Which skill measures the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words?

• A. Phonemic awareness
• B. Phonics
• C. Fluency
• D. Vocabulary

Answer: (A)

Hearing and manipulating the sounds in spoken words is about phonemic awareness. This skill involves recognizing and working with the individual sounds (phonemes) in words—things like isolating the initial sound in a word, blending several sounds to hear the whole word, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds. Being able to do these sound-level manipulations lays the groundwork for decoding and spelling.

Phonics, in contrast, focuses on the relationship between sounds and written letters and how to use that knowledge to read and write. Fluency is about reading smoothly with appropriate speed and expression. Vocabulary is about knowing the meanings of words.