I'm watching a really, really excellent video on learning disabilities called "Misunderstood Minds", off of PBS. Go here and scroll down to the "try it - experience a learning difficulty". It's about phonemic awareness, and it's really hard. And as they point out, they've only changed 8 of the 40-some phonemes. It was hard, but you can sort of figure it out as you go, because you'll probably know what it's talking about, the passage. It would be even worse being a child, and not knowing at all what the passage was saying. Try it!