Creating Evidence-Based Reading Material for Families with Dr. Caitlin Khoury

Dr. Erin Bailey speaks with licensed pediatric psychologist Dr. Caitlin Khoury about her role in developing Lovevery's Reading Skillset. Dr. Khoury shares her journey from graduate school research and reading clinics to clinical practice assessing children for learning disabilities, and how those experiences shaped her approach to creating evidence-based reading materials for families. The conversation explores the core components of the Reading Skillset—including phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and oral language development—and how play makes learning to read joyful and engaging. Dr. Khoury offers practical guidance on using alphabet books intentionally, maximizing wordless picture books for storytelling, practicing shared reading with turn-taking, and selecting decodable books that match a child's developing skills. She also discusses signs that children are ready to transition to chapter books and how series can build reading stamina and lifelong love of reading.

About Dr. Caitlin Khoury:
Dr. Caitlin Khoury, PhD, is a licensed pediatric psychologist and product strategist at Lovevery. She specializes in integrating behavioral health care with children’s academic learning needs, with particular expertise in early literacy development. Her research and dissertation focused on the relationship between early literacy skills and self-regulation in young children. Dr. Khoury previously worked at the National Institute for Direct Instruction and has extensive experience partnering with families to identify targeted learning supports through comprehensive evaluations. She also supported the development of Lovevery’s Reading Skill Set, translating literacy science and child development research into practical, parent-friendly tools that support early reading success.

Lovevery Reading Skill Set: The Reading Skill Set | Reading Programs for Kids | Lovevery

What is Reading Inspires by Reading Is Fundamental?

Reading Inspires is Reading Is Fundamental’s new podcast celebrating the power of books and the joy of reading. Each episode invites educators, librarians, families, authors, illustrators, and all who champion children’s literacy to explore one big question: What does reading inspire for you? Through engaging conversations and storytelling, Reading Inspires bridges the gap between research and real-world practice—showing what literacy looks and feels like in classrooms, libraries, and homes. Grounded in evidence yet open-ended in approach, this is a space for curiosity and connection. Whether you’re an educator seeking fresh ideas, a parent hoping to spark a love of reading, or simply a lifelong bookworm, you’ll find inspiration, practical insights, and stories that remind us all why reading matters—and how it changes lives.

Erin Bailey: Welcome to Reading Inspires by Reading is Fundamental.

I'm your host, Dr. Erin Bailey.

This podcast celebrates the power of books and the joy of reading.

In each episode, we talk with educators, librarians, families, authors, and literacy champions to explore one big question.

What does reading inspire for you?

Through stories, research, and real world experiences from classrooms, libraries, and homes, we explore what literacy looks like and why it matters.

Whether you're nurturing young readers, shaping learning spaces, or simply love a good book, we're glad you're here.

Let's get inspired.

Today I'm speaking with licensed pediatric psychologist, Dr.

Kaitlyn Corey, who played a key role in the development of Love Ever's reading skillset.

So if you know me maybe for example, if you've been a grad student of mine, you know that I can be a little bit nitpicky about reading resources, especially phonics resources and educational toys.

And I'm often complaining about what's available on the market.

So when I first got my hands on Love EV's reading skillset, they sent it to me and I was actually moving at the time.

So I had tons of boxes.

And when it arrived I was like, great, another box.

But as I dug into it and went through the materials, I was just blown away by how high quality they were, how thoughtful and the intention that went behind them.

And so it was an exceptional experience for me.

I continued all weekend long to share with my husband.

Like, these are so great.

I wish I had these when I was a teacher at now I can use them as a mom, but.

I just love them, so I was so excited when I got the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Caitlin Corey, and welcome Caitlin.

Glad you're here.

Caitlin Khoury: Thank you so much.

I'm excited to be here and get to talk to you again.

Erin Bailey: So, Dr. Corey, can you start by sharing a little bit about your journey from your early years of training to licensure in pediatric
psychology and then, excuse me, and then becoming one of the creators of Love EV's reading skillset and what it inspired you to focus on literacy.

Caitlin Khoury: Sure.

Absolutely.

So for me, this really starts in graduate school.

I was in a program to become a child psychologist, so spending a lot of time in both research and clinical activities.

Time I was fortunate to be surrounded by many inspiring individuals who were really making a difference in that reading landscape at that time.

So my advisor was one of the authors of a widely used reading assessment.

I worked for the National Institute for Direct Instruction and so was surrounded by different reading curriculum and spelling and math in all different subject areas.

And so, and also surrounded by these individuals who are dedicated to supporting the implementation of if.

Of reading intervention in schools.

