For Parents
Help your child strengthen their literacy skills at any stage of development.
Phonics Education for Families
Your family plays a big role in helping your child learn to read and write. With the right phonics activities at home, you can support your child's literacy development and academic success. The more you understand how and why phonics instruction works, the better you can facilitate effective and meaningful learning experiences with your family.
To help your child practice phonics at home, read our insights for parents below! You can also browse our phonics program reviews for more.
Phonics Manipulatives That Beat Any Screen
A set of letter tiles. A tray of sand. A stack of index cards. None of these cost much, and none of them require charging. Yet when used with…
Read articleWhat to Look for in a Phonics App Before You Download
There are thousands of phonics and reading apps available for kids right now, and most of them look convincing. Bright colors, animated characters,…
Read articleAudiobooks and Phonics: Helpful Supplement or Decoding Shortcut?
Ask a room full of parents whether audiobooks “count” as reading, and you’ll get a sharply divided answer. Some swear by them as the thing that…
Read articleAI Tutoring Apps and Phonics: Promising or Problematic?
AI-powered reading tools have moved from novelty to a common fixture in classrooms. By 2026, adaptive phonics apps and AI reading tutors are in…
Read articleScience of Reading Legislation: A State-by-State Overview
Over the past five years, 42 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or adopted policies requiring schools to teach reading using…
Read articleDyslexia Myths That Are Still Hurting Kids
If misinformation about dyslexia were harmless, this article wouldn’t need to exist. But the myths still circulating in schools, pediatric offices,…
Read articleThe Dyslexia-Phonics Connection: Why Structured Literacy Is Non-Negotiable
If you’re reading this because something feels off with your child’s reading, trust that instinct. Roughly one in five kids in any classroom shows…
Read articleIEP Goals and Phonics: What to Ask For and Why
If you’ve already sat through an IEP meeting and walked out feeling like the reading goals were soft, vague, or weirdly disconnected from what your…
Read articleHow To Use Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping at Home
When your child writes “sip” instead of “ship,” they’re not making a careless mistake. They’re missing a small but important skill. They haven’t yet…
Read articleFrequently asked questions
When should parents worry about reading progress?
Concern is warranted when difficulty is persistent across time and settings, especially after a child has had regular instruction and still struggles with core decoding behaviors.
Does slower progress always mean dyslexia?
No. Slower progress can have many causes. A pattern of persistent difficulty despite good instruction is a signal to assess further, not an automatic diagnosis.
What can I do at home to help?
Short, consistent practice helps most — reading together daily, playing with sounds, and using simple activities like phoneme-grapheme mapping to connect sounds and letters.
Related Sections
Phonics 101
Core concepts, sequencing, and the instructional foundations behind effective phonics teaching.
Explore Phonics 101 →
Phonics Skills
Individual decoding skills from letter sounds and CVC words through vowel teams and syllable types.
Explore Skills →
Struggling Readers
Intervention, dyslexia-informed support, multilingual considerations, and progress monitoring.
Explore Support →