Final answer:
The notion that measuring phonemic awareness directly is challenging is true because it involves internal cognitive processes which are not directly observable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that phonemic awareness is difficult to measure directly as an isolated skill is TRUE. Phonemic awareness is a critical component of language development and literacy skills. This refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, that comprise spoken words. Phonemic awareness is fundamental to the development of decoding and spelling abilities. However, assessing this competence can be challenging because it inherently involves internal cognitive processes that cannot be observed directly. Instead, evaluators often rely on indirect measurements such as a child's ability to segment and blend sounds or to recognize rhymes and alliterations. Therefore, evaluating phonemic awareness requires a nuanced understanding of language development and specialized assessment techniques.