One of the single most important things we can do to help low-progress readers is to hear them read every day, for a little as 15-20 minutes, using a set of tutoring strategies known as Reinforced Reading. We call it Reinforced Reading for three reasons:

1. The reader and the reading is supported or reinforced by a trained tutor;
2. The low-progress reader is positively reinforced for good reading by means of highly specific and contingent tutor praise; and
3. The learning of sight words and word attack skills is reinforced by the supported reading of real words in real text in context.

Reinforced Reading is predicated on the set of tutoring strategies for use with low-progress readers known as Pause, Prompt and Praise (PPP), a technique used and researched extensively since the early 1980s, and has been revised in the light of current research and the findings of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. Our research has repeatedly shown that most low-progress readers can make major gains when this essentially very simple procedure is employed properly on a regular basis.