Early Signs of Dyslexia in Preschoolers: What to Look for Beyond Reading
Mixing up sounds, not catching a rhyme, forgetting letter names: most of this is ordinary at preschool age. Here is what is genuinely worth noticing, what is not, and the one small first step to take.
High-Utility Letters: Why You Should Teach S, A, T, P Before B, C, D
Almost no structured phonics programme teaches letters A, B, C, D. Here is why Jolly Phonics and the UK's own framework both start with S, A, T, P instead, and how to run the same sequence at home.
Heart Words: How to Teach Words That Can’t Be Sounded Out
Your child breezes through "cat" and "sun," then stalls on "said." Here is exactly which part of a heart word to sound out, which part to learn by heart, and a five-minute routine to teach the difference.
Reading Aloud: Why Quizzing Your Child Can Backfire at Storytime
"Ask your child questions while you read" curdles easily into a page-by-page quiz. Interactive questioning works; closed, right-answer quizzing doesn't. Here's the difference, and five swaps for storytime.
The Word Gap: What “30 Million Words” Gets Right, and Wrong
You've heard the "30 million word gap". The number comes from 42 families and hasn't held up, and the way it's used to blame low-income and multilingual parents isn't supported. But interaction quality does matter for language, and language feeds reading. The honest version.
Sportscasting for Parents: Narrating Your Day to Grow Your Child’s Words
Narrating your day - "now I'm chopping the onions" - is good advice that's easy to do badly. The research is clear that back-and-forth turns matter more than a one-way stream of words. Here's how to narrate so it counts.
Labeling Household Objects: Does Taping Words to the Fridge Help Reading?
Every parenting site says to tape word labels on the furniture. The evidence is narrower than the tip: labels can build print awareness, but only if you stop and talk about them - and they won't teach decoding or grow vocabulary the way it's often claimed.
The ‘I Spy’ Sound Game: Teaching First Sounds at Home (Without Teaching It Wrong)
'Something beginning with buh-buh-ball' is how most parents play I Spy, and it quietly makes blending harder. Here's the version that works, plus the word-choice traps to avoid.
The Importance of Nursery Rhymes: How Rhyme and Rhythm Feed Reading
Your child recites the whole rhyme but can't tell you a word that rhymes with 'cat'. The nursery-rhyme-to-reading link is real, but mostly indirect, and often overstated. Here's the honest version.
Listening Games for Kids: Building the Skills That Come Before Reading
Your child guesses every animal sound but can't tell you what 'sun' starts with. Those are different skills. Here's which listening games do pre-reading work, and which just build focus.
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