Building strong reading skills doesn’t have to feel like homework. With the right tools, students can practice phonics, decoding, spelling, and comprehension in playful, meaningful ways. Each resource below aligns with the Science of Reading and supports key literacy areas such as phonological awareness, orthographic mapping, vocabulary, and fluency Starfall Education Created by a doctor […]
Apps for Phonics and Word Building Blending Board (Free on iTunes) Create custom decks of phonemes and blends to strengthen decoding and blending. Excellent for students learning to connect sounds to letters. Planet Lettera (Free on iTunes, ages 5+) Students build and feed words to friendly monsters, practicing sound-letter connections in a game-based world. Perfect […]
Watch Colorado Reading Center Director Robert Windle’s interview with the Colorado Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce for Dyslexia Awareness Month.
READ Act Basics: Colorado’s READ Act (Reading to Ensure Academic Development) is aimed at ensuring students with significant reading deficiencies are identified and supported. Under this legislation, struggling students should be identified and receive the support they need to become proficient readers by the end of third grade. The law requires schools to identify students with […]
On May 23, 2025, Colorado signed Senate Bill 25-200 into law, expanding the Colorado READ Act to include formal dyslexia screening and support. By the 2027–2028 school year, all public schools will be required to fully implement the new provisions . Why This Matters The goal of the bill is simple but powerful: early identification […]
As a parent, you know your child best. If your child is struggling more than expected in school, you might be wondering what support is available. In Colorado, families have the right to ask their school district for a formal evaluation to see if their child qualifies for special education services through an Individualized Education […]
The English language is built on 44 distinct sounds, or phonemes, that form the foundation of how we read and speak. While this may seem like a manageable number, the combinations of these sounds create endless possibilities for words. For emerging readers, the journey begins with identifying, articulating, and blending these sounds to form […]
Identifying Dyslexia from Preschool to High School: Key Signs and Early Intervention Dyslexia is one of the most common learning differences, affecting as many as 1 in 5 children in the United States. Since early intervention is crucial for helping individuals overcome reading and writing challenges, recognizing the signs of dyslexia at different stages of […]
What is Structured Phonics vs. Whole Language? There has been a long-lasting debate among academics regarding the most effective method in teaching students how to read. The dispute between believers in structured phonics verses those in support of the whole language approach began as early as the 1820’s and culminated in the United States in […]
What is Phonemic Awareness? Beginning the learning process of reading can be quite a difficult undertaking. When we think of new readers and how they learn, we usually picture children’s stories and the alphabet, but whether the beginner is a child or an adult that never acquired the necessary skills, the first step towards success […]
