Last updated 2026-07-11
TL;DR
English has 44 phonemes (distinct sounds) mapped to 26 letters through roughly 250 common spelling patterns. Struggling readers need explicit, systematic phonics that teaches every phoneme in a planned order, with heavy practice linking sounds to spellings. Research consistently shows this works far better than whole-language or mixed methods for kids who aren't picking up reading on their own.
What exactly are the 44 phonemes, and why does the number matter?
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that changes a word's meaning. Swap the first phoneme in "bat" and you get "cat" or "hat" or "rat." English has 44 of them, give or take one or two depending on dialect, mapped across just 26 letters. That mismatch between letters and sounds is the root of why English spelling is so hard.
The 44 break down roughly like this: 24 consonant sounds, 5 short vowel sounds, and around 15 other vowel sounds that include long vowels, r-controlled vowels, and diphthongs. The exact count in a given curriculum varies because some programs treat certain diphthongs differently, but 44 is the standard number cited by the National Reading Panel and most structured literacy programs [1].
Why does the number matter for a struggling reader? Because if a child doesn't hold a firm mental copy of each phoneme, decoding falls apart. The child can't hear where one sound ends and another begins, so sounding out a word like "str-ong" turns into guesswork. Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate those 44 sounds in spoken words, has to come before or alongside phonics, which is learning how those sounds map to letters on the page [2].
Here is a reference table of all 44 phonemes with a common spelling and an example word for each.
| # | Phoneme | Common spelling | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | /b/ | b | bat |
| 2 | /d/ | d | dog |
| 3 | /f/ | f, ph | fan, phone |
| 4 | /g/ | g | go |
| 5 | /h/ | h | hop |
| 6 | /j/ | j, ge, dge | jet, age, fudge |
| 7 | /k/ | c, k, ck | cat, kite, duck |
| 8 | /l/ | l | lip |
| 9 | /m/ | m | man |
| 10 | /n/ | n, kn | net, knit |
| 11 | /p/ | p | pin |
| 12 | /r/ | r, wr | run, write |
| 13 | /s/ | s, c | sun, city |
| 14 | /t/ | t | top |
| 15 | /v/ | v | van |
| 16 | /w/ | w | wet |
| 17 | /ks/ | x | fox |
| 18 | /y/ | y | yes |
| 19 | /z/ | z, s | zip, is |
| 20 | /ch/ | ch, tch | chip, catch |
| 21 | /sh/ | sh | ship |
| 22 | /th/ (voiced) | th | this |
| 23 | /th/ (unvoiced) | th | thin |
| 24 | /ng/ | ng, n | ring, sink |
| 25 | /zh/ | s, ge | vision, beige |
| 26 | /wh/ | wh | when |
| 27 | /short a/ | a | cat |
| 28 | /short e/ | e | bed |
| 29 | /short i/ | i | sit |
| 30 | /short o/ | o | hot |
| 31 | /short u/ | u | cup |
| 32 | /long a/ | a-e, ai, ay | cake, rain, day |
| 33 | /long e/ | ee, ea, e-e | feet, beat, these |
| 34 | /long i/ | i-e, igh, y | kite, light, my |
| 35 | /long o/ | o-e, oa, ow | bone, boat, low |
| 36 | /long u/ | u-e, oo, ew | cute, moon, flew |
| 37 | /oo/ (short) | oo, u | book, put |
| 38 | /ar/ | ar | car |
| 39 | /or/ | or, ore | for, more |
| 40 | /er/ | er, ir, ur | her, bird, turn |
| 41 | /ow/ | ow, ou | cow, out |
| 42 | /oi/ | oi, oy | coin, boy |
| 43 | /air/ | air, are | fair, care |
| 44 | /ear/ | ear, eer | dear, deer |
What does research say about the best way to teach phonemes to struggling readers?
The science here is settled. The National Reading Panel's 2000 review, drawing on decades of studies, found that systematic, explicit phonics instruction produces significantly better outcomes in reading accuracy and comprehension than non-systematic or whole-language approaches, especially for children at risk [1]. Later work replicated that finding, including reviews by the What Works Clearinghouse [3].
