Phonemic Awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. It is part of the phonological awareness umbrella, which includes rhyming, onset and rime, and syllables.

Rhyming focuses on words that share similar ending sounds. For example, kettle rhymes with petal.
Onset and rime involves splitting a word into the initial sound and the remaining part. For example, cat can be split into /c/ and /at/.
Syllables involve breaking words into beat-like units. For example, kettle becomes ke and ttle, and petal becomes pe and tal.

However, for reading and spelling we start at the phoneme level. Do not split words into onset and rime or syllables when the aim is to support reading and spelling.

This is an oral skill, not a visual skill, and it underpins both reading and spelling. Around 1 in 5 children start school without this skill. Intelligence is irrelevant. Without it, children are at high risk of struggling to read and spell, and it must be explicitly supported. Please see the clip at the bottom of this page referring to an Immunisation Against Illiteracy.

For around 1 in 5 children, a phonics programme does not achieve this. It's why the schools using the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach start with the 10 day Speech Sound Play Plan. You can use it too, without the time restriction classroom teachers face, as they are required to start phonics quickly

It is why teachers use Duck Hands throughout the day.
Phonemic awareness is the main predictor of literacy difficulties and the core deficit observed in dyslexic students.

Phonological Working Memory

The ability to hold and manipulate speech sounds in the mind for a short time.
It allows children to blend sounds together, segment words, and remember sound sequences while mapping them to print.
If you watch the clip of Rory (Immunising Against Illiteracy) you will see that at first he could only blend 3 sounds as a time, and within weeks that had changed. During the training clips you will see 4 year olds blending words with 10+ sounds. When they can blend a lot of sounds it frees up working memory to do this when graphemes are also there ie when actually deoding and encoding words.    

Phonics

The relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (spellings).
Phonics describes how children are taught the word code, specifically how phonemes and graphemes connect when reading and spelling words. It is most often used as a term to describe programme content rather than the full scope of word mapping.

Phonics programmes are intended to kick-start self-teaching. Only around 100 of the 300 plus grapheme–phoneme correspondences in English are explicitly taught. This initial instruction should take weeks or months, not years. However, in classroom settings, teachers often have their hands tied. They are generally expected to use a commercial programme, with every child taught the same graphemes, in the same way, and at the same pace.

When teachers use Speech Sound Play, children become more able to link phonemes and graphemes with ease. When the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) approach is used, every child works through the Core Code in a daily half-hour session. They watch their Code Level lesson and then complete the work themselves using the Coding Poster. The teacher monitors progress but does not need to directly teach phonics. This can happen even when a relief teacher is covering the class. They also use Code Level Readers and do an activity with a partner called Speedy Paired Decoding
(see video at botttom of the page)
 

Outside a classroom setting, a child can simply use the Monster Spelling Piano app to learn the core 100 grapheme–phoneme correspondences, and then begin the One, Two, Three and Away books once they reach the Yellow Code Level. At the same time, they work through mapped high-frequency words in preparation for reading. We show you how to do that within the training pages for members 
 

Phonics should be understood as the instructional support given to children so that they can map words in both directions and develop self-teaching. It should not be used to cap learning by implying that correspondences end, for example by saying “after phonics the children will…”.

If I show you how to map a word you do not currently know, I am using phonics.

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Duck Hands®

The action used by the hand shaped as a Duck beak, to segment words into phonemes, and blend them together from left to right.  There is a Speech Sound Duck Puppet.
This is also a great tool for adults as they can see how sounds are being processed and instantly see, even in a large classroom setting, which children are not hearing and blending the sounds with ease.   
See video at the bottom of this page.

Blending

Combining individual phonemes together to say a word.
For example, blending /s/ /a/ /t/ to say sat.
 

Segmenting

Breaking a spoken word into its individual phonemes.
For example, segmenting ship into /sh/ /i/ /p/.
Segmenting is especially important for spelling.
 

Decoding

Going from print to speech.
Seeing a written word and working out how to say it. Used when working out an unfamiliar written word. 
 

Encoding

Going from speech to print.
Hearing or saying a word and working out how to spell it.
Encoding is harder than decoding and relies heavily on phonemic awareness.
Spelling is harder than reading as it relies heavility on phonemic awareness and orthographic knowledge. 
 

 

Orthographic knowledge

Orthographic knowledge is knowing how words are spelled and structured in print, and how spelling represents speech sounds in English.