And then I was also working in a reading clinic, so it's my part of my graduate, like teaching fellowship.

But in this program we trained undergraduate students to deliver reading intervention to struggling readers in the local schools.

And so all these activities I really remember it just being so.

Remarkable to see the growth that students made when there is this high quality reading intervention.

And then you have an assessment that helps you really tailor the instruction to their specific needs.

So that was in, in graduate school.

Then after graduate school I worked in clinic and hospital settings and so I was doing at that time doing a lot less of that reading research.

But I was caring for patients and caring for patients meant caring for the whole child, which really includes academics and aligning to the school environment and helping support them in that school environment.

So many of the children I worked with are really.

Struggling in school and I found on myself then frequently assessing for specific learning disabilities, particularly in reading, that's sort of the area that many parents were really focused on.

So these dyslexia evaluations became really a meaningful part of my work.

And then working with the schools became a meaningful part of my work to help support the children I was working with.

So even though I might have been seeing a patient who is.

Adjusting to a new diagnosis of Crohn's, for example, or a patient with functional abdominal pain, they're missing so much school and if they were in the earlier grades, their reading was really impacted.

So then fast forward to joining Love Every a little over four years ago.

I started here and the company was being to think about other ways to support families once children.

We're getting to school age or just before school age because the play kits that love ever is offering kids.

Were starting to age out of these, and so how else can we support children and their families?

So when we're figuring these things out or answering these questions we're always talking to families about their needs.

And reading quickly emerged as a major area of interest for parents and an area that they wanted support.

So families were, they were really hungry for guidance.

And a lot of families know, like, with love every tools, then this guidance that they're getting, it's really grounded in the science.

And so they're coming to love every, for that, for reading.

But so much what was available didn't really feel approachable to caregivers.

It sort of felt intimidating or it's just more this is for a teacher to implement rather than a parent.

So.

This opportunity really felt like the perfect role for me to work on a team to help develop this reading program and then draw on those previous experiences.

And so that's really where Love EV's reading skillset started.

So I think I was inspired early on by the people I was surrounded by in graduate school and the work they were doing.

But then inspired to sort of keep coming back to reading because of the kids because there's just something so special when you see the look on a child's face when
they've read their first few words in a story, or they're just beaming because they're so proud of themselves and how far they've come or how hard they worked.

And I think with reading it stands out because it's hard, it's challenging.

So you really see that with kids.

And then with the.

My experience as a child psychologist, I've just seen the other side where children or families are seeking out evaluations and sort of feeling defeated by the whole process.

And that hit to their self-esteem is already there when reading is difficult.

And you can really see it in them.

So I'm inspired by those little, like joyful, even if they're as brief as they are, joyful reading moments when a child is just like beaming with pride after they've read their first story.

Erin Bailey: Yeah, that, I mean, your journey is so fascinating and I love the way you.

You took your educational experiences of working in the reading clinic in graduate school and then brought that into a hospital setting, but also took care in listening to families and what they needed.

And I think.

That speaks to what I know about love Every as a brand too.

I appreciate the way their guides are or your guides are written.

Be, you know, even starting with simple phrases like, Hey, you, and then turn the page.

It feels like you're having a conversation with a friend almost more than some clinician or some expert telling you what you need to do.

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah, there was a, I mean, really the reading skillset, we had two people in mind and it's the child to make sure they have the strong support in reading, but then it's making sure it all feels approachable to the caregivers too.

So that language was important.

Erin Bailey: And part of that is, is play.

So the reading skillset is designed to help children learn through play.

Can you describe the core components of the set and how they build foundational reading skills, like phonological awareness and word recognition.

And then what role does playfulness serve throughout this process?

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah, so the, it's a great question.

The reading skillset is rooted in the science of reading.

So we've pulled from that vast collection of research from a range of different.

Fields and have also really grounded in, or the program has really grounded in a theoretical model called the simple view of reading, which really has two components.

So there's decoding or that ability to connect sounds and letters and words, and then there's language comprehension or the ability to derive meaning.

And these two components together allow for reading comprehension or simply making meaning out of the text.

So love every reading skillset starts with this foundation of phonological awareness, like you mentioned.

And that helps, children isolate sounds at the word syllable, rhyme level.

So just they're playing with syllables, they're playing with rhymes and eventually leading to individual sounds.

And we know not every child needs deep instruction in all those areas, but since we don't know the specific reading skills of the children.

That are using the products.

We wanted to be sure that all children felt supported from the start, because some really will need a lot of repetition to build phonological awareness skills.

So then from there we spend time building understanding of the alphabetic principle.

So helping children just connect sounds to letters.