Explicit means the teacher names the phoneme, models it, and directly connects it to its spelling. Systematic means the phonemes come in a planned order from simpler to more complex, not in whatever order a story happens to introduce them. Those two words together describe what practitioners now call structured literacy.
The International Dyslexia Association defines structured literacy as instruction that is explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic [4]. Each new phoneme or spelling pattern builds on what came before. Nothing is assumed. Nothing is discovered incidentally.
For a child struggling because of dyslexia or a phonological processing weakness, the evidence is even clearer. Syntheses in Annals of Dyslexia report that students with dyslexia who receive structured literacy instruction make significantly greater gains than peers in control conditions [5]. The mechanism is repetition across senses: saying the sound, writing the letter, hearing the word, over and over until the phonological representations a struggling reader lacks start to form.
Whole-language and leveled-reader approaches don't teach phonemes directly. They expect children to absorb patterns from context. For roughly 35 to 40 percent of kids, that never works well enough [2]. If your child is in that group, the method matters enormously.
What is the right sequence for teaching all 44 phonemes?
No single sequence is universally right, but good programs share the same logic: start with sounds that are most useful and easiest to tell apart, then build toward the complex and irregular patterns.
Here is the general progression most evidence-based programs follow:
1. High-frequency single consonants (s, a, t, p, i, n is a classic starter set from programs like Jolly Phonics and SPIRE because it lets the child blend real words like "sat," "nap," and "pin" right away). 2. Short vowels in CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. 3. Consonant blends and digraphs (bl, cr, sh, ch, th). 4. Long vowels with silent e (CVCe patterns: cake, bike, home). 5. Vowel teams and digraphs (ai, oa, ee, ea). 6. R-controlled vowels (ar, er, ir, or, ur). 7. Diphthongs (oi, oy, ou, ow). 8. Advanced and irregular patterns (eigh, ough, silent letters, multi-syllable decoding rules).
The exact order shifts by program. Orton-Gillingham starts with a specific phoneme sequence tied to letter formation. Wilson Reading System runs its own scope and sequence across 12 steps. RAVE-O folds vocabulary into the sequence. What matters more than the exact order is that you pick a sequence and hold to it, so the child always knows what they've learned and what comes next.
Don't skip ahead because a skill looks easy, and don't linger so long on one phoneme that the child goes numb. Short, regular probes (even 2 minutes of flashcard reading) tell you when to move on [4].
How is teaching phonemes different for a child with dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability rooted in trouble with phonological processing, the brain's ability to notice, remember, and manipulate phonemes. The International Dyslexia Association estimates it affects 15 to 20 percent of the population [4]. A child with dyslexia isn't lazy or unintelligent. Their brain needs more repetitions, more modalities, and a more explicit structure than typical instruction gives.
For a child with dyslexia, the differences in approach are:
More repetition before a phoneme counts as mastered. Where a typical reader might need 4 to 14 exposures to secure a new word, a student with dyslexia may need 40 or more [5].
Multi-sensory methods. Saying the sound while tracing the letter in sand, tapping phonemes on fingers, using color-coded vowel tiles: all of it helps because it fires more brain pathways at once. This is the core of Orton-Gillingham.
Slower pacing. Spending two or three weeks on short vowel discrimination before moving to blends is not a failure. It is correct practice.
Immediate error correction. When the child misreads a phoneme, you go back to the sound card right then, not at the end of the session.
If your child has a diagnosis or you suspect dyslexia, they likely qualify for school support under federal law. A dyslexia test can confirm phonological processing weaknesses and open the door to formal accommodations. You can read more about learning disabilities and how schools are required to respond.
What are phonemic awareness activities that actually work before introducing letters?
Phonemic awareness is purely oral. No letters, no print. It's the base that phonics gets built on, and you can work on it anywhere: car rides, dinner, bath time.
