What is the skill of blending sounds in a word to articulate it known as?

The skill of blending sounds in a word to articulate it is known as phonemic awareness. This concept refers specifically to the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It is a crucial precursor to reading and writing because it enables learners to understand how sounds combine to form words. For example, if a child hears the sounds /k/, /a/, and /t/, they can blend those sounds together to say "cat." This skill is foundational for developing literacy skills, as it helps learners connect sounds to letters, facilitating their journey into reading and comprehension.

Phonological awareness encompasses a broader range of skills, including recognizing larger sound units like syllables and rhymes, which is why it is not the correct answer for this specific question. Decoding refers to the process of translating written words into their corresponding sounds and is a step that typically follows phonemic awareness in the reading process. Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and the letters that represent those sounds but is not about blending sounds directly.