Sound deletion in phonemic awareness refers to which of the following?

Sound deletion in phonemic awareness specifically involves the ability to remove a sound from a word in order to create a new word. For example, if you take the word "sand" and delete the initial /s/ sound, you are left with the word "and." This skill is a crucial component of phonemic awareness because it allows children to manipulate sounds within words, contributing to their reading and spelling abilities.

In contrast, isolating a sound refers to identifying a specific sound within a word, which does not involve removing anything. Combining sounds involves taking separate sounds and joining them to form a new word, and identifying sounds that match involves recognizing and differentiating similar sounds. Therefore, these options focus on different aspects of phonemic skills, while sound deletion specifically highlights the action of removing a sound to alter the word.