What is phoneme blending? Provide an example with the sounds /s/ /u/ /n/.

• A. Segmenting a word into its phonemes individually
• B. Identifying which phonemes rhyme
• C. Blending separate sounds to form a word; /s/ + /u/ + /n/ = sun
• D. Replacing one phoneme to create another word

Answer: (C)

Phoneme blending is the act of combining separate sounds to form a word. When you hear the individual sounds /s/ /u/ /n/ and say them in order, you smoothly blend them to pronounce the word sun. This skill helps young readers move from listening to sounds to recognizing or saying whole words. The sounds here are phonemes, the smallest units of sound that differentiate words. If you were asked to segment, you would break sun into /s/ /u/ /n/ instead of putting the sounds together. Rhyming involves recognizing similar ending sounds, and substitution involves changing one sound to make a new word, like switching /n/ to /m/ to get sum.