Practice Readers Books Blog — understanding reading development

Spelling beyond reading instruction, and lessons from spelling frequency analysis.

Elkonin boxes feature prominently in many of our books.  But why?  Are they designed to create the next generation of Wheel of Fortune contestants? Elkonin boxes are used to help people (especially early readers) think through the sounds in words and how they connect to letters. The visual support of the box typically represents a sound in the target word (the corresponding sound may be represented by a single letter or combination of letters). If the target word is ‘cat’, for example, three empty boxes would be provided. A child can then think about what letters would make the corresponding...

Why do Practice Readers Books include spelling activities anyway?

Featured photo by: Nicole De Khors

A summary of the phases of reading and spelling development, and how parents can best support their children as they learn to read at each phase.