[ra120271]

I agree there is a development path to learning to read. My son is learning and during the phase of learning the phonics he would use the pictures a lot to help get context. You could tell because he would pause on each new page as he observed the graphics.

But as he became more proficient he started using the graphics as a crutch to guess the words rather than sound them out and blend them. So I started covering the pictures with my hand as I turned the pages and his progress jumped ahead in the following weeks.

He is still learning and falls into guessing patterns too easily. However through accompanied parent reading every night he is progressing well (IMO).