decoding

n. Decoding is the process of converting a word,s printed (orthographic) information (i.e., the letters) into the corresponding sounds (phonology); colloquially known as "sounding out.' Decoding is a necessary step in learning to read words. This process is more difficult in deep orthographies such as English where mappings between orthography and phonology are not always one to one (for example, the word island), compared with shallow orthographies such as Finnish, where each letter always has the same pronunciation. Decoding is a particularly difficult skill to master for children with reading disability or developmental dyslexia. This difficulty is most likely due to a core phonological coding or processing deficit.

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