How We Research Our Reading Guides
Sweet Phonics is a phonics app for children ages 3 to 8. We write these guides for parents teaching reading at home. We hold them to the same standard we use to build the lessons in the app.
Where our information comes from
- Peer-reviewed reading research, such as the National Reading Panel report and studies of phonics, orthographic mapping, fluency and assessment. We cite the original study wherever we can, not a summary of it.
- Orton-Gillingham training manuals and structured-literacy handbooks written by practitioners who train reading tutors.
- Books by reading researchers and classroom teachers on the science of reading, assessment and early literacy.
- What we learned building a 101-lesson phonics curriculum. That includes the sequencing decisions we made, the audits we ran against other programs, and the mistakes we caught and fixed.
How we check what we publish
- Every spelling or phonics rule is tested against real words before we state it, and we name the common exceptions.
- Every guide ends with a list of its sources. We link to a source only after confirming the link works.
- When research disagrees, we say so rather than pick the convenient answer. Syllable division and letter-name instruction are two examples.
- We don't repeat statistics we can't trace to an original source.
- When a guide mentions what Sweet Phonics teaches, we check it against the app's actual lessons.
What these guides are not
They are educational information for parents, not a diagnosis. Reading screeners and blog posts can't identify dyslexia or a language disorder. If you're worried, ask your child's school or pediatrician about an evaluation by a qualified professional.
Corrections
If you find an error, email support@sweetphonics.com. When we correct a guide, we update the "Updated" date shown under its title.