A teacher helps children count the individual sounds in each word. What is this teaching?

The correct answer is associated with teaching an understanding of phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a language. When a teacher helps children to count the individual sounds in words, they are focusing on recognizing and manipulating these distinct sounds, which is a critical skill in the development of phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is foundational for reading and writing, as it enables children to decode and encode words by breaking them down into their individual sounds. This skill is essential for learning how to read, as it allows children to sound out words phonetically. By training students to identify and count these units of sound, the teacher is actively enhancing their ability to recognize how sounds correspond to letters and words, further reinforcing their literacy skills.

In contrast, the other options reference different concepts in literacy. Syllables refer to parts of a word that contain a vowel sound, graphemes are the written representations of phonemes, and vocabulary pertains to the body of words used in a particular language or by a particular person. While all these aspects are important in literacy development, the activity described in the question specifically targets phonemic awareness.