It includes knowing:

• which letters go together as graphemes

• how those graphemes map to sounds in words

• that the same sound can be spelled in different ways

• that spelling follows patterns, not visual shapes or rules to memorise

Orthographic knowledge is not:

• recognising words by shape

• memorising whole words visually

• knowing spelling rules

It develops when speech sounds, spelling, and meaning are repeatedly bonded together in meaningful words.
 

The Orthographic lexicon

The orthographic lexicon is the brain’s stored word bank.

It is where:

• known words are stored for instant recognition

• spelling is retrieved automatically when writing

• reading becomes fluent and effortless

Once a word is in the orthographic lexicon:

• it does not need to be decoded again

• it can be read “by sight” because it is mapped, not memorised

This is why you often describe it as the brain’s word bank.
 

How words get into the orthographic lexicon

Words enter the orthographic lexicon when:

• phonemes are clearly identified

• graphemes are accurately mapped to those phonemes

• meaning is understood

• this mapping happens often enough, with low cognitive load

This process is called orthographic mapping.
It is how self-teaching happens. This is settled science, the phrase self-teaching does relate to instruction ie leaving the child to figure it out on their own.

 

What is self-teaching?

Self-teaching describes the process by which children gradually learn new written words independently, without being directly taught each one.

When a child can:

• notice the speech sounds in a word,

• connect those sounds to letters or letter groups,

• and recognise the word again later,

they begin to teach themselves new words through reading and spelling experiences.

Over time, each successful encounter strengthens their memory for how words are spelled and recognised.

Why self-teaching matters

English contains tens of thousands of words. Children are only explicitly taught a small number of them. The rest must be learned through experience.

Self-teaching is the mechanism that allows this to happen.

Each time a child works out a word successfully, they store information about:

• its spelling,

• its pronunciation,

• and its meaning.

This stored information becomes part of the child’s orthographic lexicon, their mental word store.

What self-teaching depends on

Self-teaching relies on accurate speech-to-print and also print-to-speech mapping.

For a child to teach themselves a word, they need to:

• hear or use the speech sounds they actually speak, and in mnay casese understand that these are different to the phonics programme

• connect those sounds to the written form,

• and do this consistently.

If the speech sounds assumed by instruction do not match the sounds the child uses, and the child isn't supported with word mapping or doesn't figure this out themselves, self-teaching becomes harder or may not occur at all.

Why self-teaching does not happen automatically for all children

Self-teaching is not guaranteed, even if the child is taught daily in Reception and Year 1 with a phonics programme.

It can be disrupted when:

• children guess words instead of mapping sounds,

• spelling is memorised visually rather than understood, especially for high frequency / exception/ tricky words,

• only the Core Code is the focus, alongside phonics readers that also limit GPC exposure

• instruction assumes speech sounds the child does not use,

• or the child lacks clear access to how words are structured.

In these cases, children may appear to practise but make little progress, because the conditions for self-teaching are not in place.
These are the children we designed The Code Overlay for!

How self-teaching is supported

Self-teaching is supported when learners are helped to:

• attend to the speech sounds they actually use, and discuss any discrepancies with texts or training materials,

• see how those sounds map onto spelling,

• and revisit words in ways that reinforce those links.

Over time, this allows children to become increasingly independent readers and spellers.
The key factor here is not only support wording mapping using isolated words (as seen on MappedWords.com) but also that they are reading One, Two, Three and Away! as early as possible, using the orthographically mapped versions to show the code from pre-reader book 1. Because children soon start reading these mini-books themselves they understand the purpose of word mapping ie to read for meaning and pleasure, and to express themselves without spoken words. They become intrinsically motivated to map words and to read for the value it brings to their lives as individuals.  

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Why this matters for struggling readers

Children who struggle to read and spell are failing to map words efficiently, so words never become securely stored in the orthographic lexicon.

That is why:

• reading is slow and effortful

• spelling is inconsistent

• fatigue is high

• guessing increases

When we show the word code code, we make orthographic learning possible. No more memorising whole words or using 'heart words'. Motivation to read and write increases  

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IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

A universal system for writing down speech sounds using symbols.
The IPA shows how words are pronounced, independent of spelling, accent, or language.
It is a universal reference system for speech used by professionals eg speech therapists, and adults learning to speak English

Phonetic Symbol

A symbol used to represent a specific speech sound.
Phonetic symbols come from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and show how a sound is produced and heard, rather than how it is spelled.

 

Phonemies®

Symbols used to represent phonemes, the smallest units of speech sound.
Phonemies® are speech sound characters known as The Speech Sound Monsters.  They are symbols for English speech sounds, designed specifically to support word mapping.

