Glossary+of+Terms

**Here is a list of terms and their meanings that you might come across when researching Dyslexia.**
Aural learning refers to listening. These learners do well with lectures, are usually excellent listeners, can learn concepts by listening to tapes, can reproduce symbols, letters or words by hearing them, and can repeat or fulfill verbal instructions relatively easily.


 * Decode** - read


 * Digraph** - combination of two letters representing one sound, as in //ph//


 * Encode** - spell


 * Graphemes** - letters in written form, i.e. alphabet

Phonemes - distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another


 * Phonetic** - having to do with speech sounds

Phonics - sounds within spoken words


 * Phonology** - the system of relationships between the basic speech sounds of a language


 * Phonological coding explained -** Written words represent spoken words. In order to read and write, a child has to link the sound of a letter with its written symbol. This is known as phonological coding. The ability to grasp the ‘sound structure’ of words in this way is crucial to reading and writing. Learning to read and write is a slow process, because written letters have no direct and obvious correlation with their sounds. For example, you can’t guess how to pronounce the symbol ‘b’ just by looking at it - you have to rely on your memory. It is thought that dyslexia could be a problem with phonological coding. One of the early symptoms may be the child’s inability to learn or understand rhyming words.


 * Rhyme** is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.


 * [|Visual learning]** refers to seeing visual depictions. These learners function well by seeing and by watching demonstrations, often have a vivid imagination, need something to watch, and like visual stimuli such as pictures, slides and graphs.

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