NYSTCE Early Childhood CST Part 1 – Key Terms and Concepts
for Literacy, Language Development, and Reading Instruction
This document provides a comprehensive list of definitions and explanations for essential
terms related to early childhood literacy, language development, and reading instruction,
specifically for the NYSTCE Early Childhood CST Part 1 exam. It covers concepts such
as phonemic and phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and
instructional strategies. The material also includes literary genres, grammar conventions,
and reading comprehension techniques, making it a concise yet complete study aid.
1. Phoneme: the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in
the meaning of words, represented by letters between slash marks
2. Grapheme: the smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme
in the spelling of a word, may be one letter (ex: "b") or several letters (ex: "sh")
3. Phonics: the fairly predictable relationship between phonemes and
graphemes.
4. Phonemic Awareness: ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual
sounds--phonemes--in spoken words.
5. Phonological Awareness: a broad term that includes phonemic awareness
and involves work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onset and rimes.
1/5
, 6. Onset: initial consonant(s) sound of a syllable (ex: "b" in bag)
7. Rime: the part of the syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (ex:
"im" in swim).
8. Phoneme Isolation: recognize individual sounds in a word
9. Phoneme Identity: recognize the same sounds in different words
10. Phoneme Categorization: recognize a word with a sound that does not match
the sound in the other words
11. Phoneme Blending: combine the phonemes to form a word
12. Phoneme Segmentation: break a word into its separate sounds, saying each
sound
13. Phoneme Deletion: recognizing the word that remains when a phoneme is
removed from another word
14. Phoneme Addition: make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing
word
15. Phoneme substitution: substitute one phoneme from another to make a new
word
16. Fluency: means to read a text accurately and quickly
17. Vocabulary: refers to the word people must know to communicate effectively
18. Affixes: word parts that are "fixed to" either the beginning of words (prefixes)
or the end of words (suffixes)
19. Base Words: words from which many other words are formed
20. Word Roots: words from other languages that are the origin of many English
words
21. Metacognition: "thinking about thinking", strategies to think about and have
control over their reading
22. Poetry: communicates through linguistic imagery, sounds of words, and a
rhythmic quality
2/5
for Literacy, Language Development, and Reading Instruction
This document provides a comprehensive list of definitions and explanations for essential
terms related to early childhood literacy, language development, and reading instruction,
specifically for the NYSTCE Early Childhood CST Part 1 exam. It covers concepts such
as phonemic and phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and
instructional strategies. The material also includes literary genres, grammar conventions,
and reading comprehension techniques, making it a concise yet complete study aid.
1. Phoneme: the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in
the meaning of words, represented by letters between slash marks
2. Grapheme: the smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme
in the spelling of a word, may be one letter (ex: "b") or several letters (ex: "sh")
3. Phonics: the fairly predictable relationship between phonemes and
graphemes.
4. Phonemic Awareness: ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual
sounds--phonemes--in spoken words.
5. Phonological Awareness: a broad term that includes phonemic awareness
and involves work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onset and rimes.
1/5
, 6. Onset: initial consonant(s) sound of a syllable (ex: "b" in bag)
7. Rime: the part of the syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (ex:
"im" in swim).
8. Phoneme Isolation: recognize individual sounds in a word
9. Phoneme Identity: recognize the same sounds in different words
10. Phoneme Categorization: recognize a word with a sound that does not match
the sound in the other words
11. Phoneme Blending: combine the phonemes to form a word
12. Phoneme Segmentation: break a word into its separate sounds, saying each
sound
13. Phoneme Deletion: recognizing the word that remains when a phoneme is
removed from another word
14. Phoneme Addition: make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing
word
15. Phoneme substitution: substitute one phoneme from another to make a new
word
16. Fluency: means to read a text accurately and quickly
17. Vocabulary: refers to the word people must know to communicate effectively
18. Affixes: word parts that are "fixed to" either the beginning of words (prefixes)
or the end of words (suffixes)
19. Base Words: words from which many other words are formed
20. Word Roots: words from other languages that are the origin of many English
words
21. Metacognition: "thinking about thinking", strategies to think about and have
control over their reading
22. Poetry: communicates through linguistic imagery, sounds of words, and a
rhythmic quality
2/5