And then we know that oral language is absolutely critical for reading development.

And on the surface, like when we first thought about this and making the reading skillset, that can feel harder to address in like a physical
product, but we really sort of, we decided to lean into what the research tells us about storytelling and then rich language experiences there.

And.

So during this process, we reached out to and consulted with a professor and researcher who has made this her primary area of study.

So we learned so much from her in this process in developing specific storytelling products that with the goal of focusing on oral language.

And so at its core for the reading skillset, we took really the science of how children learn to read and intersected it with what love every does best, which is supporting and motivating children through play.

So playfulness, to answer your question, is a huge part of the reading skillset.

We know that when children feel successful, they're motivated to keep going.

And when learning can feel like play when it's joyful or it's confidence building, they don't want to stop.

They wanna keep going.

And all of this allows for the repetition that's really needed in reading and reading practice.

So we, when we're working on anything, even outside of the reading skillset, we test every product over and over again just to make sure we get it right.

But beyond making sure it works for the skill that we're trying to teach, we're also looking at how engaged they are, or do they even wanna come back to it?

They wanna return and play it again, or read it again.

And if it's just the skill that's met, like we see it's teaching the skill, but the playfulness and engagement isn't there, then it's not ready yet.

And so we go back and try and figure out how can we make this more engaging or joyful or playful for a child.

So yes, the playfulness is a huge part in the program.

Erin Bailey: I'd love to sh show one so we can talk through it.

So when you talk about you.

Are tested.

As I mentioned, the box came to my house.

This one right here this is a syllable game I'm holding.

I'm holding up the game track and there's these little wooden dogs.

And what you do is you draw a card.

This one says cow on it, and you would move your piece.

Cow has one syllable, so you would move your piece forward one place.

My daughter, when we got the box, played this game over and over again.

She just.

Loved it.

The engagement was there.

And what's interesting is now she's not, she's five she's fully confident in syllables.

It's not a skill that she needs to work on, but she still enjoys playing the game.

And what she can do now is play with her younger brother or try, he's two and a half and he might not be at the syllable level yet, but these cards themselves, they have real.

Photographs on them.

They're great for just his vocabulary development to look at the picture and say car.

And then my daughter can support him in moving his piece forward and counting out the syllables with him.

So I mean, user tested on my own.

Children just love 'em.

They're fabulous.

Caitlin Khoury: I love that story.

Thank you

Erin Bailey: So.

I wanna talk about my absolute favorite topic, which is alphabet books.

So this has been an interesting journey for me.

I, as I mentioned, can be a little bit of a stickler around things.

I've never found an alphabet.

On the market that represents the sounds that I think they should and do it well.

It's become a joke of mine, actually, and I have a colleague who will play alphabet in the wild with me, and it's basically where we can find the worst alphabets out there that have, you know.

O is represented by orange or trying to think of another terrible example, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

I'm sure I'll come up with more later.

And if you're listening to this and you found a truly horrific alphabet, please send it to me.

I would love to, to see what you've come up with.

But, so this has been a big passion of mine.

Alphabet books.

Introduced children to alphabet knowledge, early letter sound associations, which is what I was describing with the O for Orange and develop their readiness for phonics.

Can you describe your approach to alphabet books when you were de helping develop this skillset?

Caitlin Khoury: Yes.

Yep.

It's such a great question because like you said, the alphabet books, they're everywhere.

I mean, I feel like my kids alone, you know, we had several of them.

I feel like they were a frequently gifted item, but none of them had sort of that perfect range of letter sound examples in the book.

And.

And how we use them.

If we wanna use them as a tool, then it really matters in supporting reading development.

So if any of these books, I mean they probably, a lot of 'em start the same quickly.

Kids quickly learn that A is for Apple, B is for ball, and maybe they can recite the book from memory 'cause they've read it so many times.

But if we wanna be really intentional about 'em.

Then we can go a step further and use alphabet books as a tool for building true alphabet knowledge and early letter sound connections.

So I. The first thing is that in those books, the focus is often it's the letter name.

At least it feels like it is because the letter sound.

Like you said the letter sound correspondence isn't always there.

But if you wanna use this as a tool in supporting reading development, then parents can shift this focus from the letter name to the letter sound.

And instead of just saying, this is the letter B, you might add.

B says B like and ball.

And over time we want children to associate this visual symbol with the sound it represents.

And that's really what sets the stage for phonics instruction.

So for example, in the Love every Reading skillset we incorporate an outfit book.

And in order to make it feel more natural for parents to focus on the letter sound or even just to remember what the letter.

Sound what, what sound a letter makes because for many parents, they learned to read a long time ago and they're no longer thinking about individual letter sounds in a word.

