When children sound out a word to try figure what it is this an example of?

That's a great example of phonemic awareness, which is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.

Here's why:

* Sounding out: When children sound out a word, they are breaking it down into its individual sounds (phonemes) and then blending those sounds together to create the whole word.

* Phonics: This process is directly related to phonics, which is the understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds.

* Decoding: Sounding out is a key skill in decoding, which is the ability to translate written words into spoken words.

So, when children sound out a word, they are demonstrating their phonemic awareness, which is a foundational skill for reading.