Appendix A: Glossary of Terms

Letter Recognition - The ability to recognize and name written letters of the alphabet with ease and accuracy.

Oral Language: Broad Comprehension (sentence and text level) - The ability to understand the intended meaning of sentences or texts (e.g., stories).

Oral Language: Broad Expressive Skills (sentence and text level) - The ability to produce coherent language in sentences and texts (e.g., summaries, descriptions).

Oral Language: Expressive Vocabulary - The ability to produce or retrieve individual words.

Oral Language: Pragmatics - The ability to understand and use social communications skills appropriate for the context, the topic of conversation, and the culture of the speaker and listener.

Oral Language: Receptive Vocabulary - The ability to comprehend individual words.

Phonological Processing - The ability to give attention to and manipulate the sound structure of oral language, which can involve being able to focus on the individual sounds of words in sentences, syllables in multisyllabic words, or phonemes, the smallest linguistic unit of sound. 

Reading Comprehension: Sentence and Text Level - The ability of readers to understand what they are reading as they are reading; a complex multi-dimensional process.

Spelling - The ability to translate spoken words into printed symbols in the correct sequence.

Text Reading Accuracy (oral) - The ability to orally read connected text accurately.

Text Reading Fluency Rate (oral or silent) - The ability to read connected texts quickly and accurately with a natural intonation. 

Word Decoding (pseudowords) - Applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships and letter patterns to correctly read unfamiliar words, often assessed using nonsense words.

Word Recognition (real words) - The ease, automaticity, and accuracy with which a skilled reader is able to read individual words.  

Written Expression - The ability to compose coherent sentences and text, including appropriate conventions such as correct spelling, grammar, and organization of ideas; a complex multidimensional process.