Which of the following activities best develops a child's phonemic awareness?

The activity of breaking the word "bat" into its individual sounds—/b/, /a/, /t/—directly targets phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. This skill is fundamental in developing reading abilities, as phonemic awareness allows children to understand that words are made up of discrete sounds.

By engaging in the activity of segmenting the word "bat," children practice isolating and articulating these sounds, thus building their awareness of phoneme structures. This process is essential for tasks like spelling and decoding words when reading, linking phonological processing to literacy success.

In contrast, recognizing letters corresponds more to phonics and letter recognition rather than specifically focusing on phonemic awareness. Matching words with similar meanings taps into vocabulary and comprehension skills, which do not directly involve the manipulation of sounds. Lastly, identifying whether a picture represents a consonant or vowel sound does not provide the same level of direct engagement with the individual sounds within words that is core to phonemic awareness.