In recent years, the field of education has recognized the importance of research findings on language development and the equally critical role of decoding skills in learning to read. The podcast Sold a Story highlights the concern that many students aren’t learning to read because an ineffective teaching method has become widespread in teacher‑training programs and in the instructional materials used to teach young children to read. This flawed method, called three-cueing, asks children to learn to read by using pictures, context clues, and the first letter of a word to guess unknown words. This method does not allow students to develop the neural pathways necessary to turn printed words into meaningful language. Instead, students must learn that letters represent speech sounds (phonemes) and that blending and segmenting these sounds will help them learn to read and write words, which carry meaning.
Skilled literacy is the most important component of academic success, which has implications for children’s mental health and future success. Because all children cycle through a pediatrician’s busy office, there is an excellent opportunity for their parents or caregivers to receive information on how skilled literacy develops, how their child is progressing, tools to support their development, and resources to understand if their schools are teaching in a manner that aligns with decades of cognitive science.