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|title=Dog on a Log Chapter Books: Step 1
What do you do when your child has dyslexia and you need books which will help them to achieve the wonder that is reading? You can risk buying early readers, but the sounds in the book might not be the ones you've been working on and encountering words which are just too challenging can have more of a negative effect on the young dyslexic than a child without that problem. You need to be able to buy books at a reasonable price which concentrate on what you've been working on, without anything else being thrown into the mix. You need a story which engages the young mind and you need stages which progress steadily through the learning process without there being any large jumps. Some online support and games wouldn't go amiss, either. Reading - and ''learning'' to read - should be a pleasure. It should be ''fun''.
This is where Dog on a Log books come into their own. They're ''decodable'' books, which means that once the child has learned the sight words (they're listed on the back of the book and they're the ones you don't even notice as you read) and the phonics for a particular book, they'll be able to read it. Simple, isn't it? For instance, this first book in the series introduces digraphs - 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'wh' and 'ck' sounds - so you'll meet words such as 'chin', 'ship', 'thumb', 'mother', 'whistle' and 'sock'. You won't meet words ending in 'ang', 'ing', 'ong', 'ung', 'ank', 'ink', 'onk' and 'unk'. They're a little way down the line in the step three book - and what fun you'll have when you get to those stories! This also illustrates how the books are systematic: you learn a rule and you practice it until you're comfortable with it, then you move up a step and add in two or three more rules and practice those until you're comfortable with them. Once again, simple, isn't it? I can imagine a lot of parents heaving a great sigh of relief, not least because you can take your own time over it.
Unusually for early readers there are not a lot of pictures and those that are there are not particularly detailed. Pamela Brookes argues that detailed pictures which give a hint about what's happening don't teach ''reading'', they teach ''guessing''. I've found them useful in early readers where more 'challenging' words are introduced, almost without warning, but there's simply no need for them in the Dog on a Log books where nothing is introduced without the learner being prepared for it.
