I teach struggling readers in high school. I use megawords and if they are really bad at decoding, I start with “on track reading.” It’s really difficult to catch up, and most never really do.
“It’s really difficult to catch up, and most never really do.”
That is the real problem.
Phonics can’t help if you don’t understand the word that you just successfully pronounced.
Looks a little like the old HOOKED ON PHONICS that every library used to have.