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Phonics Reform England: Not reading reform. Phonics reform. Improving phonics for the one in five at risk of struggling to read and spell.
English Pronunciation Code (EPC)
The English Pronunciation Code offers an adaptation and extension of the IPA, providing a versatile way to present how speech and print connect. It offers consistency, while the technology allows for adaptability and exploration of how individuals produce and organise speech sounds, which vary between speakers. Understanding different pronunciation codes is essential if users are to store speech, spelling, and meaning, and achieve Word Mapping Mastery®.
We are excited to introduce a world-first word mapping system, used alongside existing synthetic phonics programmes to strengthen how children connect speech and print. It combines Village with Three Corners pre-mapped books, a speech–print mapping algorithm, and training that shows adults how to respond differently to different learners. The system supports bidirectional word mapping at scale, helping children become self-teaching readers and spellers by making the link between speech, spelling, and meaning visible. Add this to your child’s word mapping learning journey: this isn’t whole word vs phonics. It’s more efficient phonics used within real books children love, written by Sheila McCullagh MBE.
When the series is launched, this approach can be extended to other texts, enabling dyslexic students in KS2 and KS3 and functionally illiterate adults to teach themselves to read using the self-teaching reader function of MyWordz®. MyWordz® is being considered for the Department for Education’s EdTech Testbed pilot.
It also supports those learning to pronounce words while reading aloud, particularly when English is not their first language, helping them access the English Pronunciation Code. The Self-Teaching Reader system will be added.
Every word is segmented into graphemes, and each grapheme is shown as a complete unit across the word. The alternating colours are not decoration, they simply mark the boundaries between graphemes so the structure can be seen at a glance.
The English Pronunciation Code
Connecting the Dots for Every Dyslexic Mind
What is the English Pronunciation Code?
The Pronunciation Code refers to how speech sounds are organised and produced when mapping spoken words to print.
In English, this is not fixed. It varies according to accent, speech development, and individual differences.
This means that even when children are learning the same words, they may not be working from the same underlying sound structure.
Children do not all start with the same pronunciation code, even though phonics programmes are designed as if they do.
This matters because learning to read and spell depends on mapping speech to print. If the speech sound structure is not secure or not shared, this mapping becomes more difficult. Without a bridge between the child’s pronunciation code and the programmes used, some children will experience considerable difficulty aligning spoken and written English.
Phonics introduces how print represents speech, but SSP programmes are designed as if children can already access and work with the sounds in words, and that they all use the same sound system. This is the Phonics Pronunciation Code. For some children, this is not yet in place. For others, they do not use that system. Some children face both challenges. The PPC can change depending on the phonics programme, as can the graphemes.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) provides a consistent way to represent speech sounds. However, it is complex and primarily used in specialist fields. It is not designed for everyday classroom use or for young learners. We have developed the English Pronunication Code (EPC) for this purpose.
Attempts have been made in the past to make the English code more transparent, most notably through the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) develped by James Pitman. This was developed to create a simpler system in which each sound is represented by one symbol, so that children could see a direct and consistent link between speech and print. The aim was to make reading and spelling effectively “phonetic”.
Children were expected to learn this simplified system first and then transfer that knowledge to standard written English once reading was established. However, this does not align with how reading develops. Children learn to read and spell through self-teaching, building knowledge of the written code by mapping speech to print across many words. If the code they are learning is not the one they will continue to encounter, this process is disrupted.
English is not a fully phonetic system. When children move from a simplified one sound–one symbol code to standard spelling, the correspondences they have learned no longer apply. They cannot simply transfer what they know. They have to learn a different code.
As discussed by Stanilas Dehaene (2009, pp. 31–37), the complexity of English spelling reflects the need to encode language beyond a simple transcription of speech. Writing does not aim to reproduce speech exactly, but to encode it at a level that allows efficient access to meaning.
However, while this explains why a fully transparent system is not possible, it does not address how individual learners navigate this complexity when their own pronunciation code differs.
It is a problem no-one has found a solution for, until now.
AI cannot do this.
This ground-breaking work from Emma Hartnell-Baker, who defines the logic of the pronunciation and spelling code, working in partnership with a tech team who make this logic operational through coding, focuses on that gap. Using the English Pronunication Code (EPC) Each word fully segmented into graphemes, with every grapheme shown as a complete unit in sequence across the word. The alternating black and grey colours simply show where one grapheme ends and the next begins, so the reader can see the structure of the word clearly. Blue is used to denote a split digraph. An algorithm has been developed to convert words into defined phoneme arrays and grapheme arrays, enabling bidirectional mapping between speech and print. Phonemies substitute IPA phonetic symbols for children. This makes the relationship between each learner’s pronunciation code and the written code visible and usable.
The English Pronunciation Code also has wider applications. It is being used to develop speech-first technology, including augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) approaches that support children who are not yet able to speak. It also supports learners of English as an additional language by making the sound structure of words visible, helping them understand and produce English pronunciation.
Understanding the pronunciation code used within phonics, as seen in the English Code Overlay and the Phonics Pronunciation Code, and then comparing it to the child’s own pronunciation code, helps educators understand not only the need for a bridge, but how that bridge can be created. The English Pronunication Code can be adapted to suit the user's personal pronunication code, but in a way that bridges speech and print.
Word Mapping Mastery® (WMM) is the goal for all learners before the age of 7. However, many learners require additional visual and structural support. This is why we build word mapping technology that connects speech and print with flexibility.
The EPC underpins this work. While the output is consistently structured, it can be adapted so that users can align it with their own pronunciation code, ensuring access for all learners. It connects the dots for dyslexic minds.
Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading in the brain: The new science of how we read. Viking.
