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The teaching of the skills of phonics has long been accepted as one of the most useful strategies in helping children learn to read. Although the educational pendulum swings from emphasis on phonics to teaching by whole word, sight words, or stories and other methods; phonics generally emerges as the method that gets the best results. Parents as well as educators give phonics high marks attributing early reading and the learning of good spelling skills to phonetic knowledge.

Not every child is ready to read at the same time. Although educators and parents may have a reading timeline in mind, some children struggle with skills introduced at home and school. The program Click N Read offers children the chance to practice the skills they need in a pleasant, non-competitive environment. Children learn at their own pace as they see and hear letters, words, and sentences on the computer and find them on the keyboard.

Click N Read was developed, according to Dr. J. Ron Nelson, Vice President of Curriculum and Instruction of Click N Kids, the parent company of Click N Read, "to deliver scientifically-based beginning reading instruction to children unrestricted by geography and time." The program features 100 sequenced lessons that target phonemic awareness (learning the sounds), alphabetic understanding (learning the letters), and automaticity skills (learning to translate letters and sounds to words). Because the lessons are available on the Internet, children can learn their phonics skills at home or at school. No setup or training are required to use the program.

The lessons include from 5-10 instructional activities such as identifying letters or sounds, finding them on the keyboard, listening for sounds, making sentences, spelling, reading sentences and short paragraphs, etc. Word families, word endings, word blending, silent letters, prefixes, suffixes and a number of other important reading skills are included. Because not all reading can be encoded through phonics, sight words and spelling for sight words are an integral part of Click N Read . Lessons take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.

The program's teacher, Click N Kid, is an appealing little dog dressed like a canine of the future. He helps children gently through the lessons. If they make a mistake, he is patient, giving them the time to digest their learning. In the early lessons of the program he takes children into the "Sound Chamber" for sound introductions and practice, to the keyboard for identification of letters in the sound, to the "Listening Cube" to identify first sounds in words, and to a session in reading words with the sound. In the later lessons in the series, Click N Kid adds additional segments to each lesson. For example, in Lesson 90 featuring the UR sound and OKE word ending, children experience the "Sound Chamber," the keyboard, the "Listening Cube," and word practice in addition to spelling sight words, learning a word family, tackling suffixes and their meanings, writing sentences from dictation, reading a story based upon sounds and sight words in previous learning, andgoing to the "Speed Chamber" for sound and word identification challenges.

Click N Read should work well with most of the reading series that children are using in school. Teachers and parents can use the lessons to supplement textbook material, to enrich studies for those who are ahead, or to provide remedial help for those who need it. Children can use the lessons on their own with little or no parent or teacher guidance. In the school version of the program, teachers can preview lessons, set up classes as they wish, and use the reporting system to keep track of each student's progress. The system allows children to work at their own level through the program.

Program Details & Other Information

Click N Kids
28030 Dorothy Drive, Suite 202
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
www.ClickNKid.com
1-877-CLICKABC (254-2522)

Click N Read
Home Use - $99.95 a year ($19.95 for each additional user)
School Fees — pricing varies according to the number of users. See site for information.

Previews of the lessons are available on the site.