What are Decodable Readers?

As most of us know, learning to read isn’t always that simple. Many (if not most) children will benefit from using a systematic phonics-based approach when learning to read. As children learn using a phonics based approach, decodable books become a key component of this learning process. 

A decodable reading book is a book that only contains phonetics that a child has already learnt. For instance, a child starting out in the earliest stages of reading who has learnt the sounds s / a / t / p, would be able to decode words in a book such as at, sat, tap, and pat. Therefore, the decodable book would only contain these words and would not introduce any unfamiliar letters and sounds.

Reading non-decodable, or partially decodable books, can be demotivating and frustrating for children learning to read. When children read a fully decodable book, they can use their decoding skills to read words. Being able to decode all the words in a book, builds fluency and self-confidence.

Junior Learning’s Letters & Sounds Decodable Readers range are 100% decodable. Our reading program is designed to help children build on their reading success and feel a sense of accomplishment as they work their way through each decodable story. Our Letters & Sounds series follows children week-by-week through the program providing them text-based context to practice their emerging ready skills. Every story in both the fiction, and non-fiction range of books, has been written with a strictly controlled text.  

Almost all of Junior Learning’s literacy resources are developed around our Letters & Sounds systematic phonics teaching program. For more information about phonics, decodable books, and how phonics can be best used to teach reading.

Our full range of Decodable Readers can be found here.