The National Reading Panel identified these phonemic awareness skills in order of difficulty [1]:
Rhyme recognition: "Do 'cat' and 'hat' rhyme?" This is the simplest. Phoneme isolation: "What is the first sound in 'ship'?" Phoneme identity: "What sound is the same in 'fun,' 'fall,' and 'fit'?" Phoneme categorization: "Which word doesn't belong: 'bus,' 'bun,' 'rug'?" Phoneme blending: "What word is /k/ /a/ /t/?" This is the most useful skill for reading. Phoneme segmentation: "How many sounds in 'ship'?" (Three: /sh/ /i/ /p/.) This is the most useful skill for spelling. Phoneme deletion and manipulation: "Say 'cat' without the /k/." "Say 'at' and add /sn/ to the front."
Teaching phoneme blending and segmentation has the strongest transfer to reading and spelling [1]. If you only have 10 minutes a day, spend it there.
One routine that sticks: at breakfast, pick three words from whatever food is on the table and segment them together. "Eggs. /e/ /g/ /z/. Three sounds. Toast. /t/ /oa/ /s/ /t/. Four sounds." Kids find this funny. That matters, because anxiety kills learning.
How do you actually run a phoneme lesson at home or in tutoring?
A good session is short, multi-sensory, and follows the same predictable structure every time. Predictability lowers anxiety for struggling readers. Fifteen to twenty minutes of focused practice beats an hour of frustration.
Here is a simple lesson structure:
Warm-up review (3-4 minutes): Flash the sound cards for phonemes already taught. The child says the sound and a keyword. Fast, no pressure.
New phoneme (4-5 minutes): Say the sound. Show the letter or spelling pattern. Have the child repeat it. Connect it to a keyword picture. If the child is old enough, explain the mouth position (voiced vs. unvoiced, where the tongue goes).
Blending drill (4-5 minutes): Build words with the new phoneme using letter tiles or a whiteboard. Start with simple CVC words. The child blends each phoneme aloud, then reads the whole word.
Word dictation (3-4 minutes): You say a word, the child segments it and writes it. This builds encoding (spelling) alongside decoding (reading).
Decodable text (3-5 minutes if available): A short passage using only the phonemes already taught. NOT leveled readers with context clues. Actual decodable text.
Close with something easy and fast. End every session with words you know the child can read. Confidence compounds.
One note on tools: ReadFlare's free reading toolkit includes phoneme sound cards and a tracking sheet for parents running sessions at home, which saves you from building these from scratch.
What is a decodable reader, and why do struggling readers need them?
A decodable reader is a book or passage where nearly every word can be sounded out using only the phonemes the child has already learned. If the child knows short vowels and the consonants s, a, t, p, i, n, a decodable text uses only those patterns ("Sam sat. Nat sat. Pip naps.").
That's different from a leveled reader, which is chosen for general difficulty and leans on picture clues, context, and memorized high-frequency words. Leveled readers are fine for fluent readers. For a struggling reader who hasn't mastered phoneme-to-grapheme mapping, they accidentally train the child to guess from context instead of decode.
Research from the Florida Center for Reading Research finds that students in early reading programs using decodable texts show better decoding accuracy and better transfer to unfamiliar words than students using predictable or leveled texts [10].
Decodable texts aren't literary masterpieces. "Tin can. A tan cat. Sid can nap." They're practice equipment, like scales for a piano student. The point isn't enjoyment of the text. The point is to wire up phoneme-to-letter connections through successful repetition.
For sight words that show up in decodable text before the child's phonics covers them, teach those few words as whole-word memories, but keep that list very short. You can also use Dolch sight words as a reference for which high-frequency words to prioritize.
What does a good scope and sequence look like across an entire school year?
If you're tutoring at home or supplementing school instruction, a rough year-long plan helps you see the arc. The following draws on the general structure used by programs like RAVE-O, SPIRE, and Wilson Reading [4].
Months 1-2: Phonemic awareness (segmenting and blending). Single consonants and short vowel sounds. CVC words. Introduce a-z letter-sound correspondence.
Months 3-4: Consonant blends (bl, cr, st, sp). Consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ck). Short vowel words with blends. Begin simple CVC decodable passages.
Months 5-6: Long vowel patterns (silent e, CVCe). Introduce the idea that vowels have two jobs. Begin two-syllable compound words.
Months 7-8: Vowel teams (ai, oa, ee, ea, ay, oe). R-controlled vowels (ar, or, er, ir, ur). More complex decodable text.
