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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.
By making the full alphabetic code (350+ GPCs) visible, and by supporting children to understand the mapping of phonemes to graphemes in every word they encounter, we shift from compensating for difficulty that arises from instruction that does not meet need to enabling learning. This is about providing the conditions that allow all learners to construct the knowledge they need, with dignity and autonomy. Many who have struggled for years are desperate for a way to learn to read, but have experienced years of explicit instruction that, while well intentioned, has not worked.
We aim to eliminate requests for dyslexia assessments in the UK for over 90% of children by meeting need more effectively when children are aged 4–7. This means offering visual and auditory access to the code at the time of need. They can use their finger to reveal the code, at their own pace, and as much or as little as they need.
"My Reading Finger" builds on our existing work supporting self-teaching. We have seen what happens when children are not given access to the code early enough. Luca (age 11) left primary school unable to read or spell. He knows that <ear> can link to two sounds, as in hear or bear, as he was taught those grapheme–phoneme correspondences in the school’s synthetic phonics programme, but not <ear> as in heard. The code has not been made clear or complete for him; he was stuck. We are determined to change this by giving children access to the code when they are still in Key Stage 1, and by personalising their orthographic learning so that these gaps do not develop and learning can be secured from the start. This is the goal of Phonics Reform England.
In phonological recoding, the learner uses some of the graphemes to generate an approximate spoken form, which is sufficient to identify the target word. Once the word is recognised, the remaining grapheme–phoneme links can be filled in, allowing speech, spelling and meaning to become connected in the orthographic lexicon, as described by David Share.
Recoding for Dyslexia begins differently. Rather than asking the learner to rely on a process they already find difficult and may avoid, especially for words that include grapheme–phoneme correspondences not explicitly taught in phonics programmes, and rather than depending on partial access from print to trigger word recognition, the learner is first given the spoken word. From this starting point, they are supported to work out how its graphemes map to phonemes. This shifts the task from attempting to recognise a word through incomplete decoding to actively constructing the relationship between speech and print. It also strengthens the relationship between the dyslexic learner and the adult supporting them.
Parents and teachers of dyslexic children need to understand the difference between the English Pronunciation Code, the Phonics Pronuncition Code and the Personal Pronunication Code.
Recoding words with children, working from the recognised word back to its sound structure and linking each phoneme to the graphemes, is particularly beneficial for dyslexic learners.
These children often struggle to form secure connections between sounds and letters, which limits both reading and spelling development. When a word is first identified, recoding provides an opportunity to make those connections explicit, reducing reliance on memory or guessing. It supports accurate phoneme awareness, strengthens mapping, and helps store words in a way that can be retrieved later.
This approach reduces cognitive load, increases independence, and enables dyslexic learners to access the self-teaching process that is essential for long-term literacy development.
We use a specific activity to achieve this at the word level, which we will share here shortly. We're also building a reading platform where every word is mapped, so children can teach themselves to read with the recoding reader.
The Self-Teaching Reader Tech will be available free to all children in England with a dyslexia diagnosis.
The Self-Teaching Reader (Tech)
THE PROBLEM
Phonics is designed to help children see how speech maps to print.
But 1 in 4 children do not secure this through systematic synthetic phonics instruction.
They are expected to apply a code they do not yet see,
or that includes sounds they do not use in their own speech.
THE SOLUTION
The Self-Teaching Reader, utilising the concept of "My Reading Finger", shows the code directly in the text and gives users full autonomy.
Children can slide their finger to hear the spoken words or click any word to:
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see the graphemes
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see how each grapheme represents its sound value (English Pronunciation Code)
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hear the word
They don’t have to work it out.
They are shown what phonics seeks to teach, but and for all words, not just the words with correspondences in the phonics programme.
WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT
This is not a reading or spelling programme.
Explicit phonics instruction is not required because the user is given the information needed to figure out the word. The teacher can focus on comprehension.
It is a reading platform where:
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there is a series of 100 levelled Village With Three Corners books, building from simple, repetitive, and predictable texts to full chapters
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the books are written by an acclaimed (MBE) children’s author to engage and motivate readers
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all words are mapped and clickable using the Reading Finger
Children can choose the mode that works for them:
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hear fluent reading with expression
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touch words when help is needed
Children are shown how graphemes represent their sound values through the English Pronunciation Code.
This supports mapping in the other direction for spelling.
Over time, they need to click to check their finger less and less.
THE OUTCOME
Children learn to read in the way successful readers do:
by seeing words, understanding how graphemes represent sounds, and storing them in the brain’s word bank.
This is self-teaching.
THE MISSION
We want every child to be an independent, confident reader who chooses to read in their free time by age 7.
To prevent reading failure before it begins, and to prevent the dyslexia paradox.
The Self-Teaching Reader, with a touch interface that allows children to use their own finger (My Reading Finger) to access the code not yet known, will be available free to all children in England with a dyslexia diagnosis.
Makes the grapheme–phoneme structure of every word visible and audible.
Your finger then has access to the code.
Code Mapping® System
The Code Mapping® system makes the structure of words explicit.
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Words are segmented into graphemes (letter groups representing sounds), shown in alternating black and grey
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Split digraphs are shown in blue to indicate a single grapheme split across the word
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Each grapheme maps to a phoneme (speech sound)
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Users can click words to see grapheme boundaries and hear the corresponding phonemes
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When Phonemies® are turned on, they show the sound value using the Phonics Pronunciation Code (PPC)
Definition
A system that shows how written words are segmented into graphemes and mapped to phonemes, with optional audio support to make speech–print connections explicit.
