Literacy Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A

Understanding that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language.

Regular checks of student progress to guide grouping and instruction.
Launching PLD in Term 3: A Step-by-Step Guide Term 1 Teaching Tips Videos

A phonological process where a sound changes to become more like a neighbouring sound, often causing spelling confusion (e.g., the n in in becomes /m/ in impossible). This is a helpful concept for older students grappling with complex spelling patterns and prefixes.
See also: Phonology, Prefix, Etymology.

High-utility words that cross multiple academic domains, are typically more sophisticated than everyday speech, and are crucial for understanding school-based texts. Explicit instruction of Tier 2 vocabulary is vital for boosting reading comprehension from the middle primary years onwards.
See also: Vocabulary, Text Comprehension.

The ability to read words quickly, accurately, and effortlessly, freeing cognitive resources for comprehension.
B

A standalone word to which affixes may be added (e.g., help in helpful).

Combining individual sounds to form words

The knowledge, experiences, and information a student already possesses about a particular topic, which significantly influences their ability to comprehend a new text. Expanding background knowledge through rich oral language and non-fiction text exposure is a powerful leverage point for literacy development.
See also: Oral Language Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Comprehension.

A formal or informal assessment given at regular intervals (e.g. beginning, middle, end of term) to measure student progress relative to expectations.
C

Two letters that represent one consonant sound (e.g., ch, sh).

Ensuring teaching and resources follow PLD’s sequenced order.

A sequence of two or more consonants in a syllable whose sounds blend together, but each sound can still be heard individually (e.g., the /s/ and /t/ in stop, or the /l/, /d/, and /r/ in splendour). Teaching blends, as opposed to digraphs, requires students to hold multiple sounds in their short-term memory before blending them to read the word.
See also: Phoneme, Blending, Digraph.
How To Teach Blending – Continuous or Discontinuous Phonation for Blending Sounds Together?

A common spelling pattern where a consonant-vowel-consonant sequence is followed by a silent e, which typically signals that the vowel before it should be pronounced as a long vowel (e.g., cake, hope). This pattern is crucial for understanding later primary-level reading and spelling.
See also: Long Vowel, Silent Letter, Vowel.

A word formed by combining two or more smaller, independent words (e.g., sun and flower make sunflower). Understanding compound words aids vocabulary acquisition and structural analysis (or word attack skills).
See also: Morpheme, Decoding, Vocabulary.

A method of assessment used to determine students’ mastery of specific skills taught in the curriculum, administered regularly (e.g., weekly or fortnightly) to track progress in intervention or core instruction. CBM data, such as Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM), directly informs instructional adjustments and grouping decisions.
See also: Progress Monitoring, Instructional Grouping, WCPM.
Are Benchmarks Stealing Instruction Time?

An assessment that measures a student’s performance against a pre-determined standard, learning goal, or specific curriculum outcome, showing what the student can do, rather than comparing them to other students. PLD’s phonic dictation tests are a form of criterion-referenced assessment, checking mastery of specific phonic concepts taught.
See also: Systematic Instruction, Decodable Text, Phonic Dictation.

An instructional approach, exemplified by Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP), that prioritises teaching the alphabetic code (letter-sound correspondences) explicitly and systematically from the outset to equip students with transferable decoding skills. This is the foundation of the Science of Reading movement.
See also: Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP), Science of Reading.
What is Structured Synthetic Phonics?

A technique where previously taught phonic concepts, grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and high-frequency words are deliberately revisited and integrated into current lessons. Cumulative review is essential to cement learning in long-term memory and prevent skill decay.
See also: Orthographic Mapping, Systematic Instruction.

The process where the production of one phoneme overlaps in time with the production of the next, influencing how a sound is pronounced in a word (e.g., the mouth position for /t/ in two is different to the /t/ in team). Understanding co-articulation can support seamless blending for students who struggle to pronounce sounds in isolation.
See also: Blending, Phoneme, Articulation.
How To Teach Blending – Continuous or Discontinuous Phonation for Blending Sounds Together?

Sentences, paragraphs, or longer pieces of writing (e.g., stories or informational texts) in which words are linked together, providing essential practice for reading skills beyond isolated word lists. Decodable readers are a type of connected text.
See also: Decodable Text, Reading Fluency.
Reading Instruction: How to Achieve Autonomous Word Recognition

A scientifically-validated learning principle that suggests instruction should be designed to minimise extraneous mental effort (or instructional overload) on the learner’s working memory, which is particularly relevant in early literacy acquisition. SSP programs adhere to CLT by keeping the sequence systematic and the phonic concepts manageable.
See also: Systematic Instruction, Working Memory.

