Reading Program

Creating Good Readers:
A Four-Step Process that Starts with Sound

For most people, learning to read doesn’t start with comprehension. It doesn’t even begin with the ability to memorize words or recognize letters.

Learning to read actually starts with sound.

There are four steps that lay the solid foundation that enables children and adults to read fluently and easily. These steps—accomplished in the right order—can mean the difference between someone who enjoys reading, and someone who has a life-long struggle with the written word.

Here is the four-step process that leads to a lifetime of happy reading:

1. Awareness of Sounds
Being able to hear and distinguish different sounds is where it all starts. Learning how to distinguish sounds—for example, the three distinct sounds in the word “hat” (/h /, /a / and / t/)—is the first skill in a series of skills that enables successful reading.

2. Blending and Coding of Sounds
Once sounds are distinguished, learning to blend them together is critical. So is coding, which is the process of assigning written symbols to the individual and blended sounds.

3. Automatic Recognition
Through the process of practicing the distinguishing, blending and coding of sounds these skills become automatic. This step is necessary if reading speed and fluency are to be attained.

4. Comprehension
Finally, comprehending the concepts, information and stories represented by all these sounds and codes is the reason we learn to read to begin with! One of the ways we develop skills of comprehension is by answering questions about what we’ve just read, engaging in conversation about the concepts, or even writing about what we’ve just learned.

Since eight-eight percent of all reading struggles are rooted in an inability to distinguish sounds, brain training that targets and strengthens the cognitive skill of auditory processing remains the most effective solution for kids and adults for whom reading is difficult.

Brain training rewires brains and changes lives.

For more information on how brain training can improve your life or the life of someone you love, take one of the following steps:

Find a LearningRx Brain Training Center near you and schedule an assessment. It's your first step to a faster, smarter brain.

Learn more about the research behind brain training.

Read testimonials of men, women and children who have experienced the life-changing benefits of LearningRx Brain Training programs.