Teaching k-3 Kids to Attach Sounds to Letters Helps All Readers in Early      Grades and Later for ESL's and Kids from Poorer Backgrounds       

(Excerpts are from a 2016 study of "synthetic phonics"  http://bit.ly/1TFBSzq implemented in UK which works relates sounds to letters like truespel phonetics shows good results.)

Teaching Reading Via the Spelling of Sounds Really Works

"A large-scale study tracking the progress of more than 270 000 students has concluded that teaching reading through a synthetic phonics programme has long-term benefits for children from poorer backgrounds and those who do not speak English as a first language.

The analysis, from the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics, also found the teaching method has large initial benefits for all students at age five and age seven.

At age seven, those taught to read using other methods were behind those using synthetic phonics, but they caught up later. However, the academics note: ‘Most interestingly, there are long-term effects at age 11 for those with a high probability of starting their school education as struggling readers. The results for our study suggest that there is a persistent effect for those classified as non-native English speakers and economically disadvantaged (as measured by free school meal status).’

The staggered implementation of the programme in different schools allowed the CEP study authors to analyse its effects using census information from the National Pupil Database.

Ultimately, the study concludes the programme’s implementation has been money well spent – the costs involved employing a literacy consultant to work with a school for a year offering intensive training support to teachers. ‘The effect sizes for the most disadvantaged group seem high enough to justify the costs of the policy...."

Also - Australia uses phonics in 2016 for great reading improvement

“Prior to the whole school literacy focus, our results in the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy varied with many students falling below the expected level in both spelling and grammar.  “Over a period of 17 months, the reading age of students, using the Waddington test as a baseline, increased from a minimum of 21 months to 34 months in the older grades”.  “In 2016, all students were at, or above, the expected national level in spelling and grammar”.  https://jpst.it/_oHA  

4 year olds can do it

Professor Dale Willows, a world literacy expert from the Institute of Studies, University of Toronto in Canada, conducted a study with 200 four-year old children showed that children in the early years could learn sounds very easily.   Children in the structured phonics program, that had English as their second language, with very little English, learned sound patterns just as quickly as those that had it as a first language.