Decodable or Levelled? The Difference That Matters
A decodable book is chosen by which sounds your child has actually been taught. A levelled reader is graded by how hard it is overall. That is the whole difference, and it changes what the ten minutes at home is for. With a decodable book your child can work every word out. With a levelled one they may hit a word nobody has given them the tools for, and the only way through is to guess. Both kinds of book have a place. They just do not do the same job.
Most of the confusion around this comes from a handful of things parents are told, or half told, and then left to sort out at the kitchen table. Here are the ones that cause the most trouble.
Myth: a book either is decodable or it is not
This is the big one, and unpicking it makes everything else easier. Decodable is not a property of a book in the way that hardback is. It describes the fit between one book and one particular child at one particular point in their teaching.
The same book can be decodable for the child sitting on your left and not for the child on your right, because the two have been taught different sounds. A book full of ai and ee words is decodable for a child who has met those spellings and a guessing exercise for one who has not. What decodable books actually are goes further into this.
Myth: levelled readers are the same thing under a different name
They are graded on a different axis. A levelling system asks how hard this book is: how long the sentences are, how much repetition there is, how much the pictures carry. A decodable progression asks a narrower question: does this book stay inside the sounds this child has been taught so far.
You can have a very short, very simple levelled book that is still not decodable, because one word in it uses a spelling the child has never seen. Short does not mean sound-matched.
This matters most in Reception and Year 1, when the gap between what has been taught and what English can throw at you is at its widest. By the time the whole code has been covered the two ideas converge, because almost any word is then workable. Early on they can point in opposite directions, and the book that looks gentler on the shelf is sometimes the one your child cannot actually get through.
Myth: the pictures help my child read the word
They help with the story. They do not help with the word, and when a child uses them to work out the word, the habit they are practising is guessing.
That habit is quietly expensive. It works well enough in Reception, where the pictures are generous and the words are predictable, and it stops working somewhere in Year 1 when the text gets denser. Guessing from pictures is exactly the habit decodable books exist to prevent.
A simple fix costs nothing: put your hand over the picture for the first read of the page, then take it away and enjoy the picture together afterwards.
Myth: decodable books are boring and put children off reading
Some are dull. So are some levelled readers, and so are plenty of books with no phonics attached at all. The dullness is not caused by the constraint.
What genuinely puts children off is effort with no reward: sitting with a book where every third word is a fight, night after night. A book your child can actually read is the one that builds the appetite. If reading practice has become a nightly argument in your house, this piece on the fight every night is the place to start.
It is also worth remembering that the constraint loosens fast. The first books a child meets are limited to a handful of letters, so they are necessarily thin. A term later there are digraphs to play with, and the stories get noticeably more interesting. If you have judged decodable books on the very first ones your child brought home, they are worth a second look.
Myth: if the book is easy, my child is not being stretched
Easy is the point. Fluency is built by reading easy text quickly, not by reading hard text slowly, and the book coming home is practice rather than assessment.
In many schools the same book has already been read several times in class before it reaches your house, for decoding, for expression and for comprehension in turn. Your read is the last one. It is supposed to look like something your child has already mastered, because they have.
If your child is stopping on more than about one word in ten, the book is not stretching them. It is stopping them.
Myth: decodable books will limit my child's vocabulary
They would, if they were the only books in the house. They are not meant to be.
There are two tracks running at once, and they do different jobs. Your child's own decoding builds the machinery for getting words off the page. You reading aloud to them, from books far beyond anything they could decode, builds vocabulary, comprehension and appetite. Neither replaces the other. The decodable book is ten minutes; the read-aloud can be anything you like.
Myth: any decodable book will do
Decodable for whom is always the question. Schemes introduce sounds in genuinely different orders, so a book that fits one programme can be badly wrong for a child on another.
Sounds-Write is a clear example. Its Initial Code teaches single letters unit by unit, and the digraphs sh, ch, th, ck, wh, ng and qu do not arrive until Unit 11, at the very end. A child on Unit 5 has met k, l, r and u but not a single digraph. Hand them a book from another scheme at a supposedly similar stage and it may be stuffed with sh and ch words. There is more on that sequence in the Sounds-Write Initial Code explained.
Myth: levelled readers have no place at all
They do, just not in the same slot. A levelled reader is a perfectly good book for you to read aloud, or for your child to look at for pleasure with no expectation of decoding every word.
