In SIPPS Beginning, the teacher and students use continuous blending for phonological awareness and reading decodable words. In continuous blending, words are “sounded out” with no stopping or pausing between sounds. For example, in sounding out the word am, the sound of a is held for two seconds, because it is continuous, and then the sound of m is said without any break between the two sounds. Phonemically, the result is /aamm/. Continuous blending offers critical support in blending individual sounds to make a word. Presenting sounds without continuous blending (for example, “/aa/ [slight pause or break] /mm/” while reinforcing the individual sounds, does not present the same opportunity to hear them in combination and recognize the word.