In the letter-name alphabetic stage, students typically do which of the following?

• A. Begin to match letters to sounds in words
• B. Write only scribbles
• C. Rely on vowel teams
• D. Memorize irregular words

Answer: (A)

During the letter-name alphabetic stage, learners begin to connect the names of letters with the sounds they represent and start using that connection to read by decoding. They move from simply recognizing letters to using their letter-sound knowledge to blend sounds into words, such as sounding out a simple word like cat by blending /k/ /a/ /t/. This stage marks the shift toward using phonetic decoding rather than relying on memory or visual cues alone. Writing only scribbles is earlier in development, relying on vowel teams comes later as students learn more complex spelling patterns, and memorizing irregular words belongs to sight-word reading beyond initial decoding.