Children get a better start in reading if they are taught phon- ics.
Until the 1930's and 1940's, most American children learned to read by the phonics method, which stresses the relationships between spoken sounds and printed letters. Children learned the letters of the alphabet and the sounds those letters represent. Recent research indicates that, on the average, children who are taught phonics get off to a better start in learning to read than children who are not taught phonics. Identifying words quickly and accurately is one of the corner- stones of skilled reading. Phonics improves the ability of children both to identify words and to sound out new ones.