Which strategy involves blending sounds into words?

The strategy that involves blending sounds into words is focused on the process of combining individual phonemes to form cohesive words. Blending is a critical early literacy skill that helps students decode and read unfamiliar words by merging the sounds they hear. For example, when given the sounds /c/, /a/, and /t/, a student uses blending to combine these sounds and recognize the word "cat." This skill is essential in phonics instruction, as it lays the foundation for reading proficiency.

In contrast, phonemic segmentation involves breaking words down into their individual sounds, which is a different process from blending. Sound manipulation refers to altering or changing sounds within words rather than combining them. Reading comprehension is about understanding and interpreting the meaning of text, which is a separate skill that follows the ability to decode words correctly. Each of these strategies plays a role in literacy development, but blending specifically focuses on the integration of sounds to form words, making it the correct choice in this context.