What does reinforcing phonemic awareness support in emergent readers?

Reinforcing phonemic awareness is crucial for emergent readers as it directly contributes to their ability to decode words. Phonemic awareness involves recognizing and manipulating the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. By building these skills, children learn how sounds correlate with letters and how to blend those sounds together to form words. This foundational understanding allows them to approach reading more effectively and increases their fluency in decoding unfamiliar words.

In contrast, developing cursive writing skills, focusing solely on understanding the alphabet without the context of sounds, or memorizing stories does not specifically enhance the ability to decode words. Mastery of phonemic awareness fosters the essential skills needed to break down and understand new words, which is vital for reading development.