They're just thinking about, they know how to read that word.

So we fill that page sort of in an ipy like setting with illustrations that start with that letter sound.

So they're hearing that sound over and over again.

And.

We also focused on, this goes back to that letter sound correspondence, so.

In this, the, it's called ABCs with Mr. Z, the love every reading skillset alphabet book.

There it is.

And so on the X page, for example, X makes the sounds and there are no words that start with that sound, and so you won't find any.

Illustrations on that page with anything that starts with the letter X. You'll see everything with the ending sound like Fox or Sax or T-Rex I think is on there.

So it's just something, you know, important to, for parents to focus on.

And then another way, if parents wanna be more intentional about using alphabet books with any book that, or any alphabet book that they have at home is just.

You can slow down that reading experience.

So rather than racing through the whole alphabet book, maybe spend time on just view of the letters at once and then start to point out those letters in different contexts, like on signs or in their names, or in other kids' names.

In other books, the goal is really helping children notice letters in the world around them and then begin connecting them to the sounds that they hear in spoken language.

It's, it's also, it could be helpful to play with the sounds beyond the example in the book.

So if the page says S is for sun, you might ask, well, what else starts with S?

And this can build that phonemic awareness.

And so that ability to hear and isolate the sounds and words.

Which again is that critical sort of precursor to phonics.

And then during all this, it also helps to just keep it playful and pressure free.

We're not quizzing them at this point, we're just exploring.

And alphabet books are great, any of 'em for sparking curiosity, but letters.

But it's really, it's those conversations that you can have outside of the book or while reading the book that really build some of that readiness for reading.

And if you are going back to that example of the letter X, for example, if your alphabet book has a Dialo phone on the X page, that's okay.

Just add in another word that uses an example with the Sound X makes that X sounds.

So it'll be at the ending zone on the word.

But when parents use alphabet books in this way, so they're intentionally connecting letters to sounds or encouraging this extra sound
play beyond, you know, reading in the book, outside driving in the car, and then they're revisiting letters in this meaningful way.

They're sort of moving beyond just memorization and they're starting to build that foundation.

Kids really need to be confident readers.

Erin Bailey: You took my other example of the X for xylophone.

That is, that's the other one.

I mean that you see that all the time because we think that for an alphabet book to, it has to.

Start with that letter, but if we're really making it to support phonological awareness and phonics, we want it to be the sound, not necessarily everything, beginning with the letter.

So having an X at the end to make the sound, that's a perfect example.

The other one, and I can show you the page in the book is for letter.

Vowels are very tough in alphabet books because they make a lot of different sounds, notably a short sound and a long sound.

And this page of the book has an astronaut, an alligator, and an ant on it.

And truthfully, when children are learning the sound of a in school, they typically learn the short a, ah, sound first.

So why not set them up for success from the beginning with making that connection for them between the letter A and the short?

A sound, you know, from the beginning.

Okay.

So I wanna talk about another book that is in the skillset, and this is Wordless Picture books.

They're very important.

You've talked about oral language and storytelling.

How can parents use wordless picture books?

Some parents might not know where to start with a wordless picture book, so how can they use wordless picture books to strengthen those oral language skills, storytelling skills, and vocabulary.

Caitlin Khoury: Yes.

Great question.

I, and I sort of love wordless picture books for this exact reason, because they give.

That storytelling power to the child.

So there's, you know, when there's no text on a page, children aren't focused when they're early readers, they're just beginning, they're not focused on decoding or getting the words right.

Instead, they're learning to sequence an event or a build a narrative.

And so.

One simple way parents can use wordless books intentionally is just by starting with open-ended prompts.

So they might say like, well, what's happening here on this page?

Or, how do you think she's feeling?

Or as they're moving to the next page, what do you think will happen next in the story?

So those kinds of questions encourage kids to use.

They use more descriptive language, they make predictions.

They might, you know, they're connecting ideas and all of these strength in oral language and comprehension skills.

So like the wordless book that you mentioned in the reading skillset, you know, we wanted to build these exact skills, but this is another example of our, in our testing process.

So, storytelling doesn't always feel natural to every caregiver or child.

And I remember when we were testing our book, you can see where some parents are sort of becoming visibly uncomfortable.

As soon as they see that the storytelling is all up to them they're feeling pressure, they're feeling like they're on the spot.

And then you might have a, you know, another parent that comes in and they're telling these elaborate stories, rich with vocabulary.

And you see the, sort of the same thing with kids too, some kids that it feels really natural and other kids where this feels like a lot of pressure to do this.

