The Word Mapping Formula that makes One, Two, Three and Away! make sense to three-year-olds!
Emma Hartnell-Baker didn’t want very young children to have to wait until they had been taught phonics before starting The Village With Three Corners books. She also knew that at least one in five children struggle to connect speech and print, and may need help to see which letters are the graphemes and the phoneme each grapheme represents if they are to actually read the words, rather than guess or memorise them.
She therefore mapped the first 52 books, showing which letters form each grapheme and placing Phonemies® (Speech Sound Monsters®) with them to show the phoneme represented by each grapheme. Children can see how the printed word maps to the sounds in the spoken word, even when they haven’t yet learnt those grapheme–phoneme correspondences.
Each word was mapped using the Word Mapping Formula, based on British English. It means learning to connect letters and sounds is speedy and easy: Speedie Readies®!
The Word Mapping Formula is that words are bidirectionally mapped: print to speech when decoding and speech to print when spelling, according to the expectations of each education jurisdiction, while also taking account of the child’s accent. The Speech Sound King uses the British English standard and is a Speech Sound Puppet.
The Speech Sound King was first introduced to children in Australia learning to read and spell with the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach.
He helps adults navigate word mapping regardless of accent variation.
From orthographically mapped books to self-teaching
The first 52 One, Two, Three and Away! books have already been orthographically mapped using the Word Mapping Formula.
The graphemes are identified within each word, and Phonemies® (Speech Sound Monsters®) act as child-friendly phonetic symbols, showing the phoneme represented by each grapheme. Children can see how the printed word maps to the sounds in the spoken word.
So children don’t have to already know every grapheme–phoneme correspondence before they can attempt the words. When they come across a correspondence they don’t yet know, the code is there for them to see. They don’t have to guess the word, memorise it or wait until that correspondence is explicitly taught.
As adults and children use the orthographically mapped books together, they also become familiar with the Word Mapping Formula and how speech and print connect in both directions.
This knowledge can then be used as and when needed with books that haven’t been mapped. If the child gets stuck, the adult can identify which letters are the graphemes and their sound values and SHOW THE CODE, using Phonemies® when the child needs to see the phonemes.
Very quickly the child develops the phonological–orthographic knowledge to do more of this for themselves and needs less help from the adult.
The mapped books make the Word Mapping Formula visible. This makes it easier for the adult and the child to understand bidirectional words mapping and to use the Word Mapping Formula with any words.
As much explicit help as they need, and no more.
We offer Word Mapping Formula training through ShowTheCode.com. We offer the training there as we also show adults how to use MyWordz® technology to check the mapping of words themselves, and teach them about the IPA so they understand how and why Phonemies® are used as phonetic symbols for orthographic learners: anyone learning to read, spell and communicate in English.