A simple word structure composed of a consonant, then vowel, then consonant (e.g. cat, dog) used in early decoding instruction.
D

Decodable readers are texts that align tightly with the phonic code students have been taught. Early sets constrain word choices to reinforce simple CVC patterns (e.g., mat, sat, cat), and later sets introduce digraphs and more complex patterns (e.g., ship, chat, thin). The goal is successful practice: students read using decoding rather than picture cues or memorised patterns.
For teachers, decodables are best used in small-group rotations and take-home practice aligned to each group’s current code knowledge. Selection is driven by screening data: assign books that practise precisely the grapheme-phoneme correspondences and word structures students are learning this week. Re-reads build fluency; brief pre-teaches (e.g., target digraph) and quick checks (word reading, sentence reading) maximise impact. PLD’s decodable sequences mirror the PLD teaching order so that guided reading, fluency practice, and spelling instruction reinforce one another. This alignment builds accuracy, confidence, and automaticity across the term.
Decodable readers catalogue Phonic & Sight Word Sequence Screening & Tracking Decodable Readers: Everything About Decodable Reading Books We use a lot of PM readers, is there a PLD to PM reading level correlation available? PLD’s High-Frequency Words (HFWs)

Writing sentences using taught code, HFWs, and punctuation. Phonic dictation asks students to rewrite passages that contain code they have been taught. It consolidates phonics, HFWs, punctuation, and handwriting in a meaningful context and provides teachers with immediate evidence of transfer.
Implementation: Present weekly, level-aligned sentences; pre-teach target correspondences; model one sentence with think-alouds; dictate to groups matched by tracking data. Mark rapidly with a simple code (spelling, spacing, punctuation) and feed results back into the next week’s instruction.
PLD Phonic Dictation series Screening & Tracking

A comprehensive, in-depth evaluation designed to pinpoint the specific underlying causes of a student’s learning difficulty, such as a gap in phonemic awareness or phonic knowledge. This type of assessment is essential for planning Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions.
See also: Screening, Tier 3 Intervention, Phonics.
The Difference Between Screening, Diagnostic, and Progress Monitoring

A writing activity where students are instructed to spell words or sentences that are composed almost entirely of the phonic code taught to them up to that point in the sequence. Decodable writing reinforces the link between reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding).
See also: Decodable Text, Phonic Dictation, Encoding.
How to Use Phonic Dictation Passages at Home as Decodable Reading Material
E

A teaching method characterized by clear, unambiguous instruction where the teacher directly states what is being taught, why it is being taught, and how it is to be done, typically following a gradual release model (I Do, We Do, You Do). This is a hallmark of all effective SSP programs and PLD’s resources.
See also: Systematic Instruction, Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP).
Literacy Development In Childhood and Primary School [Everything For Teachers and Parents To Know]
F

Reading with speed, accuracy, and expression.
Revisiting Fluency and Words Read Correctly Per Minute

Common words often requiring targeted instruction.

The degree to which a teacher or school follows an instructional program (like a Structured Synthetic Phonics program) as it was originally designed, including the specified duration, frequency, and methodology. High fidelity is critical to ensuring the program achieves the desired positive literacy outcomes.
See also: Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP), Systematic Instruction.
Refreshing SSP Implementation in a School Whole School Literacy Strategy

Instructional activities specifically designed to improve a student’s speed, accuracy, and prosody when reading, such as repeated reading of a decodable passage or timed reading tasks. Consistent daily practice is vital for shifting words to sight recognition.
See also: Fluency, Automaticity, Repeated Reading.
Two Evidence-Based Strategies to Improve Reading Fluency.
G

A written letter or group of letters (e.g. sh, ea) that corresponds to a phoneme (sound).

