Ohio Assessments for Educators (OAE) Foundations of Reading Practice Exam 2025 - Free Reading Practice Questions and Study Guide

Blends are best described as two or more consecutive consonants that retain their individual sounds. This concept is integral to phonics and phonemic awareness, as it highlights how specific consonant combinations can be pronounced together without losing their distinct sounds. An example of this would be the blend "str" in the word "street," where the sounds of 's', 't', and 'r' are each heard clearly.

In this context, the other options do not accurately depict blends. The first option refers to digraphs, where two vowels together typically create a single sound. The third option addresses phonemes but does not focus on consonants building blends. Lastly, the fourth option suggests a more limited definition of consonants in isolation, which does not capture the essence of blending sounds together while still articulating each distinct phoneme.