Months 9-10: Diphthongs (oi, oy, ou, ow). Additional vowel patterns (aw, au, ew, oo). Begin syllable division rules.
Months 11-12: Advanced patterns. Multi-syllable decoding. Morphology basics (prefixes, suffixes, roots). Consolidation.
This is a guide, not a guarantee. A child who needs four months on short vowels before they're automatic should get four months. Automaticity beats speed through the sequence every time.
Reading fluency, the ability to decode accurately and quickly enough to support meaning, doesn't come from phonics instruction alone. It builds through lots of practice reading text at the child's decodable level. Comprehension follows. You can find strategies for building meaning from text at how to improve reading comprehension.
What are your legal rights if your child's school isn't teaching phonemes properly?
This is where the stakes get real. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.), schools must provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to students with qualifying disabilities, including students with dyslexia or other specific learning disabilities in reading [6]. If your child qualifies, the school must provide specially designed instruction, more than accommodations.
The law defines "specific learning disability" to include "a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations" [6]. That language covers phonological processing deficits directly.
If a child doesn't qualify for an IEP but still struggles, a 504 plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act can provide accommodations like extended time, preferential seating, or text-to-speech tools. Neither an IEP nor a 504 is automatic. You have to request an evaluation in writing.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has made clear that schools cannot brush off a reading difficulty as a developmental lag without evaluating the student [7]. If your school is refusing to evaluate or claiming your child just needs more time, you have the right to push back.
Knowing the difference between these options matters. You can compare them at iep vs 504. If you want to build a full advocacy file, the ReadFlare parent advocacy kit includes an evaluation request letter template and a guide to what your child's school is legally required to provide.
Your state also has its own dyslexia laws. As of 2024, 49 states have passed some form of dyslexia legislation, many requiring schools to use evidence-based reading instruction and to screen for reading difficulties in the early grades [8].
How do you know if the phonics instruction is working?
Progress monitoring isn't optional. Without data, you're guessing.
For phoneme-level skills, good measures include:
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF): The child segments as many words as possible in one minute. DIBELS 8th Edition benchmarks put spring of kindergarten at 40 or more correct phonemes per minute [9].
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF): The child reads made-up decodable syllables ("bim," "tos," "vep"). Since these words can't be memorized, performance reflects real phoneme decoding, not word recognition.
Letter-sound correspondence probes: You show the letter or digraph, the child says the sound. Track percentage correct across all taught phonemes.
At home, a two-minute sound-card drill twice a week gives you a rough accuracy percentage. If a child stays below 80 percent accuracy on a phoneme after several weeks of instruction, reteach it, maybe with a different modality or more explicit steps.
The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide on foundational reading skills recommends progress monitoring at least once a month for students in intervention, and more often for students who are far behind [3]. Monthly is the floor. Weekly is better for severe struggles.
One honest caveat: no quick assessment tells you for sure whether a child has dyslexia. That takes a full psychoeducational evaluation from a qualified evaluator. Schools should provide it for free if you request it, or you can seek a private one. Learn more about what a dyslexia test actually involves.
Which programs and approaches are actually evidence-based for struggling readers?
There are a lot of programs on the market. Most are fine for typical readers. Fewer have solid evidence for students with significant reading difficulties or dyslexia.
Programs with the strongest evidence base for struggling readers, as evaluated by the What Works Clearinghouse and the Florida Center for Reading Research, include:
Orton-Gillingham (OG): The original structured literacy approach, developed in the 1930s. Not one program but a framework. Multisensory, explicit, sequential. Hundreds of derivative programs (Wilson, Barton, All About Reading) use its principles [4].
Wilson Reading System: A highly structured OG-based program for students at grade 2 and above who haven't responded to other interventions. Widely used in schools for students with IEPs.
Barton Reading and Spelling System: Popular for home use because parents can learn to deliver it without a teaching degree. Clear scripts, clear instructions. Expensive (around $300 per level, and there are 10 levels), but well-organized.
All About Reading: Generally easier to run than Barton, lower cost, strong for younger children.
SPIRE (Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence): A classroom and small-group intervention program with a solid research base, especially for the early grades.
