1. Understand why some children learn to read without instruction

You will understand how some children learn to read before starting school without being taught, including my own experience, while around 1 in 4 children cannot read and spell at minimum expected levels after seven years in school.

This is despite those children having the cognitive capacity to read and spell, and despite receiving daily, systematic, explicit phonics instruction for their first two years in school in England, followed by catch-up work if they fail the Phonics Screening Check. That explicit instruction alone does not guarantee reading success, settled science.

This raises an important question. If teachers are doing what is recommended by the Department for Education, why are so many still struggling?

2. Realise what no-one has probably ever explained to you

You will realise how unusual it is that no-one has likely talked to you about how to map all words, yes, all words, into phonemes and graphemes, sounds and letters. You may currently believe that some words “can’t be sounded out”.

You will see how having logical and consistent word mapping strategies builds your own confidence, and why that confidence directly affects how well you can support your child or your students.

You will learn how to map words using a universal reference system, including an introduction to the IPA, without needing to learn the symbols themselves. You will learn how to map words using your own accent, and how to adapt mapping to match a child’s pronunciation.

You will learn how to talk about this using language even a three-year-old can understand. There will be no memorisation, spelling rules, or so-called “heart words”. Children who learn to read without instruction are not doing those things.
 

3. Understand why phonics and whole-word programmes have not worked for some children

Mapping words will help you understand why whole-language-type approaches and off-the-shelf phonics programmes designed for an “average child” have not worked for some children.

This may include your own children, or around 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 students if you are undertaking this training as a teacher.

This is for a range of reasons, most commonly because:

• a child’s ability to hear, segment, and blend sounds was never properly checked or monitored

• the programme did not improve phonemic awareness or phonological working memory, despite these being central to reading and spelling difficulties (*this is settled science)

• the grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences taught did not always match the child’s speech, leaving them confused about word mapping, particularly for spelling

• the child never began to self-teach, which matters because most reading development is acquired via implicit learning rather than explicit instruction (this is settled science)

• speech sounds, spelling, and meaning were never securely bonded in the brain’s word bank
   

You will also see why understanding how some children learn to read without instruction reveals what is missing from DfE-validated synthetic phonics programmes. We always return to what self-teaching children are doing in the early years.

You will learn what can be added when a child is being taught using these programmes.

Not all children will self-teach before starting school, but we can give other children almost everything they need. This is far easier when this support is woven into daily life from birth, with written language understood as an extension of spoken language.

When children write, they are learning to “talk on paper”. This is not a direct translation, and much needs to be understood when converting speech to print.

*I have written 'this is settled science' as these are things many don't seem to realise are not up for debate 
 

4. Stop thinking about teaching reading and start thinking about conditions
 

You will learn how to stop thinking about “teaching reading and spelling” and instead think in terms of conditions for orthographic learning.

When word mapping is made easier, cognitive load is reduced. This allows more space to think about how words fit together, and how spoken and written language can enhance children’s lives.

Although we are conditioned to think that children must learn to read and spell for academic success or future work, the world is changing. Connecting spoken and written language can substantially improve children’s lives. We are not just going this to prevent struggle later when they start school.
 

One of the most important conditions for fast and secure word mapping is motivation. When adults start teaching, even with good intentions, many children lose interest. Many young children do not want to be taught.

They want the sense of achievement that comes from doing it themselves. They want help when needed, but that does not mean an invitation for explanations. Adults need to learn to read the child, and understand what that child needs in that moment.
 

Learning to read and spell through word mapping, when we show the code, is less about instruction and more about creating the right conditions so that brains take over. In many ways, it is like laying out toys and being comfortable with letting children figure out how they work and how they want to play with them. We do not step in to explain play or tell children what to do.

The reason I show the code is so that we do not need to step in and explain what people often try to teach through phonics. Instead, we ensure children have the phonemic awareness and phonological working memory they need to figure things out for themselves.

I will also show you a spelling routine to use with older children, to secure words more easily if there is risk. This routine builds phonemic awareness and phonological working memory. Some children do not need it. When I use it in a classroom setting, it becomes a quick and inclusive way to store words that every child participates in, so children at risk do not feel singled out.

