Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven’t seen before. – Reading Rockets

If children can’t decode words then they can’t work their way effectively through increasingly harder texts. What happens then is that their frustration level rises and teachers and parents start seeing them struggle and fall behind. Comments like “I hate this” or “I can’t do this” start to become common place.
Decoding is the ability to read …read more

In 2000 the National Reading Panel reported that there are five traditional components that every child should have in order to be able to read:

Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension

Simple, right? In theory.