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. Preventing the dyslexia pardox!
Develop speech sound awareness through Phonemies Play, supporting children before or alongside systematic synthetic phonics (SSP).
The 10 Day Speech Sound Play Plan
for 4 - 7 year olds
Speech Sound Play for SEN, Neurodivergent, EAL, and SLCN Learners
Use this 10-day phonemic awareness mastery plan before starting your chosen systematic phonics programme. Screen for dyslexia risk, strengthen phonemic awareness and phonological working memory, and support phoneme articulation. The play plan is integral to the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach and offers targeted, early intervention for children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN), children learning English as an additional language (EAL), and those who may not yet have identified needs in their EHCP. Use this even if not using the Speech Sound Pics Approach to teach reading and spelling.
Through this playful approach, children transition more easily to Phase 2, where they begin connecting letters and sounds through phonics. No one else is innovating in this way. Phonemic awareness and phonics are both valued, and instruction is flipped to recognise and celebrate, rather than ignore, linguistic and neurodiversity.
Word Mapping (the key to successful reading) becomes far more enjoyable for everyone. We make it easier by Code Mapping® to show the graphemes, and Monster Mapping® to also show the sound value for the graphemes (speech sound pictures!)
After the Speech Sound Play 10-Day Plan, continue with Monster Word Mapping® especially if using a synthetic phonics programme. Monster Mapped Words® help children who struggle to learn with synthetic phonics to understand how letters and sounds connect, as we make the code visible! By term 2 of reception you will introduce the Monster Mapped Stories so that children start reading real stories - mapping words bi-directionally - membership at SpeedieReadies.com gives book access.
😊 No Guessing. No Memorising. No Rules.
Speech Sound Play for 4 to 7 Year Olds: A 10-Day Path to Phonemic Awareness Mastery
This order of introducing children to letters and sounds makes more sense to them because it starts from speech. They begin by thinking about the speech sounds used to produce whole words, so when they later consider the written form, the pictures of the speech sounds, the graphemes make sense. By using the Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters®), they also see that sound pictures can represent many different sounds as they explore the Monster Mapped Words®.
This is the 10-day Speech Sound Play Plan, designed as a foundational resource for children in Reception before the introduction of a chosen Systematic Phonics programme. You may choose to continue to learn the Core Code with the Speech Sound Pics Approach!
While ideal for use in classroom settings over ten consecutive days, the plan is highly flexible. When time constraints or whole-class demands are not a factor, it can—and should—be adapted for use in other settings, including at home. For younger children, or those who need a gentler pace, the plan can be delivered over a longer period and in a less structured way, ensuring accessibility and enjoyment remain at the heart of learning.
✅ Speech Sound Play Plan – Outcomes
By the end of the Speech Sound Play plan, children will have been screened for dyslexia risk and already begun targeted intervention. The plan is designed specifically to develop phonemic awareness and phonological working memory—the core foundations required for reading success. (See: Delphi Dyslexia Definition.)
Children will:
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Identify the speech sounds in spoken words they will soon build and decode using the initial GPC group (s, a, t, p, i, n)
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Begin forming those letter shapes, as well as the numbers 1–10
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Understand that spoken words are made up of speech sounds, and that we can segment those sounds using Duck Hands—a method that mirrors what is later used in phonics
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Accurately identify Speech Sound Monster sounds when given spoken words and blend them to form words
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Understand the sound value of each Phonemie and learn to “Follow the Monster Sounds to Say the Word”—developing skills to encode (spell) and decode (read) even before graphemes are introduced
For children who cannot yet articulate the speech sounds, the Phonemies Family—the Speech Sound Monsters—offers an accessible visual and auditory scaffold.
✅ Why This Approach Works
By taking a schema-driven approach to introducing the connection between letters and speech sounds, all children are engaged, included, and ready to learn phonics.
This plan helps avoid the barriers at least 1 in 4 children face when beginning phonics, particularly those related to limited phonemic awareness and weak working memory.
As a result:
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More children will pass the Phonics Screening Check—and pass it earlier
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The key challenges have already been identified and addressed
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Learners are not overwhelmed by cognitive load from trying to map sounds to graphemes without a solid auditory foundation
It is often assumed that phonics instruction, including grapheme introduction from day one, will resolve these issues. But this is not the case. Without a solid level of phonemic awareness, introducing graphemes too early can increase cognitive load—causing children to lose motivation and stop trying.
Taken from this Youtube video
Children will be able to easily blend the commonly used GPCs because the 10-Day-Plan has built solid phonemic awareness and phonological working memory.
The Phonemies SHOW the sound value when it is different from the Core Code Level.
And adults aren't left trying to explain it.
So very early on, when the sound value for the Sound Pics (graphemes) are different to the one they had looked at in the Core Code Level they understand the mapping without an adult having to explain it. For most children they need to rely on partial decoding and Set for Variablity (SfV) or for someone to tell them the different mapping eg that the <e> in comet does not map to the same sound as in the word 'end'. However adults find this really hard, as they are already readers and rarely have to think about how words are mapped. It is much easier if they can SEE the code. The MyWordz® technology facilitates this using a phone. Most parents have a phone with them - they can just show the code, there and then.
The <e> in the word comet may be mapped to the Silly Schwa, but the Speech Sound King would use k ɒ m ɪ t
Even though Mummy uses the schwa sound when saying comet, it is easier for the child to understand the universal mapping first and then translate it to their own accent. A child can more easily connect speech sounds, spelling, and meaning when they first see the universally agreed spelling code using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For teaching phonics, this should be based on the British IPA.
It's easy to blend the sounds in words that only consist of the Core Code, if the child knows that code and has the phonemic awareness to blend the sounds into the word. The reason explicit phonics instruction is known to simply this is to kick-start the process is because so many words contain GPCs not taught. That is why mapped words matter so much. Some children can't reach the self-teaching phase without help. Even if they know all Core Code GPCs they need to be able to figure out the rest or they won't become readers. This is why passing the PSC by the end of Year 1 should not be the goal. Self-teaching while in Year 1 should be the goal.
English has an opaque orthography - without good phonemic awareness and phonological working memory (the focus of the Speech Sound Play Plan) this becomes difficult to navigate regardless of whether the children recognise the taught GPCs and can pass the Phonics Screening Check.
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According to Speech and Language UK (2023), 1 in 3 children are starting school with SLCN, meaning they struggle to understand and/or use spoken language. This represents a significant and growing concern for early literacy and learning.
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Additionally, 1 in 4 children (25%) begin school with poor phonemic awareness and limited phonological working memory. These skills are essential for learning to read and spell. Without targeted, explicit intervention, these children are at high risk of dyslexia — regardless of how many books have been read to them at home or their oral language skills or general intelligence.
What Will I Need?
Group or Class:
'satpin' Handbook
Monster Spelling Folder
Spellling Cloud Keyring
Pack of Phonemies Cards
Getting Started Bundle £70
Plus The Monster Spelling Piano app and
MyWordz® with MySpeekie® tech
Per child:
Monster Spelling Folder £30
(ask about bulk buys)
Paper (origami) Speech Sound Duck Puppets to support your 10 day Phonemic Awareness Mastery plan
Let's Play with Speech Sounds! Also use the SpeedieReadies site
