Phonemies® are visual symbols that make English speech sounds visible. They connect letters to sounds, support dyslexic learners, and address accent differences.
Word Sightedness!
If dyslexia was once called word blindness, then the opposite must be word sightedness, the ability to clearly see the structure of words as the brain maps sounds to print!
While word blindness is an older term for dyslexia, it is no longer used by professionals because we now understand that dyslexia is not a visual problem. The difficulty is not in seeing the words, but in connecting the letters to the sounds they represent. The term dyslexia, first coined in 1887, describes a difference in how the brain processes language, affecting reading, writing, and spelling. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, word blindness was used to describe children who struggled to read despite normal intelligence and what was considered to be adequate instruction. At the time, this difficulty was mistakenly believed to be caused by problems with vision, rather than with mapping print to speech in both directions for reading and spelling.
Using my gift of 'word sightedness' for good!
If dyslexia was once called word blindness, then the opposite must be word sightedness: the ability to clearly see the structure of words as the brain maps sounds to print!?
I designed the world’s first word mapping tool that does what my brain is obsessed with.
It shows how letters and sounds connect for any word of English, in both directions (for reading or spelling). Ask me how many sounds a letter “makes” (print-to-speech phonics speak!) and I can tell you, for example, the nine that the grapheme <a> maps to. Ask me how many graphemes represent a sound and I can tell you, for example, the fourteen that represent /s/.
Synthetic phonics only teaches around 100 as a way to kick-start self-teaching. When reading and spelling, however, you are navigating over 350 without even being aware of it. As soon as your brain started to self-teach, as a child, you stopped being aware of it. That can be an issue if you are now tasked with mapping words with children.
It is incredibly hard, without this word sightedness, to see how speech and sound symbols (graphemes) connect. Dyslexic brains in particular struggle to break words down to their smallest parts. This is what is taught in phonics: the mapping of letters and sounds. We know that understanding how these connect underpins everything related to reading and spelling, but contrary to popular opinion, the science does not tell us how 'best' to teach this.
Those who struggle, and then receive a dyslexia diagnosis, simply did not reach the self-teaching phase. They may read reasonably well, but spelling will be a nightmare as the mappings do not store. I talk about how to change that during Word Mapping Mastery training, but actually find it is easier for children to work through Speedie Readies, and the adults learn about 'whole code' word mapping with them.
My son reached the self-teaching phase within a week when he was five. He had no interest in reading, but a week after doing certain things he could read by reading. Not every child needs explicit phonics instruction.
I was reading independently at three, with no phonics instruction, and my little sister at two. No phonics. Not hyperlexic, and absolutely no issues with comprehension. I am AuDHD and a pattern-seeker.
When you speak to people, you realise millions learnt to read without phonics instruction. The trick is knowing which children do need systematic word mapping support, and how to do it in a way their brain will understand.
The word mapping algorithm was me recording the word mapping machine that is my brain, the opposite of word blindness. Showing the graphemes is easy; I had to find a way to show the sound value.
Let me introduce the Phonemies!
Phonemies® are visual symbols that make English speech sounds visible. They connect letters to sounds, support dyslexic learners, and address accent differences. Even if a child does not yet know these GPCs, they can figure them out and store them in the word brain bank.
Miss Emma
Emma Hartnell-Baker, The Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®
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What are Phonemies®?
Phonemies® are visual symbols that represent the individual speech sounds (phonemes) in English. They make the connection between spoken sounds and written letters visible, helping learners understand how words are structured for both reading and spelling.
Phonemies show how each sound can be written with one or more graphemes, and how the same letter can represent different sounds in different words. This makes the complex English sound system easier to understand and use. English has an opaque orthography.
Developed as part of the Cue Code system, Phonemies are used in MyWordz® and MySpeekie® to support accurate reading, spelling, and pronunciation. They help every learner, including those with dyslexia or speech and language differences, to see what their brain hears and to see what the dyslexic brain may not hear.
Phonemies also tackle the issue of accents by showing consistent sound–symbol relationships. This allows learners to map words accurately, even when speech sounds vary across regions.
They use the Universal Code (as explained in the Speech Sound King's Story) and then translate to their accent. Avery demonstrates here with the word 'pan'.
The Speech Sound Monsters (Phonemies®) make it easier for toddlers to understand how speech sounds and letters connect from speech to print, and they make learning to read easier for autistic and dyslexic learners who have spent years trying to link letters and sounds through phonics programmes.
So we Show the Code, and they build independence and confidence in word mapping as they Check with the Tech!