Which ability involves hearing, identifying, and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words?

The ability that involves hearing, identifying, and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words is phonemic awareness. This skill is crucial for developing reading and writing abilities because it enables learners to understand that words are made up of separate sounds, or phonemes.

Phonemic awareness includes the skills of isolating sounds, blending sounds to create words, segmenting words into their individual sounds, and manipulating sounds by adding, deleting, or substituting them. It is a more specific subset of phonological awareness, which encompasses a broader range of sound recognition, including whole words, syllables, and onsets and rime.

Understanding phonemic awareness is crucial for literacy development as it directly impacts a student's ability to decode words when reading and encode words when writing. This foundational skill is often taught in early grades through activities like sound games and word play, which helps students become more proficient readers.