For grown-ups
What DecodePals does
Every round is four small steps over one point in our open Sound Road reading sequence: Learn a sound or two, Blend a word left-to-right, Read a short sentence made only of sounds already taught, and then Teach a still-learning reading pup how one word works.
Why we end by TEACHING
Teaching is the strongest step. When a child explains a sound to someone else, they have to produce the map — they cannot just click through (this is the antidote to the “keep guessing until it’s right” habit some reading programs allow). The reading pup never hands over the answer: a wrong teach earns a gentle hint and another try. This is the protégé effect, and it is why the child ends the round remembering the sound better than when they started.
Only decodable text — never guessing from pictures
Every word your child reads here is checked against what the Sound Road has taught so far (a decodability gate), so a child only ever meets text they can actually decode — never a word full of untaught spellings they’d have to guess from a picture. That is the heart of structured-literacy reading.
The sounds and words your child reads
- Sounds i n m d Learn man · blend sit · read “the man did sit” · teach dad (the /d/ sound)
- Sounds g o c k Learn dog · blend cot · read “the dog can nap” · teach dog (the /o/ sound)
- Sounds e u r h Learn hen · blend rug · read “the hen ran up” · teach hen (the /h/ sound)
- Sounds b f l Learn bell · blend lip · read “a big red bus” · teach lab (the /l/ sound)
- Sounds j v w x y z qu Learn jam · blend van · read “the fox can run” · teach jam (the /j/ sound)
- Digraphs sh ch th wh Learn ship · blend chin · read “the fish did swim” · teach ship (the /sh/ sound)
- Welded endings ck ng nk Learn duck · blend king · read “the duck can sing” · teach duck (the /k/ sound)
- Vowel teams ai ay ee ea Learn rain · blend feet · read “the seal can play” · teach rain (the long /a/ sound)
Honest note: DecodePals is a calm, structured way to practise sounding out and reading — it is practice, not a promise of a reading level or a test score. There is no score, no streak, and nothing to buy. Everything runs on this device; there are no accounts, and nothing your child does leaves the device. Reading grows most when this kind of practice turns into lots of real books together.