Rationale for Developing a Typeface that is Friendly for Beginning Readers, Particularly those Labeled Dyslexic A critical step toward becoming a fluent reader is learning to recognize, name and distinguish the letters of the alphabet. This difficult task is often a point of failure. The task, however, can be made easier and less prone to failure. This article, based on research by cognitive scientists, provides guides for how to design a font that will help children to learn to read. The article also summarizes the latest research that indicates that slowness in learning the initial steps toward fluent reading, for example, the ability to distinguish letters, has profound, lasting effects on the organization of the brain. Developers of fonts, therefore, can make a significant contribution to the intellectual development of our children by using their skills to design a lettering system, along the lines suggested here, that will be easier to learn.
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