Which phonemic-awareness skill will most students master first?

• A. Deleting phonemes
• B. Recognizing that the word 'man' sounds like 'can' and 'ran'
• C. Blending phonemes
• D. Identifying initial sounds

Answer: (B)

Recognizing rhymes is an early step in phonemic awareness: it asks students to notice that different words share the same ending sounds. In this example, man, can, and ran all end with the /æn/ sound, so they rhyme. That kind of listening for similar final sounds is typically mastered before more active sound manipulation tasks, such as deleting a sound, blending sounds to form a word, or isolating the initial sound. Deleting phonemes, blending phonemes, and identifying initial sounds require manipulating or isolating individual sounds within words and are more challenging for beginning readers. Therefore, recognizing that those words rhyme is the first skill most students will master.