We do approach some things differently when teaching a group. It is far easier when children can already read before they start school. In a whole-class setting, you cannot let go of lessons, sequences, and teaching orders, not when you are managing twenty-five or more children.
 

5. Let go of lessons, sequences, and teaching orders
 

When supporting your own child, or when working one-to-one with a child, you can set aside ideas about lessons, scope and sequence, and grapheme teaching order. Everything becomes simpler. This does depend on age, and it is far easier in the early years, as everything centres around the child and their brain is in an optimum phase for learning to read. Birth to seven is a particularly important period for reading and spelling.

When children are older, we do need more of a teaching plan for a range of reasons, and I will show you how to do that too.

If this support happens before a child starts school, the focus shifts to:
 

• mapping words that are relevant to the child, so they can see how speech sounds, spelling, and meaning connect within something that already interests them

• following the child’s interests and creating sentences they understand

• letting go of a print-first focus such as “what sound does this letter make”

Letters do not make sounds. They represent sounds in words. The mindset becomes “this spelling could represent this sound, but it depends on the word”.

There will be no isolated grapheme cards asking children to give “the sounds”. This is not how children who read without instruction learn to read and spell. They explore patterns within words, almost always within meaningful language.

The only time we look closely at individual words is for high-frequency words. These matter because knowing them allows children to work out surrounding words more easily.

We cannot ask children to memorise these words. That would ignore what happens for children who learn without instruction. They know the sounds, the spelling, and the meaning.

This is why MappedWords.com exists, to show the sight word code.

This mindset makes learning easier for you, and more meaningful for the child.
 

6. See words differently and make learning easier
 

Once you start to see words differently, and realise you can use the technology to show the code, you will find yourself more confidently letting go of your identity as a teacher and embracing less teaching so that more self-teaching can take place. This can be really difficult. Teaching is often part of our identity.

If I do not teach this, how will the child learn?

As you begin to see children doing things you have not taught them, and doing so with ease, you will experience that wonderful “aha” moment and say to me, “Now I get it.”

At that point, you will understand why I am "The Word Mapper", and why this focus on how speech, spelling and meaning connect for every individual word matters so much. As my Granny used to say, it's like taking care of pennies. "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"
 

You will look at words to see which letters are graphemes, how they map to sounds, and how meaning is conveyed. Every letter has a 'job'. While meaning may feel easy for you, you will realise how challenging it can be to convey meaning clearly when creating high-frequency word resources.
 

When word mapping sits within rich language, language becomes the foundation for everything. You will understand why talking and reading to your child in the early years matters so much, and how little listening often happens in classrooms because there is so much to teach.
 

Think of language as cultivating rich soil.
Mapping words is like watering the seeds.
Your daily activities are like the weather, providing the optimum conditions for growth.

That is how self-teaching happens.

Speech sounds, spelling, and meaning bond together beautifully in the brain’s word bank. But the why is central to early, easy reading and accurate spelling, when the brain knows if a word doesn't 'look right'.

Think about why children play. That sense of purpose is what needs to be associated with word mapping.

Make the technology easily accessible when children want to explore words. Print the words they care about. See word mapping as a second language that supports spoken English.
 

That is how learning becomes part of who children are.

Start the One, Two, Three and Away! series and read the books with joy. Add in Story Peg People to act out the stories, not just to retell them as an academic exercise. Build houses out of boxes, make models of the Story People with plasticine or clay, get out the paints, craft hats, and dress up as the characters. Let the books become a way to talk about and explore the world.
 

There is a reason adults still write about these books with such fond memories, thirty, forty, or even fifty years on. Some storytellers ignite a love of reading for its own sake, and Sheila McCullagh did exactly that.

Help me bring these books back into classrooms.

Mis Emma, "The Word Mapper" 

Emma Hartnell-Baker MEd SEN | Doctoral Researcher | Innovate UK Winner | Creator of MyWordz® with MySpeekie® | Word Mapping Mastery® technology with Phonemies® and the world’s first one-screen AAC | Show the Code with Mapped Words®