Which term is defined as breaking a word down into individual sounds and counting them?

The term that is defined as breaking a word down into individual sounds and counting them is phoneme segmentation. This process involves identifying the distinct sounds, or phonemes, in a word and recognizing how many there are. For example, the word "cat" consists of three phonemes: /k/, /æ/, and /t/. When learners engage in phoneme segmentation, they develop important skills in phonological awareness, which is vital for reading and spelling.

Phoneme addition involves adding a phoneme to a word to create a new word, while phoneme categorization is the ability to identify which word in a set of words shares the same phoneme. Phoneme blending entails combining individual phonemes to form a word. Each of these terms relates to different aspects of phonological skills, but only phoneme segmentation specifically focuses on breaking down a word into its individual sounds and counting them.