Imagine a child knows that m says /m/, a says /a/, and t says /t/. They know all three sounds, but if they don’t know how to blend those sounds together, they still can’t read the word mat. Reading isn’t just knowing sounds—it’s knowing what to do with those sounds. This is actually a very common stage of learning. It doesn’t mean they aren’t ready, or they have a learning disability. In many cases, it means they need more practice with phonemic awareness—especially blending
