Decoding is the slow phonetic sounding-out of a sequence of printed letters. Simple decoding is a natural step of exploration for a very young child who has basic letter-sound knowledge. In Souns, sight reading is not the goal. Discovery is the goal! Three letter phonetic words made randomly available in the environment invite exploration. Prior to the discovery of words on each canvas page, children love to trace the letters with their little fingers. One day, when the child's ear recognizes what his mouth is saying, he will exclaim a word which he has to this point enjoyed as a simple list of sounds. Each page is canvas, water resistant, and sized for such exploration. The line placed on the left suggests the left hand margin, discretely reinforcing left to right orientation.

The simplicity of this material is quite appealing to the emergent reader. Our experience confirms children who have the Souns reading pages available to them will voluntarily return to read them throughout their early decoding years. Click any box below.