A parent, Jeffrey Ahrendt, designed the program in order to teach his own children to read. 

Jeffrey was a scoreboard large screen message center computer operator trainer in the 1970s, who was expected to train customers' staff members in just a few short days on the operation of his company's proprietary computer control software. 

Many trainees had never operated a computer before, so Jeffrey developed a progressive training method to get the operators up to speed and fully trained in the short amount of time he was allotted. He used this method to write and publish training/operation manuals for other computer-based display systems as well.

When it came time for Jeffrey to teach his own children to read, he was unimpressed by the teaching programs available. So he analyzed the mechanics of reading, and broke it down to its most fundamental components, and built a progressive system of learning upon that foundation, geared toward the learning level and attention span of his preschoolers.

The result was a ten step program that he continued to refine with each child. "Five minutes a day" is not just to fit a busy schedule, but also gives a child's brain a chance to assimilate each day's new information. 

Realize that no matter what the 'speed' of progress, your child's brain will be engaging in an incredible act - turning visual symbols into audible sounds that form mental words that come out in understood speech.

The program was developed during the ten years between 1996 and 2006, while the author was teaching each of his own four children, three girls and a boy, to read prior to their entering first grade. The program was finalized in book form, copyrighted and published in 2006, and made available through Amazon.com.

Sale of the print-on-demand book was suspended after 2012 due to high production costs, but resumed in 2023 in response to requests, and a more economical publishing method was found.

ISBN-10-0977989607

ISBN-13-978-0977989607