So just giving them a starting point in the form of those prompts is really helpful.

So some of those, you know, that I listed earlier, like, how do you think they're feeling?

What do you think will happen next?

What do you notice on this page?

To help sort of just sequence some of the events that are happening or predict something.

The nice thing about wordless books too is that parents can also like.

Sort of gently model some complex language.

So if a child says the dog is running as they're telling the story, then maybe a parent expands it slightly and says, yes, the dog is.

Sprinting really fast because he looks excited.

So that subtle expansion introduces some new vocabulary and a little bit more sophisticated sentence structure without really interrupting the child's ownership of the story too much.

So it's still their story to tell, but they can, you know, add in a little bit extra each time.

And then another.

Powerful strategy is just revisiting the same book multiple times.

So the first read might be simple and concrete as your child's reading it, and they're just sort of flipping each page and saying exactly what they see there.

But then maybe on later readings, you know, you can encourage some more detailed storytelling with richer vocabulary.

So each retelling can build a narrative structure where they're understanding that there's a beginning, there might be a problem, and then a resolution.

And all that sort of directly supports reading comprehension.

I found that even with myself when my kids were younger.

Or even now, but that for a while they went through a period where they, we had this wordless book at home that they loved.

They loved for me to read, but to keep it interesting.

I feel like, because we read it one night and then the next night and then the next night, but it just adding in a little bit more.

I kept looking for new details to add in.

So maybe looking at the expressions on someone's face this time to add in something else or noticing something else in the back.

To add in some more details.

But reading comprehension really depends on vocabulary and background knowledge and that ability to make meaning from a story.

And all of those are things that a wordless book can support.

So even though.

There aren't words on a page.

There's actually a tremendous amount of literacy development happening with wordless books.

But it's true when, I mean, when we first, when we were testing our wordless book, you know, many some families had them and were using 'em, but a lot, it was really hard to see, well, what's the connection to reading that we're doing here?

Erin Bailey: Yeah.

I really appreciate the way that you broke that down because I do think, you know, for many parents and even children if they're at the stage
where they notice there's no print on the page, I. Know, my daughter will say that sometimes, like, hey, there are no words on this page.

You know, how does this support reading?

But that idea of oral language development, building vocabulary, and then like the story arc, like you were describing that stories have.

A beginning, middle, and end.

They have characters, they have a setting a problem and a solution.

These are all supportive of developing comprehension in older reading readers.

So as I mentioned, there's no, the focus is not on print in these books, but there.

Is print in the other books that you have that are focused on turn taking and what we call shared reading.

So alternating reading roles between a parent and a child or a family member and a child.

How does this practice help with what we call print awareness as well as comprehension and confidence?

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah.

So, turn, taking during reading can feel, it can feel like a really simple practice, but it can be so helpful.

So, I mean, in one.

When children and adults are sharing that reading role, whether that's just alternating pages or alternating sentences, it helps children see something or reading as something that is active and participatory.

They're not just listening.

They're involved in that reading experience.

Then when it's done early.

In the that learn to Read process turn taking, it helps children understand how books work.

So that print awareness that you mentioned, they can see that, you know, print moves from left to right and that each spoken word connects to written text.

And and then another huge benefit is caregivers are.

Modelings fluent reading just before the child takes their turns so they can show, you know, more prosody and expression when they read.

And just as importantly, turn taking it can build confidence and provide this sort of richer story, but with less words that the child is responsible for reading.

Because sometimes early readers can feel like a lot of pressure when reading to get it right.

But when that reading is shared with a caregiver or another person that responsibility is shared too.

So a child might read a repeated line or even just a few words in that story, but then they experienced the success of reading this, you know, larger story with someone else.

And that feeling of that like I can do this is incredibly motivating for a child.

And then over time, you know, those small sort of supported moments add up and children begin to see themselves as more capable readers.

Because, you know, they might be with this shared experience, they're reading a book from start to finish.

And they're not just learners who are always practicing and that confidence is sort of paired with success is what keeps them wanting to come back to the books again and again because they're, you know, they're feeling successful.

Erin Bailey: And I love the way the parent breeding line is longer too, so it keeps the story interesting.

You know, the child might only be reading one word or a couple of words, and then the images also keep the story alive.

So it's overall a good experience.

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah.

Yeah.

With our, we've sort of had this dilemma with our.

Very first book series, which is that turn taking series, and we were trying to introduce just a small set of letter sounds at once.

And so it's a set of six sounds and we only wanted to include words that had those six sounds, but then early on and then it would build on and you know, the next.

Six to be introduced, and so now you have 12 sounds to work with in the next book.

