Phonological awareness: a broad category comprising a range of understandings related to the sounds of words and word parts
Phonemic awareness: the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words
Alphabet knowledge: understanding that letters represent sounds which form words
Sound/Symbol recognition: understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds in spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent those sounds)
Decoding skills: using knowledge of letters and sounds to recognize and analyze a printed word to connect it to the spoken word it represents (also referred to as “word attack skills”)
Encoding skills: translating speech into writing (spelling)
Rapid naming: ability to connect visual and verbal information by giving the appropriate names to common objects, colors, letters, and digits (quickly naming what is seen)