Verbal Language, the ability to use words in meaningful ways to communicate with others, includes vocabulary development and comprehension.

Phonemic Awareness is the understanding that words are made up of sounds. This includes sound recognition and the ability to identify and manipulate beginning and ending sounds. This area of development also fosters an awareness of speech sounds and rhythms and rhymes and sound similarities and differences.

Letter Awareness the ability to identify, recognize and create the letters of the alphabet - including learning letters by sight, writing one's name, recognizing some words by sight and making letter-sound matches.