What are Elkonin boxes used for in early reading instruction?

• A. A type of letter-sound relationship chart for teaching decoding
• B. A method to measure reading speed
• C. A graphic organizer showing syllable types
• D. Little squares used to represent each phoneme a child hears

Answer: (D)

Elkonin boxes are used to help young readers develop phonemic awareness by representing each phoneme with a separate square. Students hear a word, break it into individual sounds, and place a marker in each box in sequence. This visual and hands-on approach makes blending and decoding easier, because the sounds are tracked one by one and then merged to form the word. The method focuses on phoneme-level segmentation, not syllable types, reading speed, or a chart of letter-sound relationships, which is why little squares used to represent each phoneme a child hears is the best description.