For Struggling Readers & Dyslexia

Help Struggling Readers Finally Crack the Reading Code

Secret Stories® turns abstract phonics rules into brain-based, multisensory stories, using visuals, movement, sound, and emotion so patterns are stored across multiple learning pathways. It bridges the gap between how kids learn and how reading is traditionally taught.

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Why Story-Based Phonics Helps Struggling Readers

When abstract rules do not stick, stories often do. Secret Stories gives the brain more than one road to every sound.

Multisensory Anchors for Every Sound

Each phonics pattern is anchored to a story, a visual, a song, and a movement. Engaging multiple senses stores the skill in more than one place, so a student who struggles with one pathway can still reach the sound through another.

Sound-Symbol Connection Through Story

Instead of memorizing an abstract rule, students learn why letters do what they do through narrative and the brain's emotion pathways. Meaning and feeling make patterns easier to encode and easier to retrieve during real reading.

Works Alongside OG & Structured Literacy

Secret Stories is a supplement, not a replacement. It layers onto Orton-Gillingham based instruction, UFLI, and other structured literacy programs your school already uses, giving students an extra memory hook for the same skills.

Repeated Exposure All Day Long

The posters stay on the wall and get referenced every time students read and write words, not just during a phonics block. Struggling readers get the repetition they need without extra drills.

Evidence You Can Take to Your School

Effect size measures how much a program actually moves student outcomes. Researchers consider 0.25 strong. Secret Stories measures 1.62.

EFFECT SIZE → HIGHER IS BETTER
SOURCE: EVIDENCEFORESSA.ORG
Avg. of 100 most-researched programs
McGraw-Hill · Wilson · Scholastic · F&P…
.24
+ Explicit phonics added
Core curriculum with phonics layered in
.41
+ Secret Stories®
1.62 avg. effect size · 27 studies
1.62
★ 6x THE AVERAGE
ESSA Strong Tier 1 evidence rating
ESSA TIER 1
.24 ES · industry average
.41 ES · + explicit phonics
1.62 ES · + Secret Stories®

Secret Stories® is independently rated ESSA Tier 1 STRONG, the highest evidence standard, with a 1.62 average effect size across 27 studies. The studies measured general classroom reading outcomes, and that is the evidence your school team can review.

Download the Evidence Summary (PDF) →

Secret Stories is a phonics supplement, not a dyslexia treatment or intervention program. Always work with your school specialists.

“The last two years I have used the Secret Stories with my students in grades K-5 and they have absolutely loved them. They hang in my room and the students use them on a daily basis. It was a great support to the UFLI program.”

Lana Crawford, Special Education Teacher, 34 years

Questions Parents & Specialists Ask

Honest answers, so you can decide with your school team.

Will this work for my dyslexic child?
Every child is different, so no program can promise results, and we will not. What we can say: Secret Stories is a multisensory, story-based phonics supplement that many parents and special-education teachers use alongside their existing support, and its classroom research base is independently rated ESSA Tier 1 STRONG. Talk with your school specialists about how it could fit your child's plan.
Does it replace Orton-Gillingham or structured literacy?
No. Secret Stories layers on top of OG-based and structured literacy instruction rather than replacing it. Students keep their intervention program, and the Secrets add story-based memory hooks and all-day poster exposure for the same sound-symbol skills.
Where is the research?
Secret Stories has been independently reviewed at ESSA Tier 1 STRONG, the highest evidence standard, with a 1.62 average effect size across 27 studies of general classroom reading outcomes. We do not claim dyslexia-specific study results, and the full summary is free to download.
Download the Evidence Summary (PDF) →
How do I start at home?
The Parent & Homeschool Resource Bundle is the easiest starting point. It brings the same stories, songs, and visuals home, so you can review the Secrets together in a few relaxed minutes a day, alongside whatever support your child gets at school.
See the Parent & Homeschool Bundle →

Give Your Reader Another Way In

Classrooms start with a Class Kit. Families start with the Parent & Homeschool Bundle. Either way, the Secrets work alongside whatever support your reader already has.

Shop Phonics Class Kits Get the Parent Bundle

Want to try before you buy? Grab the free resources