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 cover all five.
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 proven 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 is built into the stories, in the world your child chose.
5 · Comprehension
Understanding what was readThe story only moves when it’s understood — comprehension is the point, not an add-on.
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 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 — the same skills the validated screeners measure. We track your child’s oral reading speed weekly and chart it against national grade-level norms (Hasbrouck & Tindal), and report progress in the “on track / watch / needs support” bands schools recognize. You’ll be able to print a one-page summary to hand 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 oral-reading-fluency check against national norms.
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.