Reading Research

Comprehensive research overwhelmingly supports the teaching of phonics, with numerous smaller studies and several extensive, long-term studies involving large participant groups providing solid evidence. Advances in neuroscience have now illuminated the brain's reading process, offering a deeper understanding that was previously unavailable. Earlier studies lacked the technology to understand the underlying mechanisms of reading.

U. S. Studies

1967 - 1977: Project Follow Through found Direct Instruction in math, phonics, and spelling to be the best way of teaching for at risk children. 

2000: National Reading Panel report released. Research was across several years and included thousands of studies; findings include the importance of phonics and phonemic awareness for teaching reading.

2008: Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel, Code-focused instructional efforts [phonics] were found to be significant.

International Studies and Research Summaries

2005, Australia: ‘National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy’ noted the importance of systematic phonics instruction.

2005, UK: House of Commons ’Teaching Children to Read,’ highlighted the importance of phonics along with grammatical knowledge, knowledge of context, and word recognition and graphic knowledge.

2005, UK: Rose Report noted the success of systematic synthetic phonics.

2023, Scotland: Synthetic Phonics: A Historical Perspective examines positive findings for synthetic phonics found in the Clackmannanshire Study and the challenges of ensuring synthetic phonics implementation.

Selected Researchers

Keith Stanovich, psychologist.  His reading research spans decades. While he is most well known for his article “Matthew effects in reading,” his other articles and his books are well written and comprehensive. He is a researcher worth reading.

Linnea Ehri, educational psychologist. As Stephen Parker’s Linnea Ehri page says, “With 160 published papers, Linnea Ehri has been one of the most influential and cited reading scientists in the past 40 years.” Parker’s page includes a link to her list of publications and a summary of Ehri’s research.

Reid Lyon, neuroscientist. The Reading League has an excellent summary of his research, major findings, and a few of his speeches and statements.

Brain Science Research

Stanislas Dehaene, cognitive neuroscientist. His publications page includes other neuroscience areas, but he was many publications relating to reading, a book “Reading In the Brain” and many journal articles.

John Kershner has several articles focused on the neurobiology of dyslexia.

Mark Seidenberg, cognitive neuroscientist and psycholinguist. Author of “Language at the Speed of Sight,” his research addresses how the brain learns to read and the impacts of poor reading instruction.

2022: A meta-analysis of 39 neurological science studies found “changes in brain structure and function after reading intervention.

More Reading Research

Spelfabet Research Page

International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction(IFERI) Research Page

Reading Rockets Research Page

Reading Rockets Brain Research page.