Showing the Code Makes It Easier for Children to Learn Phonics, with Less Instruction. Mapped Words®: Show the Code. The Brain Self-Teaches More Easily Between Birth & Age 7.
When we show the word code for all words, we show which letters work together as graphemes, and Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters®) show the sound value, so children simply call it Monster Mapping®. We loved the phrase Monster Mapping so much we trademarked it!:-) The written word code is shown as and when each individual needs it. Children don’t need to wait until they reach a certain point in a programme to read or spell words, because of the Phonemies, and they don't need to guess or memorise when they have access to the MyWordz® tech. Join as a Speedie member to access the training and support area, as well as the E-Library of One Two, Three and Away! books.
When large numbers of children struggle to read and spell, the consequences extend far beyond literacy scores. Difficulty accessing written language limits learning across every subject, reduces independence, and shapes how children see themselves as learners. Over time, this affects confidence, motivation, and mental health, and narrows future educational and life opportunities. Ensuring that all children can securely map speech, spelling, and meaning is therefore not just an instructional issue, but a matter of equity, inclusion, and long-term wellbeing.
Word Mapping Mastery® is made possible by the ground-breaking MyWordz® Word Mapping Technology, which makes the connections between speech, spelling, and meaning visible exactly when learners need them, combined with a unique spelling routine designed to bond speech sounds, spelling and meaning. They are less reliant on explicit instruction. We are offering the brain the conditions needed to self-teach.
This is far easier from birth. Train with Speedie Orthographic Mapping Expert Emma Hartnell-Baker - in two hours you will never look at words in the same way again!
Speed matters because delays in word mapping have cumulative consequences at every stage of schooling. In Reception and KS1, Speedie Readies prioritises speed to prevent the Dyslexia Paradox by supporting children before gaps widen and before they develop coping strategies that mask difficulty rather than resolve it. Early fluency in mapping speech to print reduces the need for later intervention and protects engagement, confidence, and mental health at a point when attitudes to learning are being formed.
In KS2, Speedie Spelling focuses on speed because 1 in 4 pupils currently leave Year 6 unable to map words with fluency every year. Slow or effortful word mapping limits comprehension and places an unsustainable load on working memory. As curriculum demands increase sharply in KS3, pupils must be storing large numbers of words in the orthographic lexicon to read and spell efficiently across subjects. Without fluent word mapping, they struggle to cope with the volume and complexity of language required, placing access to the secondary curriculum at risk. Unfortunately, synthetic phonics programmes only cover a limited number of GPCs, and this is not enough to read and spell at grade level. They need to be shown the code and to start storing words more efficiently
Word Mapping Mastery®: Speedie Orthographic Mapping. Less teaching. More self-teaching. Show the Code!
Data shows that phonics and whole language appear to be equally poor at improving reading outcomes at scale. If we are dissatisfied with the outcomes of whole language, we should be equally dissatisfied with the outcomes of systematic phonics, and vice versa. This pattern holds in the United States, where whole language remains common, in England, where systematic phonics has been the norm since 2006, and across other English-speaking countries. Too many children continue to fail to read and spell at grade level, despite decades of instructional reform.
English is an opaque orthography, and there is simply too much of the code to be taught through explicit instruction. We cannot know in advance which grapheme–phoneme correspondences individual children will need to read and spell the words they encounter. For many children, instruction is sufficient because they reach the self-teaching phase and continue to learn independently.
For around 1 in 5, additional support is needed with the statistical learning of the code, so that word mapping is used to store words efficiently.
We cannot rely on all children using a kick-start of phonics to start self-teaching, and for those who do not, gaps widen over time.
For the first time, we can show children the code in the moment. All that is required is strong phonemic awareness, developed through the Ten Day Speech Sound Play Plan, alongside a systematic introduction to grapheme–phoneme correspondences in Term 1 of Reception using the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach or any synthetic phonics programme. From this point, children can begin mapping words as they meet them. Speedie Readies provides targeted 1:1 support for children at risk, while ideally all children are given access to the technology so they can see how speech sounds, spelling, and meaning map in any word they read or write. Using MyWordz® Word Mapping technology, learners are no longer limited by what has or has not been explicitly taught.
Neuroscience explains why this matters. Stanislas Dehaene shows that fluent readers do not recognise words as visual shapes. Although night and NIGHT, which are composed of distinct visual features, are initially encoded by different neurons in the primary visual cortex, they are progressively recoded until they become virtually indistinguishable. Fluent reading appears to be visual only because words were analysed phonetically during earlier encounters, prompting the brain to create permanent neural pathways linking spelling, sound, and meaning.
By showing how speech sounds connect to spelling, and ensuring that meaning is also known, we make visible what phonics programmes are attempting to teach but cannot fully show, and what whole language approaches consistently miss.
This is a world-first approach to word mapping. Letters that function together as graphemes are made explicit through our unique Code Mapping® tool, shown using black and grey shading, while Phonemies display the sound value using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In doing so, we show the brain exactly how spelling, sound, and meaning bond in real words, supporting efficient word storage and fluent reading and spelling.
Earlier support reduces later difficulty. The foundations for reading and spelling begin in utero, as the developing brain starts responding to speech and language. In Language at the Speed of Sight, Mark Seidenberg draws on longitudinal electroencephalography research showing that newborns’ neural responses to speech are strongly linked to spoken language development at ages three and five, and to the presence of reading difficulties by age eight.
This evidence underlines the importance of identifying children at risk as early as possible, at a point when developmental differences are still modest and before learning difficulties begin to shape motivation, emotional wellbeing, or engagement with learning.
