Glossary of Literacy and Language Terms

Language Disorders

- - problems with communication, either with understanding communication or beingunderstood.

They are separate from disorders of speech in that they refer to a person's understanding and use of words in context, rather than the physicalproduction of speech sounds.

Some characteristics of language disorders include:

difficulty expressing ideas,
improper use of words and their meanings,
inappropriate grammatical patterns,
limited vocabulary and difficulty following directions.

Speech therapists and other trained specialists deal with language disorders.For a superb course on receptive and expressive language, the Nanci Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing

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Program is highly recommended.

Linguistics

The scientific and systematic study of the structure of language.

Phonemic Awareness

- the ability to perceive the number, order, sameness and difference of sounds in words.

A person with low phonemic awareness may be able to see that there are three letters in "tap", but may not be able to distinguish it from "apt".

They may read "sting" for "string", and even when they can tell you that there is an r after the t, they still can't perceive that they are not saying it in the word.

Phonemic awareness is the entry point to literacy. It is formed in the auditory pathway of the brain, which is among the first of the pathways to develop in the womb.

Low phonemic awareness is the undisputed predictor of reading failure in later life.

The only program known to me which actually creates phonemic awareness is the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program. For more information on Lindamood Bell products, click here.

Phonogram

- from Greek phon meaning "sound" and

gram meaning " a thing drawn or written"

The Spalding "Writing Road to Reading" program comprises 70 phonograms. These are symbols representing 45 human speech sounds.

e.g. /igh/ (3-letter i) and so on.