alphabetic principle: Words are represented in print generally at the level of phonemes. The sounds in words relate to the letters or graphemes that represent them. Example: bat = |b| |a| |t|.

blending: Orally combining the separate sound units of a word into an integrated whole; orally combining the separate sound units of a word to produce the whole word. Example: |ssss| |aaaa| |t| -> |ss| |aa| |t| -> 'sat'.

grapheme: The alphabetic letter or letters that correspond to one particular phoneme. Examples: The grapheme 't' corresponds to the phoneme |t|; the graphemes 'c' and 's' correspond to the phoneme |s|; the grapheme 'c' also corresponds to the phoneme |k|.

onset: The initial consonant sound or sounds that come before the vowel in a syllable; part of the onset rime unit. Examples: |f| is the onset in the word 'fine'; |gr| is the onset in the word 'green'.

phoneme: The smallest speech sounds that makes a difference in the meaning of a word. (There are 39-45 phonemes in the English language.) Example: Changing the phoneme |s| in 'sad' to the phoneme |m| would change the word 'sad' to the word 'mad'.

phonemic awareness: "An explicit understanding that words are composed of segments of sound smaller than a syllable, as well as knowledge, or awareness, of the distinctive features of individual phonemes themselves" (Torgesen, 1999, p. 129).

phonics: The systematic way that specific letters or graphemes are used to represent the different phonemes in spoken words.

phonological awareness: The broadest term used to refer to one's sensitivity to the sound structures of words. The ability to recognize and manipulate different sizes of sound units, including syllables, rhyming units, onset rime units and phonemes.

rime: The ending portion of the onset-rime unit of a syllable. Whereas the onset of a syllable is the initial consonant, consonant blend or consonant cluster, the rime portion of the syllable consists of the vowel and consonants at the end of the syllable. Example: the onset of the syllable 'feet' is 'f' and the rime portion is 'eet'. When comparing spoken words, the same rime units sound the same (e.g., 'feet' and 'seat' would have the same phonemic rime |E| |t|). In written language, although the rime portion of two different words may sound the same, they are not the same unless they have the exact same spelling pattern. Example: in the written spellings the words 'seat' and 'heat' would have the same rime because they are both spelled 'eat'; however, the words 'feet' and 'seat' would not have the same rime because they are spelled differently, 'eet and 'eat'. Not to be confused with the word 'rhyme' in which two words that sound the same at the end of the word are considered to 'rhyme' regardless of the spelling patterns.

segmenting: A sound analysis skill that involves separating a whole word into individual sound units; complementary to blending. Examples: The word 'met' can be segmented into the phonemes |m| |e| |t|; football into |f| |oo| |t| |b| |a| |l|; and green into |g| |r| |E| |n|.

sound analysis: Sound analysis skills include segmenting, sound deletion and sound manipulation.

sound comparison: Judgment about whether beginning, middle, or ending sounds of words are the same or different and production of words with specific beginning, middle, or ending sounds. Judgment about rhymes and production of them are also included in sound comparison. Judgments are easier than production. Examples of judgment: 'Fine' and 'duck' do not begin with the same sound; 'met' does rhyme with 'net'. Examples of production: 'Slow' is a word that rhymes with 'snow'; 'red' is a word that ends with |d|.

sound deletion: A sound analysis skill in which a particular sound is removed or deleted from a word, thus forming a new word. Example: Removing |r| from 'brake' results in 'bake'.

sound judgment: The easier level of sound comparison, i.e., the determination of whether sounds in words are the same or different. Example: 'hat' and 'meet' end with the same sound, |t|.

sound manipulation: A sound analysis skill in which a particular sound is substituted for another sound or added to a word. Example: If we add |l| to the middle of the word 'met', we have the word 'melt'.

sound production: The more difficult level of sound comparison, i.e., coming up with rhyming sound units or sounds that match initial, middle or ending sounds of other words. Example: 'Red' and 'pet' have the same middle sound.

sound synthesis: Creation of a whole word by blending together the separate sound units of that word. Sound synthesis includes blending. Complementary to the sound analysis task of sound segmenting.