Sound Steps to Reading is based on the author's analysis of the English writing system, one of the most complex writing systems in the world. Mastering this complexity is solved by careful sequencing of the lessons so the child is never confronted with something he cannot do. Every lesson is scripted and no training is necessary to use this program.
Lessons contain the same activities in the same order: 1) listening for the target sound in a story 2) a structured listening exercise 3) handwriting training and practice 4) segmenting and blending sounds in real words (reading) 5) copying words 5) spelling dictation 6) reading stories written with words/spellings taught so far.
Lessons are cumulative. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson and only contains words with the sounds and spellings the child has been taught. When lessons proceed at the recommended pace of 3 lessons per week, most children become excellent readers, writers, and spellers in about 20-25 weeks. For classroom teachers, lessons will take about one school year. It is advised that the later lessons (last set) be reviewed at the start of first grade.
Research results. A study on two kindergarten classrooms was carried out at the Willows School In Los Angeles. Most children could not read at the start of school. When they were tested at the end of the year, 42% scored in the top 1% in the nation, and 75% scored in the top 10%, based on test norms. All but one child scored well above "average."
There are two components to this program. The complete program must include both books.
The Sound Steps to Reading Handbook contains all lessons, all exercises and worksheets.
The Sound Steps toReading Storybook contains the full text of the story fragment that begins each lesson.

English is a compounding language in which root words are modified (changed in meaning) by adding prefixes and suffixes. The rules of the spelling game change at this level - and attention shifts to the syllable unit and spellings for prefixes and suffixes. This new knowledge makes a profound difference in reading and spelling skills, and dramatically enhances reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Lessons begin with simple compounding of common English words (doghouse, sunset), and gradually build to include Latin and Greek-based words up to 6 syllables in length. For example: 'inform' (a verb) can be changed to a noun by adding the suffix 'shun' spelled: tion a suffix used in thousands of words. It has three common spellings: information, aggression, optician, and four rare ones. Once the student learns when these spellings are used ('cian' always marks an occupation), difficult words suddenly become easy to read and spell. Long 'scary' words like: 'determination' can be broken down to easily decodable units: de/ter/min/a/tion. Once these patterns are understood, students as young as 8 years can learn to read and spell thousands of new words in a just a few lessons.
Allographs II Manual contains 59 partially scripted lessons. Sample lessons for the higher levels of the code provide a platform for continuing development using the Student Workbook/Dictionary. Both components are essential to teach this program effectively.

The Sound Steps to Reading Storybook contains the full text of the story fragment that begins each lesson. These stories should be read by the parent or teacher later on the same day after the lesson has been completed. Each story features the target sound (phoneme) for that lesson. The stories are humorous and written in rhyme. Trials in the U.S. and the U.K showed that children love them.
Many children can begin reading these stories on their own (with a little help) about midway through the program. This is highly motivating. By the end of the program all children can read these stories with ease.
The stories will work well with any synthetic phonics program that teaches the spelling alternatives for the sounds in English.
Here is a story sample. Can you discover what sound is featured in this story? Find all the spellings for this sound.
Mole, as you see by the title, does not know how to spell 'business.']
Sample text from "Mole's Home Biznis"
Mole poked his nose out of his hole
He reached for his Daily Globe
that was stuck in the snow.
"Well, well. It's cold, it's cold. I'd better go down below."
As mole went into his underground burrow
his face had a frown, his forehead a furrow.
He was, as usual, alone at home. Mole mumbled, "Home alone. Home alone."
Mole had a habit of saying things over,
and over, and over.
He sighed, "Life is too dull. Life is too slow for such a talented fellow.
I need a goal. I need a goal. I can't always be home alone in my hole."
He sat down with his cocoa and toast
to read the Globe and open his post. As he unfolded the paper, he saw this:
"Start your Own HomeBusiness"
(the story continues ---)

