Phonemic Awareness, or Phonic Ears, are the child’s ability to actually hear the sounds in a word. This is the first step in learning to read. Much of the new research says that teaching children this skill can really help the child learn to read! Let’s start growing those ears Phonic ears is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words. Phonemic awareness is not phonics and it does not involve reading any words. This means that a three year old can learn to grow their phonic ears, jus.