The Science of Reading

The research behind how children learn to read — and how Letterland’s Second Edition is built to put it into practice.

What Is the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading isn’t a program or a brand — it’s the large body of research from cognitive science, linguistics, education, and neuroscience into how children learn to read and which teaching methods work best.

Its central insight is the Simple View of Reading: skilled comprehension is the product of two things — word recognition (decoding print) and language comprehension (understanding meaning). Strengthen both and reading follows; neglect either and it breaks down.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope takes this further, showing how many strands weave together — phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition on the word-reading side; vocabulary, background knowledge, language structure, and reasoning on the comprehension side. Most summaries distil this into five pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

The Five Pillars

The building blocks the research keeps pointing to — every strong reading program develops all five.

Phonemic Awareness

Hearing, identifying, and manipulating the individual sounds in spoken words — the earliest and most predictive foundation for reading.

Phonics

Systematic, explicit teaching of letter–sound relationships in a planned order, so children decode words rather than guess from pictures or context.

Fluency

Reading accurately, smoothly, and at a comfortable pace, so a child’s attention is freed up to focus on meaning.

Vocabulary

Knowing what words mean — the bridge between sounding a word out and actually understanding it.

Comprehension

Making meaning from text, drawing on background knowledge, language structure, and reasoning.

Classic and the Second Edition

Both editions are systematic, synthetic phonics — explicit, sequenced, and multisensory, built around the famous letter characters. Classic is a proven program that has taught reading for decades. The Second Edition is its research-updated evolution, rebuilt to align even more closely with the Science of Reading and to give teachers more structure in the classroom. Here’s what it does differently.

Research-Aligned ‘satpin’ Order

Sounds are introduced in the evidence-based satpin sequence rather than strict A–Z, so children build and read real words within the first lessons — and it lines up with the decodable readers many schools already use.

A Daily ‘Ears Ready’ Strand

Every lesson opens with focused oral phonemic-awareness practice — isolating, blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds — woven through the whole year rather than front-loaded into one early section.

Blending & Segmenting Sooner

Children begin blending and segmenting after just three letters have been taught, putting decoding into action almost immediately.

Explicit Teaching, Gradual Release

Scripted daily routines model the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach, with suggested wording, timings, and gentle ways to correct — the hallmark of structured literacy.

Whole-Group + Small-Group Guides

Core whole-class lessons are paired with a separate small-group guide for differentiated, targeted practice and intervention.

Built-In Review & Assessment

Daily cumulative review plus built-in Core and Supplementary assessments help teachers monitor progress and reteach where needed.

Independently Validated

Letterland’s K–2 Foundational Skills Curriculum is rated All Green — “Meets Expectations” across every gateway on EdReports, the respected independent reviewer of instructional materials (a 97% overall score) — confirming it as a structured, Science-of-Reading-aligned foundational skills program.

Common Questions

Tap a question to see the answer.

Is the Science of Reading a curriculum I can buy?

No — it’s the research itself, not a product. Programs like Letterland are designed to put that research into practice in the classroom and at home.

Is Classic Letterland still aligned with the research?

Yes. Classic is a genuine systematic, synthetic phonics program and remains effective. The Second Edition simply refines the teaching sequence, embeds daily phonemic-awareness practice, and adds classroom structure to align even more closely with current research.

Do I have to switch from Classic to the Second Edition?

No. Classic materials remain available and fully usable. Many schools transition gradually — often starting with the Kindergarten Second Edition and moving up grade by grade.

Is it suitable for both classrooms and home?

Yes. The Second Edition spans Pre-K through Grade 3 and works for teachers and families alike, with structured Teacher’s Guides for the classroom and approachable materials for home.

Where should I start?

Browse the curriculum by grade, or email letterland@live.ca and we’ll help you choose the right starting point for your school or child.

Explore the Second Edition

See how the research translates into resources your children will love.

Browse the Curriculum Which Products Do I Need?