The What Works Clearinghouse has found "positive effects" or "potentially positive effects" for phonics programs built on systematic instruction across multiple reviews [3]. Programs that skip a systematic phoneme sequence, explicit blending and segmenting practice, or decodable reading materials deserve skepticism no matter how they market themselves.
Most apps and games that claim to teach phonics are not structured literacy. Some are fun supplements. None replace systematic instruction from a human who can catch and correct errors in real time.
What are the most common mistakes parents and teachers make when teaching phonemes?
A few errors come up over and over.
Adding a schwa to consonant sounds. When teaching /b/, many adults say "buh" instead of the clean stop /b/. Then the child blends "b-u-h-a-t" and can't hear "bat." Make the consonant sound as cleanly as you can, without the extra vowel. This one mistake derails blending for a lot of kids.
Moving on before automaticity. A child who can name the short /a/ sound when reminded is not ready for long vowels. The sound-letter link has to fire instantly, without thinking. That takes more repetition than most adults expect.
Using too many materials at once. Bouncing between apps, workbooks, different phoneme sequences, and tutoring programs confuses the child. Pick one sequence and one primary method. Add games only if they reinforce phonemes already taught.
Skipping decodable text for books the child enjoys. Both matter, but for a child wiring up phoneme-to-grapheme links, the practice reading should be mostly decodable. Reading for pleasure is separate: it should happen with an adult reading aloud, not the child grinding through a book they can't decode.
Treating phonemic awareness and phonics as the same thing. Some children have solid letter knowledge but still can't segment spoken words. Phonics alone won't fix that. Oral phoneme work has to run alongside or ahead of print-based phonics.
These mistakes are common because most adults were never taught to read this way, and the methods feel strange at first. They work. Stick with them.
Frequently asked questions
How many phonemes does English actually have?
English has 44 phonemes in most standard analyses: 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds (counting short vowels, long vowels, r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, and vowel digraphs). Dialect differences can shift the count by one or two. The number matters because instruction needs to cover all 44 in a planned order, more than the ones that happen to appear in classroom reading materials.
At what age should phoneme instruction start?
Phonemic awareness activities (oral only, no letters) can start at age 3 to 4 through rhymes and sound play. Formal phonics linking phonemes to letters usually begins in kindergarten, around age 5. For struggling readers, intervention can start as early as mid-kindergarten if screening flags risk. Earlier is better. Waiting for a child to catch up on their own past first grade rarely works and costs months of development.
What is the difference between a phoneme and a grapheme?
A phoneme is a sound. A grapheme is the letter or group of letters that represents that sound in writing. The phoneme /f/ can be written four ways: f (fan), ph (phone), ff (off), and gh (enough). Phonics is specifically about teaching the links between phonemes and graphemes. Phonemic awareness deals with sounds only, before any print is introduced.
How long does it take to teach all 44 phonemes to a struggling reader?
For a child with typical development and some school phonics, most phonemes get introduced from kindergarten through second grade over roughly three years. For a struggling reader in intensive structured literacy instruction (45 to 90 minutes daily), covering all 44 phonemes to the point of automaticity takes one to three years depending on severity. Automaticity is the goal, not recognition, so the timeline reflects mastery, not exposure.
Can phoneme instruction fix dyslexia?
Structured literacy significantly improves reading accuracy and fluency in children with dyslexia, but dyslexia doesn't go away. What changes is the child's ability to compensate effectively. Early, intensive intervention gives the best outcomes. Research shows phonological processing weaknesses can be reduced through systematic instruction, and many students reach grade-level reading, though it usually takes more effort and practice than for non-dyslexic readers.
What is a phoneme segmentation test and does my child need one?
A phoneme segmentation test asks a child to break a spoken word into its individual sounds. It's one of the clearest early predictors of reading difficulty. DIBELS 8th Edition's Phoneme Segmentation Fluency measure is widely used in schools. If your child is in kindergarten or first grade and the school hasn't done this screening, you can request it. Below-benchmark scores are a clear signal to start phonics intervention now, not wait and see.
Do struggling readers need to learn all the spelling patterns for each phoneme?