The problem only appears when a levelled reader is handed to a child as independent practice at a stage where it does not match their sounds. Then a book meant to build confidence does the opposite. Same book, wrong job.
If that happens, you do not have to make it a confrontation. Read it together, taking alternate pages, or read it to your child entirely and let them join in on the words they recognise. The book still gets enjoyed. It simply stops being the thing that is meant to be building their decoding.
Myth: once my child can read, decodable books stop mattering
They do eventually, and that is the intended ending. Once the whole code has been taught, almost anything is decodable and the constraint stops being useful. Schemes have fluency stages for exactly this point, where the books get longer and the vocabulary richer and no new sounds arrive.
Until then, the match still matters. A child halfway through Year 1 has met some alternative spellings and not others, and a book that ignores that difference will still produce guessing.
So what should be in the book bag?
| Question | Decodable book | Levelled reader |
|---|---|---|
| Chosen by | Which sounds have been taught | Overall difficulty of the text |
| Best used for | Your child reading independently | You reading aloud, or shared reading |
| What a hard word means | A sound not yet secure, worth practising | Possibly a sound never taught, nothing to practise |
| Should the pictures be covered | Yes, on the first read | Not necessarily, you are doing the reading |
| Stops mattering | Once the whole code is taught | Never, it is just a book |
The practical version: the school book is the decoding slot and should be easy. Everything else on the shelf is yours to read to them, and should be as hard and as interesting as you like.
Three things, none of which take long. Wait five seconds before you help with any word, because most children who get there get there at about four. When they do need help, give the sounds rather than the word, so s-t-o-p rather than "stop", which hands them the win. And when a tricky word turns up that cannot be sounded out, tell them and move on rather than making them work at something the sounds will not solve.
Then stop while they still want more. That is the bit that gets you tomorrow evening.
Where to go next
If you are still working out what your school is using, and therefore which books actually match, start with which phonics scheme does my school use.
Lindo Phonics is not connected to Sounds-Write or to any other phonics publisher and is not endorsed by them. We match the published progression so a story only uses sounds your child has already been taught.
Common questions
What is the difference between a decodable book and a levelled reader?
A decodable book is chosen by which sounds your child has been taught. A levelled reader is graded by how hard the text is overall. Only the first guarantees every word can be worked out.
Is a book decodable or not, as a fixed fact?
No. Decodable describes the fit between a book and one particular child at one point in their teaching. The same book can be decodable for one child and not for another.
Are levelled readers bad?
Not at all, they are just used for a different job. They work well for reading aloud to your child or for shared reading, and poorly as independent practice when they do not match the sounds taught.
Should I cover the pictures?
On the first read of each page, yes. Then look at the picture together afterwards. Guessing from pictures is the habit decodable books exist to prevent.
The school book is far too easy. Is something wrong?
Usually not. In many schools the book has been read several times in class already, so the home read is the last one and is meant to be comfortable.
Will decodable books hold back my child's vocabulary?
Not if you keep reading aloud to them from much harder books. Their own decoding and your read-aloud do different jobs, and both tracks matter.
Can I buy decodable books that match my child's school?
You can, but check the scheme rather than just the stage. Programmes introduce sounds in different orders, so a book at a similar sounding level may contain spellings your child has not met.
How do I know if a book is too hard?
Count the stops. If your child is halting on more than about one word in ten, it is too hard for independent practice, whatever the label on the cover says.
When do decodable books stop being necessary?
Once the whole code has been taught, which in most schemes is towards the end of the phonics programme. After that, schemes move to fluency books with longer texts and richer vocabulary.
My child guesses words that start with the right letter. Is that reading?
It is a strategy that works for a while and then stops working as the text gets denser. Pointing at each spelling and asking for the sound is the way to shift it.
What do I do when my child stalls on a word?
Wait five seconds first, because most children who will get there get there at about four. Then give the sounds rather than the word, so s-t-o-p rather than stop.
What about words that cannot be sounded out?
Tell your child the word and keep going. Tricky words do not yield to sounding out with what has been taught, so making them try is not practice.
Should reading practice happen every night?
Little and often beats long and occasional, but a missed night is not a problem. Stopping while your child still wants more matters more than finishing the book.
When should I raise it with the teacher?
If the book coming home is consistently too hard, or if the same difficulty repeats over several weeks, describe what you are seeing at home. The teacher can see how your child reads independently.
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