But it's hard to come up with a good story that only has, you know, six or 12 sounds in it.

And so having you know, we want kids to see that books are fun and they're enjoyable.

And so the turn taking, you know, gave them this sort of interesting, a little more interesting story to read, but working with a small amount of sounds that they know.

Erin Bailey: Yes, that is, I mean, you perfectly described the dilemma and my other thing that I, you know, am very critical of, which is.

Decodable books, they're very prevalent right now.

I'm gonna hold up my favorite one.

It's dog.

And so if you're listening and you don't know what a decodable book is it's kind of what it sounds, it's books that are written in a way for children who are developing,
like, like Caitlin just described, if they only know three, six letter sounds, how can we make words with those combinations of six sounds so that children can.

Blend.

And what happens is oftentimes, and we think of like C, b, C words, consonant, v consonant, so you can think of matte cat rat.

Those are, that's typically the first word set.

What happens a lot of times that I've seen in decodable books is the story is not very interesting for children because they're so limited in the words that can be in the story, and then in some ways that can really turn children.

Away from reading.

So I'd love for you to talk through your approach again.

I'll hold this up.

So this one's dog.

I love this book.

I love the real photographs, but you can see there's only two words on this page, dog and kids.

So how are you able to bring a story to life in these decodable texts and how can the parents use these books to support their child's reading?

Caitlin Khoury: Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So each with our skillset as the books move on, the or advance in series, each series adds a little bit more focuses on that whatever new letter sound combination is introduced.

And this is a, I mean, it's a really good question 'cause there are.

So many decodable books available now.

I feel like I, I keep seeing more and more, which is great because that's, you know, it's more opportunity to practice for new readers.

But I know sometimes with, you know, an increase in materials, then it's hard for caregivers to choose, like, what book do I pick for my child?

So for us, like in our approach and what I would, you know, recommend with parents too, is just that.

When choosing a decodable books or the approach that we took, it's like is the most important thing, is really the alignment with their skills.

You're meeting 'em where they're at with what they've learned.

So looking for books that match that specific letter sound pattern your child's already learned.

Just like you said, you know, if they're just getting comfortable with short bowels and those simple CB, C words like cat bed.

Sit, start there.

And if you've introduced a blend likes then it makes sense to include books that practice those patterns.

So the goal is to give children texts that they can actually decode using the skills they have, not guess from pictures or memorize.

In some of those, like the book you showed dog, you know, they're.

It's very few we words in that book.

It's one of the earliest books that they're, that they have.

But they're using the photos to make sense of the story, but they're not using the photo to be able to read the words or trying not to repeat the exact same pattern on each page as part of our approach.

And so.

Yeah, so it's with decodable books too with the approach and how I'd recommend it for parents too is that when parents are first starting
with kids, just take your time, slow it down at first, encourage your child to look at each letter and blend those sounds together like.

At Cat and then blending fails, tricky.

You can model it and then have, and have them try.

It can be helpful to model more like the continuous blending, so where you can really stretch out the sounds that are continuous, like.

Sat sat to help them hear that word really come together smoothly.

So there's a lot of opportunity with those few words in the book.

Then to just help them practice those blending skills with those with minimal words.

It can also be helpful too with some decodable books to preview new skills before they're reading.

So if there's a word that includes a new blend that they've been working on, you might.

Practice it in isolation first.

So we, like, you pull it out of the text that can just build that confidence before they encounter it within a sentence or around other words.

And you can even, you know, pull out some of the words from the text.

Put them on a piece of paper and review them before reading the story if you wanted.

And then as your child becomes more accurate, you can sort of ship this focus to fluency.

So rereading the same decodable book a few times is actually a really great thing.

It helps build automaticity.

The first read might be slow and effortful, but by the third or fourth you'll often hear, you know, smoother phrasing and more expression.

And so that's really the fluency developing.

So repeated reading is great.

And then throughout the process, you can always keep comprehension in the mix.

I know like with decodable texts, they're really, you know, skill focused on those letter sound combinations that they've learned.

But they still tell a story and we still want kids to find, see, like the joy and interest in stories.

And so even though comprehension, you know, it'll be emphasized even more as children get older, it still, you know, is a critical part of reading.

So.

You can add in pausing occasionally to essay like, what just happened or why did he do that?

So yeah.

In summary, I think when decodable books are carefully matched to a child's skill, they're used for supported blending practice and they're reread over and over again to build fluency.

They show children that they can read books on their own and that they have that sort of sense of capability that's so important.

Erin Bailey: I appreciate a couple of the tips that you gave.

One around taking the word out of the text and.

It first, you know, on a paper or a whiteboard.

