Which term describes the ability to break spoken words into sounds?

Phonemic awareness refers to the skill of identifying and manipulating the individual sounds, or phonemes, within spoken words. This ability is fundamental to reading development, as it lays the groundwork for understanding how sounds form words and how letters correspond to those sounds. For instance, being able to isolate the first sound in the word "cat" can help a child learn to read and spell that word.

The other terms listed have different but related meanings. Letter-sound correspondence specifically deals with the relationship between written letters and their associated sounds, which is critical for decoding written words. Word identification focuses on recognizing whole words in context, rather than breaking them down into individual sounds. Alphabetic recognition refers to recognizing letters of the alphabet and knowing their names, but does not directly pertain to the auditory processing of sounds in spoken language. Therefore, phonemic awareness is the most accurate term for the ability to break spoken words into sounds.