A child cannot focus on meaning and sounding out a word at the same time. Give children books with rhythm, rhyme and repetition. Read those books over and over again. Understand that emotion and cognition cannot be separated. The best environment is in the wild , a natural play environment that is relatively stress free.
Chronic stress destroys memory cells and shuts down the immune system.
Children need a non-threatening environment for learning. A child cannot understand anything unless it is linked to something they already know. The brain is not a rational brain - it is an emotional brain. If something doesn t speak to the child emotionally, the child s brain ignores it. The child must physically interact in order to understand something.