Kind of build up the child's competence before they encounter the word in the text.

And then I really appreciate that you said rereading decodable books.

A lot of people, I think, believe that.

Once you read a decodable book you're done with it.

And maybe you went to school in the era when I did, and you had those, I think they were called consumable books where it was like, print, you print, you cut 'em, you staple 'em.

And once you read that book, then it's gone.

But there are actually in these books and de more and more decodable books, we've come a long way with decodable books in the literacy landscape.

You can use them in a lot of different ways.

You can practice fluency, as you mentioned.

I, my favorite thing I. I know I, my favorite book here is Dog, but the use of punctuation in it.

There's one page the girl's playing hide and seek with her dog, and it's, the only word on the page is dog, but a question mark.

But I can practice fluency with my daughter going dog, you know, and making it really fun.

Whereas maybe the first time I was really just focused on decoding that word dog, but now I'm mixing it up and going dog.

Changing my voice, talking about the photographs, and really bringing the story to life and then to your point, asking comprehension questions throughout and at the end to support those skills.

So I really appreciate the ways that decodable books have come so far since when, you know, when we were in school and even from a few years ago.

Honest, honestly.

So we talked about CD, C words.

The other kind of sequence is final E that makes a long vowel sound vowel teams what we call our controlled vowels.

I mentioned that earlier.

Earlier or is a vowel controlled ones and prefixes in suffixes.

What is your guidance for families about.

When to introduce these, because it seems pretty clear everyone, most people start with C, B, C words, but how can parents know when to start introducing these other skills?

Caitlin Khoury: Sure.

Yeah.

So in terms of timing, I would encourage parents to think about I mean readiness, not age or grade.

So.

Once a child is, you know, consistently and accurately reading those CB, C words with short vowels and they're comfortable blending sounds together with more ease that's usually a good sign that they're ready to add in some more complex patterns.

So.

For example, after short valves or solid introducing something like, finally, like you mentioned like moving from the word cap, A, C, B, C word to cape could make sense because it's sort of building directly on what they already know.

Well, showing them how adding this one letter, you know, it changes the word sound and meaning.

And so the same is true for val teams, like.

Ai EE oa R control vowels, like you said, ar ERIR.

So each new pattern should really feel like it's an extension of something they've already learned.

So they've sort of, they're reading with that fluency and automaticity, and then you add in this new pattern for them to really practice.

And so the key is really to introduce, you know, one new concept at a time.

Give it plenty of practice and decodable texts.

And that text should be offering a lot of practice with that specific letter sound combination that you're trying to introduce or that your child's working on.

So if your child's working on V teams and they're just learning EE and ea, find a decodable book that focuses on that letter sound combination.

So they're getting, they're seeing that come up over and over again in the text.

Each new pattern could feel, you know, sort of like adding another tool to their toolkit.

So I mean, my guidance for parents really is just move forward when accuracy and blending, feel solid, introduce patterns sort of systematically where you move from finally.

And then, you know, you keep advancing knit from there with valve teams and our controlled valves.

And then give children lots of supported opportunities to apply what they've learned.

The sort of a model that we've done within the reading skillset or what we followed at Love Every and then Encourage parents to do, is that we'll teach the sound pattern and an activity or a game.

We review that sound pattern and.

In like an isolated way before reading the book.

So at the beginning of all our books, there's a skill page and you can practice some of those words that will show up in the book and then you're practicing that sound pattern within the text.

And so we just sort of follow that model all the way through the reading skillset.

Erin Bailey: The, this is a question that when I taught first grade, parents would ask me all the time, because if, you know, first grade, it's when a lot of children begin reading chapter books.

So parents would always ask me when are they gonna be reading chapter books?

When should they be reading chapter books?

So can you, elaborate on when, what signs should parents look for that their child is ready to transition from these more controlled phonics books, to chapter books that really they have to apply all of the phonics skills to.

And then how can parents use those chapter books to build reading, stamina, and a love of reading.

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah.

Yeah.

Great question.

So.

Just like you said, the key here is really that up until this point, the kids have been working with controlled texts, so it's texts that really focuses on those sound patterns.

Or maybe there's even, there's other supports in the text, like they call out at the beginning or underlying throughout the book, however, it's done some
irregular words so they know, you know, that you might treat these words differently, where you can sound out part of 'em, but you have to memorize part of 'em.

So.

To, as you're moving beyond controlled text, you want a child and into chapter books you want a child to have that accuracy and fluency, again with a controlled text.

So if your child can read decodable books smoothly with good expression and comprehension, so they're not just sounding out words accurately, but they're actually understanding what they're meaning.

