What is a core characteristic of phonemic awareness?

A core characteristic of phonemic awareness is that it entails activities like segmenting and blending. This involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in words, which is crucial for developing reading and spelling skills. Segmenting refers to breaking a word down into its individual phonemes, while blending involves combining those individual sounds to form a word. Both of these activities are fundamental components of phonemic awareness and help learners develop their ability to decode words as they read and to encode words as they write.

Understanding visual elements of reading, being exclusively listening-focused, and not including spelling practices are distinct from the focus of phonemic awareness. While visual elements may play a role in broader literacy education, phonemic awareness specifically revolves around auditory skills. Being exclusively focused on listening is a limitation, as phonemic awareness involves manipulating sounds rather than just passive listening. Lastly, although phonemic awareness contributes to spelling, it does not specifically exclude spelling practices; rather, it builds the foundational skills necessary for effective spelling. The accurate identification of segmenting and blending as key activities reinforces the central nature of phonemic awareness in literacy development.