The relationship between a grapheme and the phoneme(s) it represents (e.g. sh → /ʃ/).
H

High‑Frequency Words are the most common words in print (e.g., the, was, said, of). Some are fully decodable; others contain irregular or infrequent correspondences. Automatic recognition of HFWs frees cognitive load for decoding and comprehension.
PLD recommends teaching HFWs in tandem with phonics: decode what’s decodable, and explicitly teach the “tricky” grapheme(s) in irregular words. Use spaced review, cumulative lists, and application in sentence reading and dictation. Track mastery to inform revision and homework focus.
PLD High‑Frequency Word Lists Phonic Dictation Screening & Tracking How to Incorporate Irregular High Frequency Words into My PLD SSP Lessons A Rethink of High Frequency Words within PLD’s Structured Synthetic Phonics Program Clarifying Sight Words: Research‑Backed Insights How to Teach High‑Frequency Words (HFWs) in PLD

Words that sound exactly the same but have different spellings and different meanings (e.g., to, two, too). Explicitly addressing homophones is essential for developing accurate spelling skills in the middle and upper primary years.
See also: Vocabulary, Spelling.
I

A type of suffix that modifies a word to express grammatical function like tense or quantity, but does not change the word’s part of speech (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing). These are key components in morphology lessons for early primary.
See also: Suffix, Morphology, Base Word.
The Case for Morphology in Primary Literacy Instruction

The practice of grouping students based on their current skill deficits or needs identified through screening and progress monitoring data, allowing teachers to provide targeted and differentiated instruction. PLD promotes flexible grouping that changes frequently in response to student mastery.
See also: Systematic Instruction, Decodable Text, Phonic Dictation.
See also: Differentiated Instruction, Tier 2 Intervention, Progress Monitoring.
Small Groups vs Whole-Class: What Works Best?

A less systematic phonics approach where learners are encouraged to notice letter–sound relationships in the context of whole words (contrast with explicit phonics).
L

A brief, repeatable assessment administered to all students in a grade level (e.g., Foundation to Year 2) to rapidly identify those at risk of literacy difficulties or those who require extension. Effective screening is the first step in a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework to ensure early and targeted support is provided.
See also: Response to Intervention (RTI), Progress Monitoring, Screening.
Decoding RTI and MTS Models: A Teacher's Comprehensive Guide Using PLD
M

Morphology studies how words are built from morphemes—the smallest meaning units (prefixes, suffixes, roots). Teaching morphology from Year 3+ supports vocabulary growth, comprehension, and accurate spelling of multisyllabic words.
Classroom practice: introduce common prefixes/suffixes and Greek/Latin roots in connected sets (e.g., tele, micro, photo). Analyse and build word sums (e.g., tele + graph → telegraph). Link morphology to decoding (syllable division) and to writing (accurate affix spelling).
Support articles on morphology Spelling Activities for the Middle And Upper Primary

Morphology studies how words are built from morphemes—the smallest meaning units (prefixes, suffixes, roots). Teaching morphology from Year 3+ supports vocabulary growth, comprehension, and accurate spelling of multisyllabic words.
Classroom practice: introduce common prefixes/suffixes and Greek/Latin roots in connected sets (e.g., tele, micro, photo). Analyse and build word sums (e.g., tele + graph → telegraph). Link morphology to decoding (syllable division) and to writing (accurate affix spelling).
Support articles on morphology Spelling Activities for the Middle And Upper Primary

A student’s awareness and understanding of their own learning processes and reading performance, including the ability to self-monitor comprehension and choose fix-up strategies when a text doesn’t make sense.
See also: Reading Comprehension Strategies.

Understanding of the meaningful parts of words (prefixes, suffixes, roots) and how they combine to form meaning.
N

An assessment designed to compare a student’s performance to that of a large, pre-defined sample group (the “norm group”), often yielding a percentile rank or standard score. This type of test helps determine if a student is performing significantly above or below their peers.
See also: Criterion-Referenced Test, Diagnostic Assessment.

The act of reading made-up words (e.g., slog, fitz) to ensure the student is relying solely on their phonic knowledge and blending skills, rather than guessing based on word memory or context. These are a key component of the Phonics Screening Check (PSC).
See also: Phonics Screening Check (PSC), Blending, Decoding.
PLD Supports the Introduction of the Year 1 Phonics Check
O

