged 48 to 84 months, includes tasks related to counting, recognizing, blending, segmenting, completing, and changing phonemes. In the second part of the research, the developed book was presented to the families and teachers in the study group to gather their feedback. Accordingly, teachers' and families' opinions were determined from a descriptive perspective, in line with the qualitative nature of the research. Through the developed survey forms, 32 teachers and 23 parents in the study group experienced the book with a child and provided their opinions based on the survey forms. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that the book 'Usi's Phonemic Balls' is effective in supporting phonemic awareness skills.