Yes, eventually, but not all at once. Start with the most common spelling for each phoneme (short /a/ spelled a, long /a/ spelled a-e) and add alternate spellings (ai, ay, eigh) once the primary spelling is automatic. Some children with dyslexia do better seeing all spellings of a phoneme on one reference card as they learn, so they grasp that it's the same sound, not a new thing to memorize from scratch each time.
Should struggling readers use phonics apps?
Apps can reinforce phonemes that have already been explicitly taught, but they're poor tools for first instruction. The main problem is that apps can't catch mispronunciations, notice confusion in real time, or adjust pacing based on what they see. Good apps for reinforcement use decodable word sets and give sound-based feedback. Treat apps as practice drills, not the core program.
My child knows all the letter names but still can't read. What's wrong?
Letter names and letter sounds are different things. A child who knows that b is called 'bee' but doesn't automatically produce the sound /b/ when they see the letter will struggle to blend words. This is a common gap. Instruction has to emphasize the sound attached to each letter or spelling pattern, not the name. Some programs deliberately delay teaching letter names until sounds are automatic for exactly this reason.
What rights does my child have at school if they're struggling with phonics?
If your child has a qualifying disability (including dyslexia or specific learning disability in reading), IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1400) requires the school to provide a free appropriate public education including specially designed instruction. You can request a special education evaluation in writing at any time. If the school refuses, it must tell you why in writing. A 504 plan is an alternative for children who need accommodations but don't qualify for an IEP.
Is there a difference between phonics and structured literacy?
Phonics is one part of structured literacy: the part that teaches phoneme-to-grapheme connections. Structured literacy is the wider framework that includes phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, morphology, and syntax, all taught explicitly and systematically. Phonics alone, cut off from the rest, can leave gaps. A structured literacy program teaches phonics inside that full framework.
How do I know if my child's school is using evidence-based phonics instruction?
Ask the teacher directly: 'What phonics program do you use, and does it have a written scope and sequence?' If the answer is 'we use a balanced literacy approach' or 'we teach phonics in the context of reading,' that is not systematic phonics. Evidence-based programs have a documented phoneme sequence, decodable texts matched to that sequence, and regular progress monitoring. You can also check whether the program appears in the What Works Clearinghouse database.
Sources
- National Reading Panel, NICHD, 2000. 'Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction': Systematic, explicit phonics instruction produces significantly better outcomes in decoding, word reading, and comprehension compared to non-systematic or whole-language approaches; phoneme blending and segmentation have strongest transfer to reading and spelling
- U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences: Approximately 35 to 40 percent of children do not learn to read adequately without explicit phonics instruction; phonemic awareness must precede or accompany phonics instruction
- What Works Clearinghouse, IES/ED.gov, 'Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade': Programs based on systematic phonics instruction show positive effects; decodable texts produce better decoding accuracy than predictable texts; monthly progress monitoring recommended for intervention students
- International Dyslexia Association, 'Structured Literacy: Effective Instruction for Students with Dyslexia and Related Reading Difficulties': Structured literacy is explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic; IDA estimates dyslexia affects 15 to 20 percent of the population; Orton-Gillingham is the original structured literacy framework
- Annals of Dyslexia, Springer: Students with dyslexia receiving structured literacy instruction made significantly greater gains than control peers; students with dyslexia may need 40 or more exposures to secure a new word form
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., U.S. Department of Education: IDEA requires schools to provide free appropriate public education to students with qualifying disabilities including specific learning disability in reading; defines SLD as disorder in basic psychological processes affecting ability to read, write, or spell
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights: Schools cannot dismiss a reading difficulty as a developmental lag without evaluating the student; students are entitled to evaluation upon written parental request
- National Conference of State Legislatures, 'State Dyslexia Laws and Policies': As of 2024, 49 states have passed some form of dyslexia legislation, many requiring evidence-based reading instruction and early screening
- DIBELS 8th Edition, University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning: DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency benchmark for spring of kindergarten is 40 or more correct phonemes per minute; Nonsense Word Fluency measures actual phoneme decoding independent of word memorization
- Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University: Students in early reading programs using decodable texts showed better decoding accuracy and generalization to novel words than students using predictable or leveled texts