Orthographic mapping is the process by which words become stored for instant recognition. It depends on strong phonemic awareness and accurate grapheme‑phoneme knowledge. With sufficient successful encounters in reading and writing, words shift from “sounding out” to automatic recognition.
Classroom practice: ensure daily decoding practice with matched decodables, integrate phonic dictation, and explicitly teach irregular words by highlighting the “unexpected” letters while still decoding the regular parts. Fluency work (re‑reads, phrase drills) accelerates mapping.
Phonic & Sight Word Sequence HFW lists Dictation resources Clarifying Sight Words: Research‑Backed Insights How to Teach Commonly Misspelled Words in Stages 3, 4, 5 & 6

Oral language underpins literacy: vocabulary depth, sentence structure, grammar, and listening comprehension all influence reading and writing outcomes. Strengthening oral language in the early years raises readiness for code‑based instruction and later comprehension.
Classroom practice: daily routines for vocabulary (tiered words), sentence combining, narrative retell, and listening tasks. Screen and provide targeted small‑group intervention for students with identified needs; link oral language goals to reading and writing tasks.
PLD Oral Language Programs Early Years screening tools

The ability to understand spoken language, including following multi-step directions, understanding narrative structure, and comprehending complex sentences heard aloud. This is a crucial component of the Simple View of Reading (SVR) and sets the ceiling for later reading comprehension.
See also: Simple View of Reading (SVR), Background Knowledge, Vocabulary.
A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching Oral Language in the Classroom

A subsyllabic unit; onset is the first consonant(s) in a syllable, and rime is the vowel + following consonants (e.g. in cat, onset = /c/, rime = /at/).
P

The smallest unit of sound.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the smallest units of sound (phonemes) in spoken words—e.g., segmenting cat into /c/ /a/ /t/ or substituting /c/ with /h/ to make hat. It is a strong predictor of reading success and a necessary foundation for phonics.
In classrooms, instruction targets phoneme awareness, blending and segmenting with short targeted teaching routines. Screening identifies students who need intensified practice. Phonemic awareness activities should be tightly linked to the grapheme‑phoneme correspondences taught in phonics to accelerate orthographic mapping.
PLD integrates phonemic awareness within oral language and early‑years programs, providing screening tools and targeted activities so teachers can group and instruct efficiently.
Oral Language Programs Screening & Tracking

Phonological awareness encompasses broader sound skills: rhyme, syllables, onset‑rime, and phonemes. It develops before and alongside phonemic awareness and is fostered by songs, rhymes, clapping syllables, and word play.
Classroom practice: brief daily routines (rhyme odd‑one‑out, syllable sort, onset‑rime blending) that progressively narrow toward phonemic tasks. Screen periodically to move students from broader skills into phoneme‑level work when ready.
Early Years screening tools Oral Language Programs

Teaching the relationship between sounds and letters.

The PSC is a brief assessment of decoding that includes real and pseudo‑words to ensure students apply phonic knowledge rather than memorisation. Typically administered at the end of Year 1, it flags students needing additional instruction.
For implementation: schedule practice opportunities with pseudo‑words, teach testwise behaviours (sound left‑to‑right, blend smoothly), and use results to adjust groups and reteach specific correspondences. Combine PSC insights with PLD screening data for a full picture of class needs.
PLD PSC information and practice materials Screening & Tracking

One of the key components of reading fluency, referring to the ability to read text with appropriate expression, rhythm, and intonation, reflecting the meaning of the text. Prosody signals that a student is not only decoding accurately but also comprehending the text in real-time.
See also: Fluency, Automaticity, Connected Text.
Fluency – The Missing Link in Reading Success?

The cognitive ability to temporarily hold and manipulate speech sounds in one’s mind, which is essential for tasks like blending sounds to read a word or retaining spoken instructions. Weak phonological memory is a common indicator of underlying reading difficulties.
See also: Phonemic Awareness, Blending, Cognitive Load.

A child’s earliest understanding that print carries meaning, that books have a specific structure (front, back, left-to-right), and that words are separated by spaces. This pre-literacy skill is a strong predictor of early reading success.
See also: Early Literacy, Alphabetic Principle.
Top Tips for Learning the Alphabet

The set of rules dictating how phonemes can be combined and sequenced within a specific language (e.g., in English, /h/ cannot follow /s/ at the beginning of a word like in German). While rarely taught explicitly, phonotactics govern the selection of non-words in literacy assessments.
See also: Phoneme, Phonology.

The set of cognitive processes involving the detection, manipulation, and memory of sounds in spoken language (e.g. phonemic awareness, segmentation, blending).

