Glossary

Alphabetic Principle

Understanding the relationship between speech and an alphabetic orthography (print)

Decoding

Ability to analyze a word from its visual to spoken form

Dyslexia

Neurologically based language impairment which affects reading (decoding), spelling (encoding) and other language skills

Encoding

The ability to produce a word in its written form from its spoken form

Grapheme

One or more letters representing one speech sound

Graphic Communication

Picture conversations

Language

Structure of spoken communication

Metalinguistic Awareness

Knowledge about one’s own language system and how it is used

Monosyllabic

Pertaining to one syllable

Morphemes

Smallest unit of meaning in a language, ie., /cat/, /-s/, /want/, /-ed/, /un/, /re/, /turn/, /able/

Morphology

The study of the smallest units of meaning

Multisyllabic

Pertaining to more than one syllable

Nonverbal

Information communicated through body language, facial Language expression, and tone of voice

Onset

The initial consonant(s) of a syllable, before the vowel

Orthography

The system for writing a language

Phoneme

The awareness that spoken language can be broken down into phonemes and manipulated within an alphabetic orthography

Phonics Sounds

A system of teaching rules of correspondence between letters

Phonological Awareness

The awareness that spoken language can be broken down into smaller units (i.e., sentences to words, words to syllables, syllables to sounds) and manipulated within an alphabetic orthography

Phonology

The sound system of the language

Pragmatics

Using language for different purposes

Rime

The last part of a syllable, including the vowel and what follows it

Scaffolding

A strategy to support a child’s emerging skill

Semantics

Word meanings and word relationships

Speech

Manner in which sounds are formed

Syllable

A unit of pronunciation that contains a vowel sound which might or might not be combined with consonant sounds