Orthographic Mapping

This white paper, written by Dr. Katie Pace Miles, explains the theory of orthographic mapping, a concept developed by Dr. Linnea Ehri. Orthographic mapping is the cognitive process of storing the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of words in long-term memory. This process is what allows skilled readers to read a vast number of words automatically. The paper explains that to store a word in memory, connections must be made between the graphemes (spelling) and phonemes (pronunciation), which is strengthened by understanding the word's meaning. The paper emphasizes that decoding is the most effective way to store words in memory for later sight-reading. For orthographic mapping to occur, students need phoneme segmentation skills, knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, and opportunities to practice connecting letters to sounds. A rich oral language vocabulary is also critical. The paper concludes by stating that orthographic mapping is the most well-substantiated explanation of how words are stored in memory for reading.