During which writing stage does a child represent every speech sound heard in a word?

The phonetic stage is characterized by a child's ability to understand and represent every individual speech sound in a word. During this stage, children develop a more complete grasp of the sound structure of language, leading them to spell words based on the sounds they hear. For instance, if a child hears the word "cat," they may write it as "kat," demonstrating their understanding that each sound corresponds to a letter or letters.

In contrast, the earlier stages focus on more rudimentary understandings of sound and spelling. The semiphonetic stage involves the use of some letters to represent sounds, but not all. The morphophonemic stage typically comes later and relates to the understanding of how meaning can change with different spellings or forms, while the pre-phonetic stage is characterized by a lack of understanding of the phonetic relationship between sounds and letters, often resulting in random or non-phonetic scribbles. Thus, the phonetic stage is pivotal for children as they begin to represent sounds accurately, laying the groundwork for more advanced writing skills.