They make speech sounds visible and usable, especially for children who struggle to hear, hold, or work with sounds in spoken words. Phonemies® support phonemic awareness and phonological working memory and allow children to explore sound structure without rules, memorisation, or guesswork. They help children understand the concept of a phoneme, which would otherwise confuse most.
 

Speech Sound Pics®

A term used for graphemes, the written spellings that represent speech sounds in words.

Speech Sound Pics® grow directly out of Speech Sound Play, where children learn that phonemes say sounds. We then ask: If we could take a picture of that sound with a magic speech sound camera, what would it look like?
That picture is a Speech Sound Pic® for that sound, linked to a Speech Sound Monster in words.

Speech Sound Pics® are pictures of speech sounds, represented by letters or letter groups in words. This way of describing how letters and sounds connect starts from existing knowledge. Explaining a 'grapheme' would confuse most.  

There is a story used to introduce pictures of speech sounds because the Speech Sound King needed to send a message to the Prince, far, far away. 
See video at the bottom of this page.
 

Code Mapping® Algorithm

Our ground breaking Code Mapping algorithm (Show the Code) shows how speech sounds and spelling connect within words and texts.

It displays:

• Speech Sound Pics® using black and grey shading

• Split digraphs shown clearly in blue

This allows children and adults to see which letters go together in a word and how they map to the sounds they hear and say.


 

Speech Sound Mapping

We refer to Speech Sound Mapping as figuring out words by blending the sounds, for example “Follow the Monster Sounds to Say the Word”, and also as building words using speech sounds, as seen in the first part of the Monster Spelling Routine. The focus is on phonemic awareness and phonological working memory, and this work is central to Speech Sound Play.

Because Phonemies, also known as Speech Sound Monsters, are used, there is a strong visual hook without the cognitive load of letters. When a child is flagged as having high risk factors for dyslexia, we use a great deal of Speech Sound Mapping. It is usually paired with graphemes, but they are not the focus. An autistic child like Alfie needed a lot of this in his EHCP as it was the skill blocking him from learning phonics.  
Ironically, Luca's phonemic awareness was fine, even though diagnosed as dyslexic. He kept being given synthetic phonics even though he already knew all the GPCs they were teaching. He needed to be shown the code in real texts. We started with One, Two, Three and Away to give him a boost with high-frequency words, as he had been taught to memorise these, again preventing him from exposure to the wider code. The code not taught in phonics programmes. 

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Code Mapping® and Monster Mapping®

Children will say that they are Code Mapping® when they are using their Duck Hands® to segment words they are looking at into the sounds.
They will say that they are Monster Mapping® when they connect Sound Pics® and Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters®) to map words. 

When children are blending Phonemies and their focus is only on the Speech Sound Monsters, even if the graphemes are visible, I refer to this as Speech Sound Mapping. I think these separate terms are important because they indicate what the brain is doing. This distinction allows us to separate phonemic awareness from decoding and encoding, both with and without Phonemies.

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Speedy Paired Decoding (Code Mapping)
See video below 
 

Speech Sound Pic® Sandwich

A visual way to show split vowel digraphs.

When Phonemies® are placed on speech sound lines, the order reflects the spoken sounds. When we then look at the spelling, the letters appear split. The Speech Sound Pic Sandwich shows how the vowel sound is “sandwiched” by the consonants.

Children as young as three understand this concept easily, because they already know what a sandwich is. The idea is concrete, visual, and intuitive.
See video at the bottom of this page.

 

 

The Schwa

The schwa is the most common vowel sound in spoken English. It is an unstressed, reduced vowel, represented by the symbol /ə/, and it occurs in many everyday words such as about /əbaʊt/. The schwa maps to over 20 graphemes and the children record them in their Silly Schwa Cloud. It is blank at the beginnning of every academic year.  

In the early stages of word mapping, children often over-articulate the schwa. Instead of producing /ə/ (a grunty uh sound!), they use the clearer vowel sound /ʌ/, as heard in up. This is developmentally typical. For example, in the word the, children may initially use /ʌ/ rather than the schwa they hear in connected speech.

You will see this reflected in early word mapping work using Phonemies, for example with the words the and a in Duck Level 1 and 2, and in the Green Code Level. Children may also choose this sound when mapping their own names. For example, Maya should be mapped as /m aɪ ə/, but she initially prefered to map it as /m aɪ ʌ/ - see the videeo at the bottom of this page. This reflects how they are currently producing and therefore perceiving the sound.

