In a sound boxes activity, the student places tokens into boxes while saying the sounds in a word. This procedure is likely designed to improve which skill?

The activity involving students placing tokens into boxes while articulating the sounds in a word is primarily focused on developing the skill of segmenting words into phonemes. Segmenting involves breaking a word down into its individual sounds, or phonemes, which is a critical phonemic awareness skill. This process helps students understand that words are made up of distinct sounds, which is foundational for reading and spelling.

By manipulating the tokens, students visually and physically engage with the sounds they hear in words, reinforcing their understanding of how those sounds fit together to form words. This hands-on approach allows for a clear demonstration of the relationship between spoken language and written language, which is vital for early literacy development.