Good readers usually have good phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the means of tracking sounds within words. The ability to track sounds within words is absent in people with phonological processing disorders.

Individuals with phonological processing disorders

• cannot judge whether what they say matches what they see.
• have trouble spelling and may add, omit, substitute, or reverse letters or sounds.
• have problems with reading, spelling , or both.
• usually have some problems with pronunciation , even though it might not seem major.
• may be verbally gifted, but simply cannot unlock that gift because the skills needed to read and spell are beyond their phonemic awareness.