What term encompasses both phonemic awareness and broader sound manipulation skills?

Phonological awareness is the term that includes both phonemic awareness—the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words—and broader sound manipulation skills, such as recognizing syllables and rhymes. It plays a crucial role in developing reading skills, as it helps students understand the sound structures of language. By fostering phonological awareness, educators support students in their journey toward fluent reading and comprehension. This foundational knowledge is essential for proficient reading, making phonological awareness a key aspect of literacy development.

The other options focus on specific components of reading or language understanding rather than encompassing the broader realm of sound manipulation. Decoding strategies pertain specifically to the ability to convert written text into spoken words. Word recognition relates to identifying and understanding words quickly and accurately, while lexical understanding focuses on vocabulary and word meanings, none of which capture the full scope of both phonemic awareness and broader sound skills like phonological awareness does.