Which skill is typically associated with preschool phonological awareness?

Phonological awareness is an essential skill for young children as it involves the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structures of spoken language, which is foundational for developing reading skills. Recognizing rhyme is a fundamental aspect of phonological awareness because it helps children understand that words can have similar sounds. This skill allows them to hear and identify the similarities in the endings and can lead to better literacy outcomes.

By focusing on rhymes, children learn to listen for sounds in words, an important stepping stone to later developing more advanced phonological skills such as segmenting and blending phonemes. When children can recognize rhyme, they also develop their auditory processing skills, which are crucial for distinguishing between different sounds in spoken language. This understanding supports their reading and writing abilities as they progress in their education.

The other options, while related to phonological skills, typically represent more advanced stages of development in phonological awareness. Identifying the number of syllables, blending phonemes, and deleting syllables all require a more complex understanding of sound structure compared to the relatively simpler task of recognizing rhyme.