Meet the Speech Sound Monsters through our 10-Day Phonemic Awareness Plan – a powerful, child-friendly alternative to Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds.
Our 10-day standalone plan introduces children to the IPA aligned Phonemies, the Speech Sound Monsters, and builds the essential skills they need before formal systematic synthetic phonics begins in Key Stage One.
Start the reception year with a mission: screen all children for dyslexia risk, and ensure every child develops the phonemic awareness needed to make sense of phonics.
Children love mapping words with Speech Sound Monsters and quickly become hooked on phonics!
Help children avoid phonics learning difficulties – download the info flyer
Get started with the 10-Day Speech Sound Play Plan for Phonemic Awareness Mastery!
Where Love for Children Meets Action to Prevent Reading & Spelling Difficulties.
The Reading Hut® is on a mission to:
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Screen children for dyslexia risk before they start learning phonics.
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Give non-speaking learners a voice with MySpeekie®, the world’s first one-screen AAC.
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Better support the 1 in 4 children at risk of reading and spelling difficulties, and those who are already instructional casualties (ICs)
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Inspire young children to love reading with the Story People and Speekie Peeps!
Speech Sound Play Unlocks Word Mapping Mastery®:
Mapped Words® They Need to Read. Speech Sound Pics® and Phonemies® Lead!
❓ What is phonemic awareness mastery?
Phonemic awareness mastery means a child can confidently hear, identify, and manipulate individual speech sounds in spoken words. These skills form the foundation for decoding, spelling, and understanding how spoken language maps to print. Without these skills children will find learning synthetic phonics difficult.
❓ How does Speech Sound Play work before phonics?
Speech Sound Play builds the essential listening and sound awareness skills children need before phonics begins. Through playful, structured activities using the Speech Sound Monsters (Phonemies), children develop the ability to hear and work with individual sounds. This prepares them for systematic synthetic phonics by giving them the speech–sound insight phonics assumes they already have.
The Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®: Let's Prevent Reading and Spelling Difficulties
A Sound Start to KS1 with Phonemies!
From the moment children step into school, they are welcomed with activities that build on what they already know—speech. We play with speech sounds, helping every child feel valued by mapping their names and celebrating their voices. Our Innovate UK-funded tech provides a voice for non-speaking children through the Phonemies Keyboard: a one-screen AAC. Through talking, singing, rhyming, painting, and puppet play, children explore sounds in a way that feels natural and engaging.
This is more than just a lead into phonics, it is an early screening opportunity to identify children at risk of struggling and a dedicated focus on speech, language, and communication needs, ensuring that every child gets the support they need from the very start. We prevent the struggle.
Speech Sound Play Before Speech Sound Pics!
The Monster Spelling Piano app
During the 10-day Speech Sound Play Plan, you will need the Monster Spelling Piano app. This tool accelerates the development of phonemic awareness by providing carefully scaffolded learning. Children can toggle between building words with Speech Sound Monsters® (Phonemies) or with Sound Pics® (graphemes), helping them make clear connections between sounds and print. They can also practise forming the letters s, a, t, p, i, n to prepare for phonics instruction.
Get the Monster Spelling Piano app to master the core phonics code.
One-time price: £14.95
Available on:
Apple (iPads)
Google Play (Android tablets)