The Student Workbook provides exercises and a special Dictionary to teach how syllables are compounded in multi-syllable words, as well as the spelling patterns used in a variety of prefixes and suffixes.
Over 3,000 multi-syllable words are included in the lessons.
Lessons proceed in the following order:
This is an ordered list. The nature of compounding using whole words: 'sunset' 'firefly'. Root word transformations for adding ing, and ed. Turning verbs into persons by adding er. Changing common root words (nouns or verbs) to other parts of speech: 'bright' - brighten, brighter, brightest, brightly. Reading and spelling words with adjacent vowel sounds: 'po/et' 'ra/di/o' - 'o/a/sis, vi/o/lent. Common prefixes and their meaning: de, re, pre, pro, be, e, im, in, em, en. Suffixes spelled alike but pronounced differently, such as: machine, refine, famine. The spelling of the 'schwa'* vowel at the beginning and ends of words: a/bout, a/gend/a The spellings for 'schwa' vowels in the middle of words: redundant, benefit, hesitate, collect, industry. A Dictionary of 2,000 words with spelling alternatives for Old French, Latin, and Greek-based suffixes. Latin root words and definitions. Latin and Greek-based prefixes and definitions Words of Greek origin with special spellings: myth, pneumonia, rhapsody, xylophone.
*A "schwa" is the weakest, briefest vowel in a multi-syllable word. It is the result of 'sloppy' pronunciation and always sounds "uh." It has 5 main spellings.

An essential guide to understanding a child s emerging language from the first days of babbling through a five-year-old s mastery of reading."

Research on reading has tried, and failed, to account for wide disparities in reading skill even among children taught by the same method. Why do some children learn to read easily and quickly while others, in the same classroom and taught by the same teacher, don't learn to read at all? In " Language Development and Learning to Read," Diane McGuinness examines scientific research that might explain these disparities. She focuses on reading predictors, analyzing the effect individual differences in specific perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive skills may have on a child's ability to read. Because of the serious methodological problems she finds in the existing research on reading, many of the studies McGuinness cites come from other fields -- developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and the speech and hearing sciences -- and provide a new perspective on which language functions matter most for reading and academic success.

McGuinness first examines the phonological development theory -- the theory that phonological awareness follows a developmental path from words to syllables to phonemes -- which has dominated reading research for thirty years, and finds that research evidence from other disciplines does not support the theory. McGuinness then looks at longitudinal studies on the development of general language function, and finds a "tantalizing connection" between core language functions and reading success. Finally, she analyzes mainstream reading research, which links reading ability to specific language skills, and the often flawed methodology used in these studies. McGuinness's analysis shows the urgent need for a shift in our thinking about how to achieve reading success.

Early Reading Instruction is a comprehensive analysis of the research evidence from early writing systems to computer models of reading. In this book, Diane McGuinness provides an innovative solution to the "reading war"--the century-old debate over the efficacy of phonics (sound-based) versus whole-word (meaning- based) methods. She has developed a prototype--a set of elements that are critical to the success of a reading method.McGuinness shows that all writing systems, without exception, are based on a sound unit in the language. This fact, and other findings by paleographers, provides a platform for the prototype. Other elements of the prototype are based on modern research. For example, observational studies in the classroom show that time spent on three activities strongly predicts reading success: learning phoneme/symbol correspondences, practice at blending and segmenting phonemes in words, and copying/writing words, phrases, and sentences. Most so-called literacy activities have no effect, and some, like sight word memorization, have a strongly negative effect.The National Reading Panel (2000) summarized the research on reading methods after screening out thousands of studies that failed to meet minimum scientific standards. In an in-depth analysis of this evidence, McGuinness shows that the most successful methods (children reading a year or more above age norms) include all the elements in the prototype. Finally, she argues, because phonics-type methods are consistently shown to be superior to whole-word methods in studies dating back to the 1960s, it makes no sense to continue this line of research. The most urgent question for future research is how to get the most effective phonics programs into the classroom.

In America today, 43 percent of our children fall below grade level in reading. In her meticulously researched and groundbreaking work, Diane McGuinness faults outmoded reading systems for this crisis -- and provides the answers we need to give our children the reading skills they need. Drawing on twenty-five years of cutting-edge research, Dr. McGuinness presents bold new "phoneme awareness" programs that overcome the tremendous shortcomings of other systems by focusing on the crucial need to understand and hear reliably the sounds of a language before learning to read. Maintaining that any child can be taught to read fluently if given proper instruction, she dramatically reveals how dyslexia and behavior problems such as ADD stem not from neurological disorders but from flawed methods of reading instruction. With invaluable information on remedial reading programs that can correct various ineffective reading strategies, this book is a must for concerned parents, teachers, and others who want to make a difference.