Why Phonics?

Dear Whole Phonics™ Community,

Whether you're fairly new to the differing approaches to reading instruction, or a veteran literacy teacher, one thing is certain: there is always more to learn about the best ways to teach young students how to read. Here at Whole Phonics™, well, let’s just say we’re in favor of a phonics-based approach. But why? The reason is clear: neuroscience supports phonics. Here’s how:

1. Reading is a relatively new human skill (evolutionarily), and our brains need a system to organize language.

"...the brain is not preorganized for reading. It has to figure out how to organize this new information—where to store the different elements involved in reading and how to connect them instantly. Genetics plays a role here, as does the brain's response to injury or illness. But for most children, their first experiences with letters and words dictate how the brain establishes neural networks that may become habitual pathways as reading skills develop.” (Educational Leadership)

"Writing is a code humans invented to represent speech sounds. Kids have to crack that code to become readers."

Emily Hanford, The Hechinger Report

2. The left brain is optimized for the task of associating sounds to print, and phonics puts reading in the left brain where it belongs.

"What does pronunciation have to do with reading? Linnea Ehri (2002) shed light on how readers can look at thousands of words and instantly recognize their meaning. According to Ehri, the sight of a word triggers its pronunciation, and it is this pronunciation that has been stored in memory for convenient access along with the meaning of the word. Our lips may not be moving when we read, but our brains are 'talking.' Ehri's studies show that trying to recognize thousands of words from their visual appearance alone (pattern recognition) is almost impossible. Speech memory is the key.

Other studies (Aylward et al., 2003; Simons et al., 2002) have shown that dyslexics tend to activate right-hemisphere areas at some neural distance from where speech and comprehension reside in the left hemisphere. When dyslexic learners receive intense phonemically based intervention, however, as reading improves this activation tends to move to the left hemisphere, looking more like the activation pattern typical of strong readers. This finding suggests that early reading instruction can profoundly affect how the brain organizes this skill.” (Educational Leadership)

3. Phonics instruction leads to increased

left brain activation.

“Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss found that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading. The study, co-authored by Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss of the Graduate School of Education and the Stanford Neuroscience Institute, provides some of the first evidence that a specific teaching strategy for reading has direct neural impact. The research could eventually lead to better-designed interventions to help struggling readers.” (Stanford University)

4. Phonics instruction leads to a lower brain workload

in comprehension.

“Professor Kathy Rastle, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway said, ‘The results were striking; people who had focused on the meanings of the new words were much less accurate in reading aloud and comprehension than those who had used phonics, and our MRI scans revealed that their brains had to work harder to decipher what they were reading.’” (Neuroscience News)

The science behind phonics-based reading instruction is quickly grabbing Americans’ attention: see this piece from the New York Times for an in-depth look at how phonics is impacting American classrooms and students.

Prefer learning by video?

Watch this informative segment with

Professor Stanislas Dehaene to learn more about the brain-based research on the importance of phonics.

Get Started

Science tells us that phonics is the best approach to reading instruction—get your young reader started with phonics today with our expert-written decodable texts. Shop the entire Whole Phonics™ collection here.

Happy Reading!

Jill Lauren and the Whole Phonics™ Team