Reading research, written for parents
Eleven pages on how children learn to read, every claim carrying the source it came from. Some of it does not flatter reading apps, ours included. That is on purpose.
How we decide what to trust
You should not have to take our word for any of this, so here is the standard these pages are held to before you read one.
Reviews that pool many studies come before any single study, and a single study comes before an opinion. Every source is opened and read before it is cited, not quoted from somebody else's summary. Where only the abstract could be reached, the page says so in the source list.
A statutory requirement or a national guideline is a decision a government made about what to require and when. It is not the output of a trial. Where a page rests on that kind of source, the source list tags it Policy so you can weigh it as one.
Several of these pages end with what nobody has measured, including the fact that nobody has tested this app. A claim we could not check got rewritten or dropped rather than dressed up, and the numbers that do not suit us are still on the page.
Start here
What reading is made of, and the order it gets built in. Read these first if a school newsletter has been throwing phrases at you.
- What “the science of reading” actually meansNot a scheme anybody can sell you. What the phrase refers to, which parts of it are settled, and what the effect sizes behind it really say.
- The order children learn to read inEars before eyes, sounds before letters, letters before books. Where the sequence bends, and which parts of it nobody has actually tested.
- Teaching letter sounds: what the research settles, and what it doesn'tWhy some letters are genuinely much harder than others, and a straight answer about b and d, which is the question we get asked most.
Is my child on track?
The three pages parents open at eleven at night. All three lead with how wide the ordinary range is, because that is usually the answer.
- How reading develops, age 4 to 9What is typical at each age, how far apart two perfectly ordinary children can be, and the handful of things worth mentioning to a teacher.
- What should my child know before school?England expects a four-year-old to be doing phonics daily. The United States expects nothing at four. Both are normal, which tells you something.
- When to be concerned about your child's readingMost of the time the honest answer is that it is early yet. This page is about telling that apart from the case where someone should look closer.
Screens, apps and rewards
The three pages where we have an obvious interest in the answer. They are the ones to check hardest, so every number on them is sourced.
- Do reading apps actually work?Yes, a little. Less than the people selling them suggest, and well short of a teacher. Including the four things nobody has measured.
- Screen time and reading appsIn 2026 the United States dropped its limit for young children and the United Kingdom introduced one. They still agree about the thing that matters.
- Do points and streaks make a child want to read?What the evidence on rewarding children found, where it stops applying, and a full account of every reward this app hands your child.
Before you buy something
Two questions that usually arrive attached to a purchase, and where the research has a clear enough answer to save you the money.
- Does handwriting still matter if everything is typed?For a child learning letters, yes, and the evidence is better than most parents expect. It is also smaller, so the sample sizes are on the page.
- Dyslexia fonts, letter spacing, and what actually helpsThe dyslexia typefaces have been tested, more than once, on hundreds of children. They did not improve reading speed or accuracy.
What this is not
It is not advice about your child. Nobody writing a web page has met them, and none of these pages can tell you whether a particular five-year-old is fine. The person who has the most useful view of that is their teacher.
It is not a sales pitch with references stapled on either. If you want to know what the app does, that is a different page, and it is honest about the same limits.
If you find a claim on any of these pages that the source does not support, we would rather hear it than not. The support page has a way to reach a person.