Speech Sound Play
This is the starting point. Children learn the Monster Sounds, then blend them by following the Monster Sounds to say the word, using Duck Hands to develop phonemic awareness and phonological working memory. Saying the sounds supports articulation, and children who map words with Phonemies develop strong speech and language skills.
Xav blends 13 sounds in this clip. His mummy had lined up the Phonemies so he knew where they were going.
He was reading by 4. That was not the goal. It was a by-product of word mapping with Phonemies from an early age.
Xav is autistic and has an amazing pattern-seeking brain. He enjoys the logical nature of the code when it is shown.
Speech Sound Play is at the heart of the Ten Day Speech Sound Play plan, which is designed to develop speech sound processing within a whole-class setting when there are time constraints and pressure to begin introducing grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs). Pictures of the speech sounds (Sound Pics) are introduced on day 5. Through Speech Sound Play, the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach is then used to develop the word mapping needed for every child to read with ease and spell well before the end of Year 1.
Within Speedie Word Mapping, the same Speech Sound Play activities are used on a 1:1 basis, allowing far greater flexibility as learners move into Speedie Readies and Speedie Spelling. This ensures that Speech Sound Play supports all learners, in any setting, as they begin self-teaching, bonding speech sounds, spelling, and meaning, and moving towards Word Mapping Mastery®.
The Speech Sound Play Plan Prepares Children for Phonics
The Speech Sound Play phase introduces children to the concept that spoken words consist of speech sounds (phonemes). If children did not need to learn to read and spell, the skill of isolating, segmenting, and blending speech sounds would not matter. We know that, as early as six months of age, it is possible to identify which children have brains that are already able to process speech sounds without difficulty. Around 1 in 5 are not born so lucky. It is vital that we identify those children early, before they are introduced to phonics or taught to remember written words.
Before introducing phonics, and before focusing on connecting speech sounds to “pictures of the sounds”, that is, graphemes, through an instructional method called phonics, children build words using Phonemies, IPA-aligned Speech Sound Monsters, from left to right. This supports understanding of how speech sounds are ordered to form written words. With the exception of just two words, one and once, sounds and graphemes can be mapped for all words. This can be seen using MyWordz® Word Mapping Mastery® technology.
Children listen for the sounds in a word and place the corresponding Phonemie on the Speech Sound Lines. This mirrors how they will later spell words, using graphemes in place of Phonemies. Children also “follow the monster sounds to say the word”, which reflects what they will do when decoding with graphemes.
If English did not have an opaque orthography, Phonemies would not be needed, as sounds would be represented consistently. Unfortunately, sounds in English are represented by multiple graphemes, and graphemes can represent multiple sounds, as shown in the Spelling Clouds®.
The Speech Sound Play plan is therefore designed to ease children not only into phonics, using graphemes, but also to prepare them for an opaque orthography, where many correspondences will never be taught explicitly in any classroom phonics programme.
The Speedie Readies dual-route learning pathway ensures that children learn the Core Code, starting with s a t p i n, while also exploring words from daily life using a speech-to-print approach. Because they are shown the code, it doesn’t matter which correspondences are used. This is a world first, and children love it. Words relate to their lives and interests, not a phonics programme GPC teaching sequence.
Children start with these six Monster Sounds.
They will then be introduced to the Sound Pics® (graphemes) s a t p i n
They can soon blend all Monster Sounds in words and sentences. The pictures of the speech sounds, Sound Pics®, are there but the letters (graphemes) are not the focus until their brains are ready to connect them to the sounds.
Kensi starts learning the Monster Sounds at age 2. She is autistic
After a short time using Speech Sound Play activities she moves to SSP.
Kensi stores high frequency words in the orthographic lexicon.
She learns using the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach resources.
Children love learning with Kensi when she was 4 years old.
Rory screened at high risk for dyslexia. Kensi helped change his life.
Kensi's Mummy is not a teacher, but understood what Kensi needed.
Train with us and you can do this too! Look at how happy she is.
Kensi loves reading! Before starting school she is reading with fluency and comprehension. It all started with Speech Sound Play.
Speech Sound Play is the first step towards Immunising Children Against Illiteracy
I want to see every three-year-old screened for dyslexia risk before they are taught phonics, and offered Speech Sound Play support before they start school.
Parents can learn to offer this support as part of a membership to this site. Training is now included.
Emma Hartnell-Baker MEd SEN