Which of the following is associated with phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness refers specifically to the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This skill is foundational for developing reading and spelling abilities since it allows learners to break down words into their constituent sounds and understand how these sounds combine to form words.

Recognizing phonemes involves activities like rhyming, blending sounds to form words, and segmenting words into individual sounds. While decoding text, following written instructions, and writing coherent sentences are important literacy skills, they rely more on other processes, such as phonics (decoding), comprehension, and writing mechanics. In contrast, phonemic awareness is solely focused on the auditory aspect of language and does not involve written text or the skills associated with it. This makes the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words the clearest representation of phonemic awareness.