Reading made-up or non‑real words (e.g. blap, storp) using phonics rules to test decoding ability.
R

The core meaning unit of a word, often derived from Latin/Greek.

A single vowel followed by the letter r where the r changes the sound of the vowel, creating a unique single phoneme (e.g., ar in car, er in butter). These are often referred to as bossy-r words when teaching children.
See also: Vowel, Phoneme, Syllable.

A defined, empirically-derived score for Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) that a student is expected to meet or exceed at a specific point in the school year, indicating they are on track for grade-level reading success. These benchmarks, often derived from Australian norms, guide teachers in setting appropriate goals for fluency practice.
See also: WCPM, Fluency, Norm-Referenced Test.
Revisiting Fluency and Words Read Correctly Per Minute

Tests or tasks designed to measure a student’s ability to understand, interpret, and process text, often through answering questions, summarising, or retelling. Effective assessments in this area evaluate both literal and inferential understanding, using vocabulary and background knowledge skills.
See also: Text Comprehension, Background Knowledge, Vocabulary.

A score sometimes derived from a norm-referenced assessment that indicates the average chronological age of students who achieved the same score. Educators must be cautious when interpreting reading age, as it is a less precise measure for instructional planning than percentile ranks or standard scores.
See also: Norm-Referenced Test, Standard Score.
Leaders Call For Running Records & PM Benchmarking to be Phased Out

A measure of how quickly a student can name a series of familiar items (letters, numbers, colours, or objects) aloud, often used as a predictor of reading fluency. Difficulties with RAN can indicate challenges with retrieving phonological information quickly and effortlessly.
See also: Automaticity, Fluency.

A proactive, data-driven framework used by schools to provide high-quality instruction and early, tiered support to all students, with increasing intensity of intervention for those who show persistent difficulty. The RTI model relies on universal screening and progress monitoring.
See also: Universal Screening, Tier 2 Intervention, Progress Monitoring.
Decoding RTI and MTS Models: A Teacher's Comprehensive Guide Using PLD.

Deliberate mental processes readers use to actively make sense of text, such as predicting, visualising, questioning, and summarising. These skills must be explicitly taught and practised.
See also: Text Comprehension, Metacognition.
The Five Pillars of Literacy: Part 5 – Reading Comprehension

A morpheme (or word part) derived from an ancient language, primarily Latin or Greek, which serves as the core meaning element of many complex English words. Teaching common roots (e.g., bio, struct) significantly boosts upper primary vocabulary and spelling.
See also: Morphology, Morpheme, Academic Vocabulary.
The Case for Morphology in Primary Literacy Instruction

The metacognitive process by which a reader self‑monitors their understanding, detecting misunderstandings and re‑reading if needed.

A multi-tier approach to early identification and support of students with learning and behaviour needs; can include intensified literacy instruction based on data.

An informal assessment tool where a teacher listens to a student read (orally) and notes miscues, decoding, self‑corrections, etc., to guide instruction.
S

Breaking a word into its individual sounds.

Words recognised instantly, some irregular.

Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) is a systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading and spelling. Students are taught the relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters or letter groups) in a carefully sequenced order, progressing from simple correspondences to complex patterns. For example, simple consonants and short vowels precede digraphs (sh, th, ch) and advanced spelling patterns.
SSP is called synthetic because learners “synthesise” (blend) phonemes to read words. Once a student knows /c/ /a/ /t/, they can blend to read cat. Rather than relying on memorisation or context‑guessing, SSP builds transferable decoding skills so students can tackle unfamiliar words independently.
Within PLD, SSP underpins programs from Foundation through upper primary. Teachers are supported with placement tests, screening tools, sequenced word lists, and explicit lesson resources. This evidence‑aligned approach (Science of Reading) supports data‑informed grouping and targeted instruction, enabling teachers to address variability within classes efficiently.
PD & Curriculum hub Screening & Tracking Phonic & Sight Word Sequence What is Structured Synthetic Phonics? PLD’s Structured Synthetic Phonics Teaching Overview

The most common vowel sound in the English language, often heard in the unstressed syllable of a multi-syllable word, and typically sounds like a quick /uh/ (e.g., the a in about or the o in lemon). Explicitly teaching the schwa sound helps older students with spelling and reading multisyllabic words.
See also: Syllabification, Multisyllabic Word, Vowel.

