“Science of reading” is a name people use for teaching reading the way research describes: hearing the sounds in words, explicit and systematic phonics, blending and decoding, and reading connected text. This page lists each practice Zupzi Read follows, what the app does, and the public source behind it, when there is one. Zupzi Read makes no promise of results.
Each practice, in the app, with the source
| Practice | In Zupzi Read | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| Hear the sounds in spoken words (phonemic awareness) | Sound Steps (Level 0), and the Warm up of every lesson: hear sounds and pick the word they make. | National Reading Panel, “Teaching Children to Read”, findings page (NICHD; consulted September 2026): teaching phonemic awareness “significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to PA”. |
| Phonics taught explicitly, in a planned sequence | The scope and sequence: each sound-spelling introduced in one lesson, in a fixed order, and words only when all their sounds are taught. | National Reading Panel, “Teaching Children to Read”, findings page (NICHD; consulted September 2026): a systematic program sets out a sequence of phonics elements; systematic phonics was “significantly more effective than instruction that teaches little or no phonics”. |
| Start blending with sounds you can stretch | a, m and s open Level 1; two-sound and three-sound words follow; the slider says each sound as a finger passes. | How to Use Systematic Phonics Instruction in Your Classroom (National Center on Improving Literacy, 2023; consulted September 2026): continuous sounds “are easier to hold and blend together” when children first learn to blend. |
| Link sounds to letters, decode, and build words | Hear it, find it; tracing letters; Blend; Word chain; Listen and build with letter tiles; later, prefixes and suffixes. | Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse practice guide (IES, July 2016; revised December 2019): recommendation 2: develop awareness of the sounds in speech and how they link to letters; recommendation 3: teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words. |
| Read connected text every day | Lessons that have a book end with it (Story time); every book page is checked against the sounds taught so far. | Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse practice guide (IES, July 2016; revised December 2019): recommendation 4: “Ensure that each student reads connected text every day”. The National Reading Panel also describes practice in decodable text. |
| Heart words for frequent irregular words | The Heart word step: decode the regular letters, learn only the tricky part by heart, with a heart above it. | Linda Farrell, Michael Hunter and Tina Osenga, “A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words” (Reading Rockets; consulted September 2026): students identify the letters spelled as expected and learn the others “by heart”. |
| Move on by the answers, and review | A lesson moves on when its new sound is mostly right (60%), or after 3 sessions; a sound counts as mastered after four right answers in the last five, without help, and comes back after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days. | This one is Zupzi Read's own rule; we don't cite a study for it. |
What this page does not say
Zupzi Read is a phonics path, one part of learning to read. The National Reading Panel also describes fluency, vocabulary and comprehension as parts of reading instruction, and reading together with your child matters too. Zupzi Read has not been studied in research, and it makes no promise about when a child will read.
Questions
What is the science of reading, in simple terms?
A name for teaching reading the way research describes it: children learn to hear the sounds in words, learn which letters spell them in a planned order, blend them into words and practice reading text made of what they have learned.
Is Zupzi Read based on research?
Its lessons follow the practices listed on this page. Six of the seven have a public source; the seventh, moving on by the answers, is the app's own rule. The app itself has not been studied in research, and it makes no promise of results.
Does Zupzi Read use heart words or sight words?
Heart words: frequent words where your child decodes the regular letters and learns only the tricky part by heart.
More about Zupzi Read
- Scope and sequence
- How a lesson works
- Decodable books
- An app that listens
- With a grown-up
- Wi-Fi, ads and purchases
- The method, with sources
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