For parents who want the receipts
The science behind A New Page
Most reading apps say “science of reading” and move on. Here’s the actual research base we’re built on, the frameworks, the five pillars, and the people who proved it, and exactly how each one shows up in what your child does every night.
The approach: Structured Literacy
A New Page is a Structured Literacy program, explicit, systematic, cumulative instruction in the building blocks of written language. We’ve built it to align with the International Dyslexia Association’s Knowledge & Practice Standards (authored by Dr. Louisa Moats), the consensus standard for teaching reading to children with dyslexia. There is no guessing from pictures or context here, we teach children to decode, the opposite of the disproven “three-cueing” approach.
The five pillars, and what your child does for each
The National Reading Panel identified five things every reader must build. We teach the three word-level pillars (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency) directly, and the two language pillars (vocabulary, comprehension) grow through the stories you read together.
1 · Phonemic awareness
Hearing and working with the sounds in wordsA short sound-play warm-up in every lesson, blending and segmenting by ear.
2 · Phonics
Matching sounds to letters, in a research-based orderAn explicit, systematic scope & sequence following the peer-reviewed UFLI Foundations sequence.
3 · Fluency
Reading smoothly and accuratelyYour child rereads each line until it’s smooth, and we listen and chart reading speed weekly.
4 · Vocabulary
Knowing what words meanWord meaning grows through the stories you read together, in the world your child chose.
5 · Comprehension
Understanding what was readAfter each read, a comprehension question and a “tell someone” retell invite your child to show they understood. Comprehension grows through the story you read together.
The frameworks we’re built on
Scarborough’s Reading RopeSkilled reading is woven from word-recognition strands (phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition) and language-comprehension strands. Our skill map is the lower strands of the Rope.
The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer)Reading = decoding × language comprehension. Our Starting Check looks at both, so we work on the right thing, not just drilling decoding when the gap is elsewhere.
Orthographic mapping (Dr. Linnea Ehri)“Sight words” aren’t memorized as pictures, they’re built by bonding sounds to spellings through repeated retrieval. That’s exactly what our mastery gating and spaced review are doing.
UFLI Foundations scope & sequenceWe follow the University of Florida Literacy Institute’s explicit, peer-reviewed sequence, published in Reading Research Quarterly with strong efficacy results.
The Ladder of Reading & Writing (Dr. Nancy Young)A widely respected framework mapping how differently children come to reading: for a small group (about 5 to 10%) it seems effortless, about 35% learn to read relatively easily with broad instruction (though most still need explicit teaching for spelling and writing), 40 to 45% require code-based, systematic, explicit instruction, and another 10 to 15% need all of that plus intensive practice and frequent repetition. It’s why a program like this exists at all: for over half of children, explicit and systematic isn’t one option among many, it’s the path.
How practice is engineered (the science of learning)Four practice architectures run under every session: retrieval (warm-ups make your child pull sounds and words from memory, no hints first), spacing (mastered material returns on a widening schedule instead of disappearing), cumulative review (tonight’s new pattern is practiced alongside old ones in word chains and rereads), and interleaving (a couple of “old friends” from earlier levels appear on ordinary nights so nothing goes cold). These are the same four practices professional evaluation tools now check programs for by name.
The researchers whose work this stands on
We build on their published science. (We don’t claim they endorse us, we claim we did our homework.)
- Drs. Sally & Bennett Shaywitz (Yale)Dyslexia is a specific difference, not a deficit, a “sea of strengths.” We teach to the gap without shaming the child.
- Dr. Louisa MoatsAuthor of the IDA standards and “speech-to-print” instruction, the structure of our scope.
- Dr. Linnea EhriOrthographic mapping, the science under our spaced review.
- Dr. David KilpatrickEfficient word-learning depends on phonemic proficiency, why we build sound skills to mastery.
- Drs. Maryanne Wolf & Mark SeidenbergFluency and automaticity are their own pillar; reading must be taught explicitly.
- Castles, Rastle & Nation, Ending the Reading Wars (2018)The definitive modern synthesis: systematic phonics first, then fluency and meaning. Our sequence follows that arc.
How we measure, in the language your school speaks
Our Starting Check looks at letter-sounds, blending, and real and nonsense (“robot”) words, plus a short parent profile, the same skills the validated screeners measure. Each week we time a short oral reading and track words-correct-per-minute and accuracy, charting your child’s own growth over time, with the national reading-speed ranges (Hasbrouck & Tindal) shown for context rather than as a formal grade score. You’ll be able to print a one-page summary to share with a teacher or evaluator.
The domains a Structured Literacy program should cover
The IDA Knowledge & Practice Standards expect teaching and progress-monitoring across these domains. Here’s how A New Page covers each, and, honestly, where we’re still deepening.
Phonological processing
A blend-and-segment sound-play warm-up in every single lesson.
Decoding, real words
Explicit phonics, word-building, and decodable story reading at your child’s exact step.
Nonsense-word reading
“Robot words” in the Starting Check and mastery checks, pure sounding-out, nothing memorized.
Spelling (encoding)
Guided dictation every session: say it, tap the sounds, write it, check it.
Fluency
Repeated reading for smoothness, plus a weekly timed oral reading that tracks words-correct-per-minute over time, with national ranges shown for context.
Comprehension
A comprehension question after each read, and a “tell someone” retell, a domain we’re actively deepening.
Oral language & vocabulary
Word meaning lives inside the chosen-world stories and the parent-child reading, also expanding.
What we’ll always be straight with you about
A New Page is an evidence-aligned teaching and progress-monitoring program, not a clinical diagnosis. A dyslexia diagnosis takes a full evaluation by a qualified professional, and if that’s the right next step for your child, we’ll tell you and help you find one.
For a child who is struggling severely, we’re the daily engine that works alongside a specialist, not a replacement for one. And no single program works for every child; we’ll always be honest about that.