Speech Sound Play with Phonemies: A Sound Start for Neurodivergent, EAL, & Non-Speaking Learners
10-day plan with MySpeekie® to develop speech sound awareness through Phonemies Play – before starting systematic synthetic phonics (SSP).
Speech Sound Play
Getting Ready for Phonics
with Phonemies -
Quacking the Code!
A Sound Start to Word Mapping:
Phonemic Awareness for Every NeuroType
Inclusive by Design: Created by SEN and SLCN Experts for Autistic, ADHD, and At-Risk Learners — Aligned with the Delphi Dyslexia Definition
The System Is Creating Instructional Casualties
In 2024, 26% of children could not read and spell at the minimum expected level by age 11*, and it is time look more closely at the way phonics is being taught: synthetic phonics programmes have been mandated and taught since 2013.
This is not a failure of children, teachers, or families.
It is the result of a rigid system that ignores how diverse young learners are and removes teacher autonomy.
When my mum taught infants, every child could read by the time they left her classroom. She used The Village with Three Corners series, and every child was heard reading their book every single day. Parents and grandparents came in to help with that.
Speech Sound Play offers a developmentally appropriate way to intervene earlier.
Speech Sound Play is the first step toward real change, especially while the Department for Education continues to ignore linguistic and neurodiversity by mandating synthetic phonics programmes as the primary way to teach orthographic knowledge (the understanding of how letters and sounds connect).
We can screen early, intervene early, and start where every child already is: with speech, even for non-speaking learners.
We can do this even before the system is changed.
The earlier we start, the more children we can prevent from being left behind.
This 10-day plan will change lives for children starting KS1.
It can also be started when children are toddlers, helping to address both the
SLCN and SEN crises.
Miss Emma
Emma Hartnell-Baker
Director of The Reading Hut®
Synthetic Phonics was mandated in 2013 as a result of the Rose Report, 2006 in which was commissioned to address the reason/s children could not read by age 11.
Letters and Sounds Phase 1 – Speech Sound Play Reimagined with Phonemies: A Neuro-Inclusive Approach Supporting Linguistic and Neurodiversity.
The Phonemies Family of Speech Sound Monsters make Phase 1 truly inclusive, aligning with the Science of Reading & Science of Learning. By embracing linguistic diversity, they bridge spoken and written language, ensuring all children—especially autistic learners and those with speech and language challenges—can access phonics in a way that makes sense to them.
A Ground-Breaking 10-Day Phonemic Awareness Programme with Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters)
Our Phase 1 programme provides the explicit instruction in phonemic awareness that is useful for all children but critical for at least 1 in 4 before starting a synthetic phonics programme. Use this before starting your chosen SSP programme
Designed in alignment with the Science of Reading and the Science of Learning, it supports all learners, including:
✅ Non-speaking children
✅ EAL learners (English as an Additional Language)
✅ Children with accents that differ from standard phonics pronunciations
✅ Autistic and ADHD minds, with activities designed for movement, interest and engagement
✅ Those at risk of Dyslexia, ensuring early intervention and support
What Makes This Phase 1 Speech Sound Play Plan Different to Letters and Sounds Phase 1?
🟢 Phonemies – A Fun, Visual System for the 44+ English Speech Sounds
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Children learn to identify, segment (order), and blend speech sounds before letters are introduced.
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Decoding and encoding from Day 1, using Phonemies to represent speech sounds in any word (e.g., their names!).
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Encourages discussions about accents, helping children understand phoneme variation.
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Mapped names and words engage children by focusing on speech sounds in words that interest them.
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More than alliteration! The focus is on blending, segmenting, and manipulating all phonemes in words.
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Engaging activities, including songs, rhymes, and the Phase 1 rap!
🟢 A Seamless Transition to ANY Synthetic Phonics Programme of your choice
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By Day 7, children are introduced to letters (graphemes) s a t p i n as pictures of speech sounds.
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Ready to transition into any synthetic phonics programme, including those that follow the s a t p i n sequence.
🟢 Multi-Sensory Learning with Duck Hands, Speech Sound Lines, and Numbers with Speech Sound Monsters
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Duck Hands, Lines, and Numbers support early ordering of speech sounds and an awareness of where representations of those sounds will be placed.
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Numbers ensure children always move left to right, reinforcing directionality as they answer questions like, “Which is the number 3 sound in this word?”—helping to build positional awareness of phonemes.
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Number formation phrases help children build motor memory for forming numbers, reinforcing their understanding through movement.
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Children learn to form the letters s a t p i n using formation phrases, ensuring they are ready for Day 7 when graphemes are introduced.
🟢 Integrated Dyslexia Screening
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Built-in assessment tools identify early dyslexia risk factors before formal phonics instruction begins.
Designed for State Maintained Schools
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Aligns with DfE guidance on removing the old Phase 1, which includes elements that are not used when connecting letters and sounds, ensuring maximum impact on phonemic awareness.
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Can be used as a standalone pre-phonics programme before any synthetic phonics scheme.
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Also available as part of our full systematic phonics programme, 'the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach, which meets all 16 core DfE criteria. The SSP programme will launch at SystematicSyntheticPhonics.com
Get started with the 10-day Speech Sound Play with Phonemies 10 Day Plan this September!
📩 Contact us to learn more.
Through Speech Sound Play and the visual–auditory scaffolding of Phonemies, neurodivergent children develop phonemic awareness and practise phoneme articulation—essential foundations for understanding synthetic phonics. MySpeekie®, the world’s first one-screen AAC technology, empowers learners to connect speech, print, and meaning in real time.
“The technology has a high potential to support positive disruptive change in its end users.” – Innovate UK
No understanding of letters is required. Children as young as two can use MySpeekie®, as they do not need to be able to read or spell, or understand any phonics.
The interface features a single screen: the Phonemies keyboard. Phonemies are a family of Speech Sound Monsters, and each one ‘says’ a different sound in English. There are 48 tiles to click.
They pick it up ridiculously quickly as it builds on something they already understand- that animals or creatures make sounds! And each has their own quirky personality and movement, and they want to copy them!
Phonemies voice the speech sounds that many children can’t say clearly when they start school.
Children simply click the 'monsters' in the order the sounds occur in spoken words. When those speech sounds (phonemes) are blended together using our custom-built algorithm, the word appears on the screen, ready to be spoken aloud.
If a child isn't sure which Monster Sounds to choose, parents, speech therapists, or teachers can use the 'Check Word' feature. It shows the correct Phonemies to type for that word. The word can also be downloaded using the Map and Drag feature and printed for reference, so the child can keep it in their personal word bank.
Children can create single words or full sentences. They can express whatever they like (except for swear words — those aren’t in the word bank!). With over 20,000 words already in the MySpeekie® Word Bank, and more added daily, there's no limit to what they can say.
This Innovate UK–funded, ground-breaking technology not only gives non-speaking children a voice it is also a powerful tool for developing phonemic awareness! It therefore lays a powerful foundation for learning the connections between letters and sounds.
MyWordz® with MySpeekie® - Show the Code with Phonemies
Quacking the Code with Duck Hands® - App download
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mywordz-with-myspeekie/id6737770129 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thereadinghut.mywordz
Web Version: Yearly Memberhip - Special Intro Offer £75 MyWordz.com
MySpeekie®
Learn to type words in Phonemies to build words and sentences - even if you can't read them (yet!)
Then hear your words voiced!
Use it as a one-screen AAC or spell-check tool
The MySpeekie Channel is coming soon!
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.
