Oregon Educator Licensure Assessments (ORELA) Practice Exam

What does phoneme substitution allow a child to do?

1. Identify sounds that are missing from a word

2. Turn one word into another by changing a phoneme

3. Recognize the first sound heard in a word

4. Combine sounds to form a new word

The correct answer is: Turn one word into another by changing a phoneme

Phoneme substitution is an important phonological awareness skill that allows children to manipulate sounds within words. Specifically, it involves changing one phoneme in a word to create a new word, thereby enhancing the child's understanding of how sounds function in language. For instance, if a child is prompted to take the word "cat" and substitute the initial phoneme /k/ for /h/, they would produce the new word "hat." This skill is fundamental in developing reading abilities, as it helps children recognize that words are composed of individual sounds that can be altered to produce different meanings. The other options relate to various aspects of phonemic awareness, such as identifying or recognizing sounds, but they do not specifically describe the process of phoneme substitution. Thus, focusing on the transformation of one word into another by changing a phoneme highlights the essence of what phoneme substitution entails.