Print carries meaning and represents spoken language. Example: "dog" represents the animal.

The ability to recognize and manipulate units of oral language, such as sounds, syllables, and rhymes.

A subset of phonological awareness that focuses on identifying and manipulating phonemes. Example: Segmenting "cat" into C, A, T.

Two letters forming a single sound, e.g., "sh" in ship or "th" in think.

Two or more consonants retaining individual sounds, e.g., "bl" in blue or "st" in stop.

Two vowels working together, e.g., "ea" in seat or "ou" in out.

A vowel followed by an "R" alters its sound, e.g., "car" or "bird."

Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English, e.g., the "uh" in "candle."

Words that do not follow standard phonetic rules, e.g., "said" or "was."

Fluency includes accuracy, rate (words per minute), and prosody (expression).

Decoding is reading words by translating written symbols into sounds.

Encoding is writing spoken words by translating sounds into written symbols.

A closed syllable ends with a consonant and makes the vowel short, e.g., "cat" or "dog."

An open syllable ends in a vowel, making the vowel long, e.g., "he" or "go."

This syllable type ends with a silent "e" that makes the preceding vowel long, e.g., "cake" or "time."

Structural analysis involves using prefixes, suffixes, and roots to understand word meaning, e.g., "unhappy" or "played."

Morphological analysis breaks words into roots and affixes to determine meaning, e.g., "scrib" (to write) in "describe."