A set of guidelines used to consistently break a multi-syllable word into pronounceable units for decoding (e.g., VCCV, VCV). Teaching these rules helps students transition from reading single-syllable CVC words to reading longer, more complex vocabulary.
See also: Multisyllabic Word, Decoding, Spelling.

The ability to understand and manipulate the grammatical structure of sentences, which is critical for comprehending longer and more complex connected text. Teaching students to deconstruct complex sentences (e.g., subject, verb, object) improves their overall reading ability.
See also: Sentence Dictation, Connected Text, Decoding.

Instruction that follows a carefully planned, deliberate, and logical sequence, moving from simple concepts to increasingly complex ones, ensuring all necessary prerequisite skills are taught first. PLD’s teaching sequence is a prime example of systematic instruction designed to build competence without gaps.
See also: Scope and Sequence, Fidelity of Implementation.
What is Structured Synthetic Phonics?

A method where a teacher works with a few students at a time, providing differentiated, explicit, and responsive instruction tailored to their common learning needs. PLD recommends this time-efficient approach to target students identified via screening.
See also: Instructional Grouping, Differentiated Instruction, Tier 2 Intervention.
Small Groups vs Whole-Class: What Works Best?

The seven main categories into which all syllables in English can be classified (e.g., closed, open, Vowel-Consonant-E), which serves as a powerful tool for decoding multisyllabic words in the upper primary years. Explicitly teaching syllable types provides students with a key structural analysis strategy.
See also: Syllabification, Multisyllabic Word.

The process of dividing a multisyllabic word into syllables (e.g. hap-pi-ness) to aid decoding and spelling.
T

Tracking sheets record what each student knows and what they are ready to learn next, enabling data‑driven grouping. In a typical Year 2 class, sheets may show one group consolidating basic code, another tackling digraphs, and a third moving into advanced patterns and fluency.
PLD’s Screening & Tracking system aligns with its teaching sequence, producing clear next‑step recommendations. Teachers use this to plan rotations, assign decodables, set dictation sentences, and select HFW targets. Tracking simplifies communication with year‑level colleagues and leaders and ensures continuity across terms.
Screening & Tracking hub Phonic & Sight Word Sequence

The way information is organised within a written passage or text type (e.g., chronological order, compare and contrast, cause and effect, or narrative structure). Teaching students to identify text structure aids comprehension by providing a framework for organising new information.
See also: Text Comprehension, Metacognition.

The universal, high-quality, evidence-based teaching (like SSP) delivered to all students in the general education classroom for a specified, sufficient amount of time. It is designed to meet the needs of approximately 80% of students.
See also: Tier 2 Intervention, Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP).
Decoding RTI and MTS Models: A Teacher's Comprehensive Guide Using PLD.

Supplemental instruction provided in small groups (typically 3–5 students) who are identified through screening as needing extra practice or support beyond the core Tier 1 instruction to achieve grade-level mastery. This is time-limited and highly targeted.
See also: Instructional Grouping, Tier 1 Instruction, Progress Monitoring.
Decoding RTI and MTS Models: A Teacher's Comprehensive Guide Using PLD

The most intensive level of support within the RTI framework, typically provided individually or in very small groups to students with persistent, significant learning gaps. This support requires diagnostic data and is often delivered by specialist staff.
See also: Diagnostic Assessment, Response to Intervention (RTI).
Decoding RTI and MTS Models: A Teacher's Comprehensive Guide Using PLD.

A classification of vocabulary: Tier 1 = basic everyday words, Tier 2 = academic/general, Tier 3 = domain‑specific (e.g. photosynthesis).
V

Two or more adjacent letters that work together to represent a single vowel sound (e.g., oa in boat, ee in tree). This category includes both predictable and unpredictable spellings for long and short vowel sounds.
See also: Grapheme, Vowel, Phonic Code.

The ability to recognise subtle differences between printed letters, numbers, or words (e.g., distinguishing between ‘b’ and ‘d’ or ‘was’ and ‘saw’). While not the primary cause of reading difficulty, poor visual discrimination can impact early letter recognition and writing skills.
See also: Alphabetic Principle, Grapheme.
W

The ability to read words automatically and accurately (by sight or via decoding).
Z

In educational theory, the range of tasks a learner can complete with guidance but not yet independently.

An A–Z guide to key literacy terms aligned to PLD’s Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) approach.

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