This is why we are seeking funding to dyslexia risk screen all three-year-olds, and why we implement the Speedie Readies system in Reception and KS1. Early identification and early support ensure that more children reach the self-teaching phase, reducing the likelihood that gaps will widen and limiting the need for later intervention.
For those who did not reach the self-teaching phase, we offer Speedie Spelling for dyslexic learners. Speedie Spelling shows the code by making the links between speech sounds and spelling visible, while ensuring that the meaning of the word is known. This supports accurate word mapping for learners who did not benefit from earlier opportunities to prevent the Dyslexia Paradox. The Speedie Word Mapping Spelling Routine improves phonemic awareness and phonological working memory, which matters because both are required to hold speech sounds in mind, connect them to spellings, and store words securely for fluent reading and accurate spelling.
Why do children in England need us?
In England, children spend two full years in Reception and Year 1 on synthetic phonics programmes. Yet one in five can’t pass the Phonics Screening Check, and by age eleven one in four still can’t read at the minimum expected level. England is the only country to mandate this approach, and reading for pleasure has declined on a scale not seen in comparable countries. This shows it doesn’t work, and more is needed. Is it surprising? How can one teacher meet the word mapping needs of more than twenty-five five-year-olds? The reason for whole class phonics is organisational, but it’s leaving at least one in four behind. However the way it is organised means there is not enough time - or the system in place - for children to understand how letters and sounds connect for all words, or to start reading stories for pleasure. A TA can change that in ten minutes a day!
The response to 1 in 4 being unable to read at the minimum expected levels by age eleven hasn’t been to question the way phonics is taught, or to understand children as individuals, with different learning needs. It hasn’t been to give teachers more help or explore different ways to make sure children in a neurodiverse classroom can move into the self-teaching phase quickly and easily.
Instead, the Department for Education has looked for others to blame, whether parents, teachers or the children themselves, often by labelling them with special educational needs. Children don’t have special or additional needs when we begin with what they truly need to learn and thrive. The idea of additional needs comes from the DfE normalising a one-size-fits-all programme and viewing difference through a deficit mindset. Because there’s an expectation that every child will learn to read through whole class synthetic phonics, a wait-to-fail approach is in place. At the end of Year 1 teachers undertake a Phonics Screening Check (PSC) - which is highly unpopular among teachers , mainly as they are then blamed if the children can't pass. Not the programmes. The PSC also doesn’t correlate with reading comprehension. How could it? It’s simply a check of a set of graphemes to see whether children can blend them together. However, it only checks around 90 - 100 correspondences. To read and spell, children need to nagivate hundreds, even within KS1. Speedie Readies offers schools a way to meet individual needs, offering 1:1 support to those who need it, when they need it.
Now, with results worsening, plans are being made to test reading in Year 8. There are currently no real efforts to prevent the Dyslexia Paradox. This is why we’re launching the pilot through DyslexiaParadox.com
Ten Minutes a Day with a TA will ensure that all children with the cognitive capabitiy to pass the PSC will do so using the Monster Spelling Piano app. Speedie Readies will also help them read with fluency and comprehension as they work through the 100 One, Two, Three and Away! books. The first fifty-two are mapped and the code is shown. This 1:1 time with a TA and close observation of their learning journey re-routes dylexia.
The Dyslexia Paradox describes the contradiction that dyslexia risk can be identified early, yet most children aren’t supported until they’ve already experienced years of reading failure. We know this can change through early word mapping support that a TA can provide. Parents who do this at home can also help in the classroom. ​
Research in cognitive neuroscience has established that the brain’s capacity to form the neural connections linking speech, print, and meaning is greatest before the age of seven. Dehaene (2009) demonstrated that learning to read reorganises neural circuits involved in visual and auditory processing, but this process becomes less efficient as neural plasticity declines. Hulme and Snowling (2016) showed that weaknesses in phoneme awareness and letter–sound mapping during the early years are among the strongest predictors of later reading disorders, highlighting the need for early, proactive intervention. Seidenberg (2017) emphasised that fluent reading depends on the automation of these mappings through exposure and self-teaching, but this process can only occur if children reach that stage early enough.
By Year 3, prevention is no longer possible. The focus shifts to remediation because the window for early intervention has been missed. Children who have not mastered phoneme–grapheme mapping by this stage are already behind in reading fluency and spelling. They often work harder but achieve less because their brains have not yet automated the link between speech, print, and meaning. This is not a reflection of ability but of timing. The system waited too long to act.
The paradox persists because the current system waits for children to fail before intervening. National policy mandates uniform, programme-based instruction in the early years, assuming that all children will respond equally to synthetic phonics. Yet around one in four do not progress as expected. These children often include those with speech, language, and communication needs or other neurodivergent profiles who require more adaptive, linguistically grounded approaches. Why not simply SHOW them the code? Instead of expecting them to memorise hundreds of correspondences?
Preventing the dyslexia paradox means identifying and supporting these children early, before difficulty becomes entrenched. Interventions such as Speedie Readies focus on word mapping within meaningful context, helping learners connect speech and print through visual and linguistic cues. The system is designed to move each child towards the self-teaching phase, where reading and spelling become self-sustaining.
Early, individualised support is not about replacing whole class phonics instruction but about making it accessible to all learners. Every child deserves the opportunity to experience success, joy, and independence in reading from the start. The earlier this happens, the less likely it is that dyslexia will define their educational journey.
Miss Emma, the Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®, shows there is another way, when we focus on preventing the dyslexia paradox, and when we SHOW the whole written code. With the Speedie Readie system, children see from the very start how speech maps to print and how print maps back to speech. They begin reading real words and stories far more quickly and easily. Speedie Readies start self-teaching early, with word mapping mastery facilitating reading fluency and comprehension for all.