Which indicator demonstrates awareness of discrete words in a sentence by clapping each word?

• A. Joins in clapping each word while chanting, 'I like ice cream.'
• B. Writes cts to represent 'cats'
• C. Claps each syllable of a name
• D. Recognizes a few letters

Answer: (A)

Segmenting a sentence into separate word units by clapping each word shows you’re aware that speech is made of discrete words. When you clap “I like ice cream” one clap per word, you’re demonstrating word-level phonological awareness—the ability to hear and identify the boundaries between words in a continuous stream of speech. That’s a foundational skill for reading, because it links spoken words to written ones and helps kids map spoken language to text.

Clapping each syllable would show syllable awareness, not word awareness. Writing letters to represent sounds reflects phoneme or letter-sound knowledge, not where word boundaries lie. Recognizing a few letters shows alphabetic knowledge, not how to parse a sentence into words.