These earlier attempts reflect an important scientific insight: that reading depends on understanding how speech is represented in print. The drive to make this relationship clearer was well founded.
However, changing the written code itself proved to be the wrong solution, as it disrupted access to the language children ultimately need to read. Learning depends on self-teaching through interaction with the actual written code. When that code is replaced, the opportunity to build this process is disrupted.
The issue is not whether some children can transfer between systems, but why others cannot. The focus must be on those at risk, often around one in five learners, who do not develop this mapping easily. This has not changed whether 'three cueing' was used, or synthetic phonics.
What this work shows is that the original problem was correctly identified, but not fully resolved. The challenge is not to replace the code, but to reveal it. By making the structure of standard written English visible, while allowing it to be aligned with each learner’s pronunciation, it becomes possible to support self-teaching in the way the system requires. This is where the science, the code, and the technology now come together.
We’ve mapped The Pronunciation Code to print and are building tech so every word is mapped. Everyone who can’t yet read or write will be able to do so.
We’re adding a self-teaching reader to MyWordz® tech. If they don't know the code SHOW IT.
Let's Show the Code! The English Pronunciation Code
The Code Mapping® display, using Emma Hartnell-Baker's algorithm, makes the grapheme structure of words fully visible, complementing the representation of speech sounds shown through the IPA. Every word is segmented into graphemes, and each grapheme is shown as a complete unit in sequence across the word. The alternating colours are not decoration, they simply mark the boundaries between graphemes so the structure can be seen at a glance. When you track each grapheme across the word, the structure of the code is immediately visible. This is not additional information layered onto the word, it is the word, with its full grapheme structure made visible. Have a free play of this Orthographic Mapping Tool here!
For children like Alf who have not succeeded with print-first phonics this shift is significant. It provides a way into the code that does not depend on prior success with letters. It allows them to build from what they can already do, hear and say sounds, and develop accurate representations that can then be mapped to print.
Phonemies® are the starting point. Each Phonemie® represents a speech sound, allowing even very young children to identify, segment, and work with the sounds in words before needing to engage with spelling. For toddlers, this provides an immediate and accessible way into language, grounded in what they can hear and say.
This matters because English is an opaque orthography. Graphemes do not consistently represent the same sound across words, so relying on letters as the entry point introduces variability from the outset. By contrast, phonemes are stable. When learners begin with clearly identified phonemes, they are working with a consistent system.
Phonemies® make these phonemes visible and usable. Each symbol represents a sound that can be said, heard, and tracked in sequence. This allows learners to build a secure understanding of the sound structure of words without needing to rely on memorisation, rules, or external prompts.
Once the phoneme sequence is secure, graphemes can be introduced as the written representations of those sounds. At this point, the task is not to work out what the word says, but to select how each phoneme is represented in print. This shifts the process from uncertainty to precision.
This aligns with the process described by Linnea Ehri, where orthographic learning depends on forming connections between phonemes and graphemes. Phonemies® support this by ensuring that the phoneme, the stable element in the system, is clearly identified from the start.
Phonemies® therefore provide a foundation that begins before print and continues as written language is introduced. They allow learners to work with the structure of spoken words first, so that mapping to graphemes becomes clear, consistent, and meaningful.
For children at risk of reading and spelling difficulties, starting with print introduces complexity too early. English orthography is variable and unpredictable at the grapheme level. When learners are asked to work from letters to sounds before they have secured the phoneme structure of words, they are more likely to guess, memorise, or rely on partial cues.
A speech-first approach removes this instability. Phonemes can be heard, produced, and segmented. They provide a consistent and accessible starting point, particularly for children with speech, language, or processing differences. By using Phonemies® as the reference point, learners can work with the structure of spoken words in a way that is clear and repeatable.
This is especially important for children who struggle with attention, memory, or phonological processing. When the task is anchored in sound, they can track each unit in sequence and build a complete representation of the word. This reduces cognitive load and supports accuracy. Instead of trying to interpret print while simultaneously working out the sounds, they are able to focus on one stable system first.
Once the phoneme structure is secure, mapping to graphemes becomes a process of selection rather than inference. This supports the formation of precise phoneme–grapheme connections, as described by Linnea Ehri, and reduces the likelihood of errors becoming embedded.
👉 Phonemies® show the sound value, so children can build the code from what is stable, before meeting the variability of print.
Those teaching phonics focus on a limited set of grapheme–phoneme correspondences; Phonics Reform England (PRE) builds on this by showing how those connections work in every word. This supports self-teaching and meets the needs of all learners.
We take each word and segment it into its phonemes using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), with adaptations to align with phonics. These phonetic symbols are presented as Phonemies®, making the sound structure of the word visible and easy to learn. Alongside this, the graphemes are mapped across the word and shown as complete units, using alternating black and white to mark the boundaries between them, with blue used to indicate split digraphs. There are no silent or unused letters, as every grapheme is accounted for in the mapping. The only exceptions are the words one and once, which are not mapped and are instead shown in red.
As the alphabetic code is shown children do not need to learn any rules
Children in Reception using the pre-phonics Speech Sound Play Plan learn all sounds within around two weeks, as they watch the two-minute video daily. Teachers can stop using Phonemies when they start their synthetic phonics programme, or a teaching assistant can continue using it with children identified as at risk. In Australia, the Speech Sound Monsters are embedded within the Speech Sound Pics® Approach. We apologise, but we have no plans to launch this as a classroom phonics programme in England.
We will support Reception teachers to use the 10 Day Speech Sound Play Plan as an alternative to Letters and Sounds Phase 1, and have shared the plan for free on SpeechSoundPlay.com. You will need the satpin handbook and the Monster Spelling Piano app. The Monster Spelling Piano app aligns with Letters and Sounds and is being considered for the DfE EdTech Testbed Pilot.
