Words like “phonemes” and “graphemes” mean very little to a young child, but they can listen for speech sounds and think about what the “pictures” of those speech sounds might look like in written form.
 

Make it meaningful. Make it visual. Make it playful.
 

Before you know it, 3 and 4 year olds are beginning to understand complex concepts like our opaque orthography, without needing the grown-up terminology.
 

They start to notice patterns, connections, and that the same speech sound can be shown in different ways. That’s the beginning of real word mapping and self-teaching.