As children become more aware of how speech changes in connected language, they naturally transition towards using the schwa when mapping words. This shift happens through experience rather than correction. The learning matters more than technical precision at this stage. Children cannot be expected to use the schwa in words like the if they are not yet producing or perceiving that sound, especially when they are only just beginning to map speech to print.

In the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) approach, this Phonemie is called the Silly Schwa. The name reflects how the sound feels unusual or funny when said in isolation, and how speakers often feel a bit silly trying to pronounce it on its own.

The Swallowed Schwa

When mapping the sounds in the word metal, five sounds are used, and there is a grapheme for each, m e t a l.

In the word kettle, which rhymes with metal, there are also five sounds. In this word, however, the graphemes are k e tt le. The schwa does not have a corresponding grapheme. This is because the grapheme it could have mapped to, when the mapping was being designed by the Speech Sound King, was swallowed by the following sound.
See video at the bottom of this page.

Red Words

The words one and once are the only true ‘red words’ in English. In all other cases, phonemes can be mapped to graphemes, as seen in the Mapped Words®. The only way to map one and once would be to assign the two sounds /w/ and /ʌ/ to the grapheme <o>, but this does not occur in any other word and does not align with the alphabetic principle. 
In the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach, children learn that the Naughty Speech Sound Frog messed up the mapping, and the Speech Sound King said it would stay like that in the Code Mapping® Book forever, as a reminder of his silliness. They think of the dictionary as the Code Mapping Book.
See video at the bottom of this page.
There is a Speech Sound King puppet, a Speech Sound Frog puppet and a Duck Hands puppet! 
 

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Set for Variablity (SfV)

Set for Variability (SfV) is a concept from reading research that describes a learner’s ability to flexibly adjust how they pronounce a word when the first decoding attempt does not match a known word.

When a child decodes a word using grapheme–phoneme correspondences, the initial pronunciation may sound wrong or unfamiliar. SfV is the skill of mentally trying alternative pronunciations until one matches a word they already know in spoken language.

For example, a child might decode put as /pʌt / and then adjust it to / pʊt / This is easier when they have other cues eg content. If the word is in a sentence eg I put my shoes on.    

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Why SfV matters

• English spelling is variable, so many graphemes can represent more than one sound.

• Accurate decoding with the code taught in phonics programmes does not always lead directly to a recognisable spoken word.

• SfV supports word recognition when spelling–sound correspondences are inconsistent.
   

SfV depends on:

• A well-established spoken vocabulary.

• Sensitivity to phonemes and possible sound alternatives.

• The ability to compare a decoded form with known words in memory and switch it.

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SfV assumes the learner already:

• Has the word in their oral vocabulary.

• Can hold the decoded form in memory.

• Can evaluate and adjust pronunciation.

Children with weaker speech representations, limited vocabulary, speech sound differences, or working memory difficulties may struggle to use SfV effectively.

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Set for Variability is about adjusting pronunciation to reach a known word when decoding a word (print-to-speech)
The leaner that is efficiently self-teaching will use this to learning new word structure. They recode the word and bond the speech, spelling and meaning in the orthographic lexicon. 

Try the SSP Speech Sound Swap!

Dyslexia

A neurodevelopmental difference that affects how efficiently phonemes are mapped to graphemes and stored for automatic use.
It is not a visual problem.
It is strongly associated with differences in phonemic awareness and phonological working memory. As seen here phonics can be ineffective for dyslexic brains if certain conditions are not in place, and made effective when they are!  


 

The Dyslexia Paradox and Early Brain Plasticity

The Dyslexia Paradox describes the contradiction that dyslexia is often identified only after children have experienced repeated failure with reading, even though the brain is most able to learn efficiently in the early years. By the time difficulties are recognised, many children have already developed compensatory habits such as guessing, avoidance, or reliance on memorisation.

From birth to around age seven, the brain is highly plastic. Neural networks are rapidly forming, adapting, and strengthening in response to experience. During this period, children self-teach with remarkable efficiency when they are given clear, meaningful input. When speech sounds, spellings, and meanings are consistently bonded, words are stored securely and learning accelerates.

After this window, the brain can still learn, but it requires more effort and more explicit support. Patterns that were not established early must be rebuilt, and unhelpful strategies may need to be unlearned. This is why early, accurate word mapping matters so much, particularly for children at risk of dyslexia.

We are seeking funding to roll out free dyslexia risk screenng, and to offer free support to families identified as high risk.