What they're reading that's an important foundation.

So they've been able to take away some of that energy from like, just the decoding part and put it into like, do I understand what I'm reading now?

You might also notice new sort of reading behavior.

Like they may reread naturally when something doesn't make sense, like maybe they misread a word or.

Something about the comprehension doesn't make sense.

So kids will start to catch themselves as they're reading.

Or maybe they're just showing an interest in longer stories, like they're asking for more, wanting to know what happens next.

And when children move into early chapter books, that text becomes, it's less controlled, it's more varied.

Vocabulary expands.

These are all great things about moving to chapter books.

The sentence structure is more complex.

Stories stretch across multiple chapters and all of that supports comprehension growth in meaningful ways.

So they can, chapter books can build stamina because children have to hold that story in their mind across.

Days or reading sessions.

And they're tracking characters, like maybe it's a series of chapter books.

And so the same character is present throughout.

So they're really tracking these characters.

They're remembering plot details from one book to a next and making connections over time.

And all of that really strengthens comprehension skills.

My daughter, when she started reading chapter books, we always had the, like if we go to the library to check out a series, she always, and she wanted to try a new series.

We'd have to, there would always have to be the book one available.

'cause she wouldn't start a series if only like book four was there.

So we'd, you know, keep going back until we could find that first book.

But yeah, chapter books are great for also introducing richer language so kids are encountering new vocabulary and context.

And that supports both reading development and just overall language growth.

And because chapter books often dive deeper into like character, emotions or motivation.

Then you're seeing more inference.

And so that, I mean, like, you know, reading between the lines and that's powerful for readers and expanding comprehension skills.

And.

The other exciting thing about chapter books is that, and this might be like you were saying in the beginning, right?

When parents are like, well, when can I move to them?

Is that kids start to see themselves at this point in potentially a different way that they're real readers now.

Like they're.

Looking at these much longer books, they can feel like a milestone.

And so as parents support this transition, it's just helpful to keep this experience joyful, continue, and you can continue reading aloud alongside that independent reading that your child's doing.

So continued, you know, reading to your child too but choosing books that match your child's.

Decoding skills, but also truly interest them.

That's what will keep that, you know, lifelong reading, joy of reading.

So they're excited to see that book.

They're, and, you know, parents can celebrate progress, allow rereading a favorite books.

Yeah, so all those things, I mean, chapter books bring up sort of this whole new world of reading, which is, it really is that exciting milestone.

Erin Bailey: They really do.

And I think as you mentioned, that's why parents are so eager to get started with chapter books and you gave a great example, which was a tip that I would often give to families when I taught first grade is if you want to get your child hooked.

On reading to build their stamina and their reading Joy.

Find a great series that they love because then you know that the next one is there and your child gets to know the character and their adventure, and it's a great way to build an appetite for lifelong reading.

Caitlin Khoury: Yeah.

Yeah.

Great point.

Erin Bailey: So this has been fantastic, Caitlin.

Thank you so much.

I always end by asking my guests, what does reading inspire for you?

Caitlin Khoury: Yes.

This is a fun question and a hard one.

But I think for me.

It's sort of how reading always inspires this desire to learn more.

So it inspires, you know, curiosity.

It just always reminds me that, you know, we're constantly learning.

We never really master something 'cause there's always more to learn.

And that, that idea of being a lifelong learner, so this could apply to reading in a. Topic area that you're trying to learn more about.

Or just reading for fun, like when you read a book or an article and it might bring something up that you hadn't thought of, a new perspective, a new idea.

So then you have to go find more to read about that new topic or new idea.

And then the same thing with reading for fun.

I mean, you always see people, it's hard to put down a good book.

Like I've mentioned before, my, my daughter's in first grade and she loves to read.

So now I've learned that.

You know, when she's reading in the car on the way to school, I have to tell her well before we get to school that we're almost there.

Otherwise it's one more chapter, one more page.

One more.

Let me finish these sentences.

'Cause it's hard to set it down.

So yeah, it's just this idea of that we're lifelong learners, there's always more to learn and reading sort of keeps that going.

Erin Bailey: What I used to say to my first graders is find a good stopping point.

That way I wouldn't

get the find a good stopping point that way.

It wasn't the page, the chapter, it was just a point that you could.

To stop that.

I love that reading.

So reading inspires lifelong learning.

I couldn't agree more.

Thank you so much Dr. Corey and thank you all for listening to Reading Inspires by Reading is Fundamental.

I hope today's conversations sparked new ideas, meaningful connections, and a renewed love of reading.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, share it with a fellow literacy champion, and join us next time as we continue in exploring what reading inspires.