Use the SSP Speech Sound Play Plan before teaching any phonics programme, not just the Speech Sound Pics Approach, to screen for dyslexia risk by assessing phonemic awareness and phonological working memory. We are identifying the 1 in 4 children at risk of struggling to learn phonics before phonics instruction begins.
IPA-aligned Phonemies are Speech Sound Monsters®. They show children the speech sound value of letters. Letters are pictures of speech sounds (Speech Sound Pics®), making word mapping visual, linguistic, and fun. Reading for pleasure by 7!
The NeuroReadies Learning Pathway
Change Their Future: Find the 1 in 4
1 in 4 children in England are not learning to read and spell independently and with the expected fluency and comprehension with Systematic Synthetic Phonics programmes (DfE, 2025).
The NeuroReadies Learning Pathway is an early intervention designed for these children from Term 2 of Reception. Many are the brightest children in the room!
Screen during the Speech Sound Play Plan to identify them early, transform their literacy journey and change their lives.
All it takes is a kind TA who connects with children, because relationships matter, and who loves to talk, listen, rhyme and read. Simply follow the steps towards orthographic mapping and reading for pleasure.
Please order the handbook to see how it works. It has been revised for Word Mapping Mastery to ensure that every child can map every word. We map words for them until they no longer need any help, and that happens more quickly than you might imagine. Children are motivated to read because they love the characters and stories.
The NeuroReadies Learning Pathway
The lead-in to linguistic and neuro-inclusive Word Mapping Mastery®. Follow the NeuroReadies learning path: start with the 10-day Speech Sound Play plan, then work through the mapped SSP Green and Purple Core Code Levels before beginning the Monster Mapped One, Two, Three and Away! series so that all children are reading before the end of KS1.
Ask if your child's reception teacher followed the SSP 10-day plan.
If not, you can do it at home. The plan introduces children to Duck Hands, Lines and Numbers, and the Speech Sound Monsters. Children then easily understand the concept of word mapping in both directions (decoding and encoding) and can use the ground-breaking MyWordz technology and the Monster Spelling Piano app.
If your child is screened as high risk, please contact the Early Dyslexia Screening Centre. We will re-screen to check existing knowledge and then advise you on next steps, either face to face in West Parley or online.
I am now - personally- offering one-to-one monthly support to parents of children aged 4 to 11.
“We do not have an SEN crisis. We have an education department policy crisis.”
Miss Emma
Emma Hartnell-Baker, MEd SEN
Director of The Reading Hut Ltd.
Start the NeuroReadies Learning Path at The Early Dyslexia Screening Centre.
For over a decade, schools have been told to choose a synthetic phonics programme and have asked their teachers to follow it because the DfE has “validated” it, claiming these programmes provide “sufficient support for them to become fluent readers”. When one in four children do not become fluent, schools may believe their staff are not using the programme “with fidelity” or that the child has “special educational needs”. How could the DfE advice be wrong?
It can take years to realise that neither the teachers nor the children are to blame, nor even phonics itself. The real problem lies in the programmes, and by the time this becomes clear the cost is immense.
It's time to get off the train.
