Navigating the world of reading instruction can feel overwhelming. How do you know what truly works for your child? Fortunately, a landmark report by the National Reading Panel (NRP) provides clear, evidence-based answers, particularly for phonics. The NRP's most significant finding? Systematic phonics instruction is markedly more effective than non-systematic phonics or approaches with little to no phonics in fostering reading development. This means programs following a planned, sequential introduction of letter-sound relationships, with explicit teaching and practice, lead to better decoding, word recognition, spelling, and even reading comprehension.