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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.
WMM Experts at Hand
WMM experts at hand will be able to show staff how to map words with children throughout the day, at the point of need, using ANY words, at ANY stage of learning. WMM is not a programme. It is an approach that supports self-teaching as an easier route to orthographic mapping. Show the Code: Less teaching, more self-teaching.
The Word Mapping Mastery® Training Course and WMM Experts at Hand Directory are about to launch!
Bidirectional word mapping matters because children need to connect speech and print in both directions. Reading involves looking at print and connecting it to spoken language (print-to-speech), while spelling involves hearing spoken language and connecting it to print (speech-to-print). When both pathways are strengthened together, the brain begins storing words efficiently for automatic reading and spelling through self-teaching. We are passionate about supporting adults as learning partners for children, with less explicit instruction needed for all to achieve mastery. They learn to Show the Code, and map all words.
The Reading Framework states:
“Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Pupils’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code, how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language, supports their reading and spelling.” (Department for Education, 2023)
We agree.
What we don’t agree on is how schools are being told to achieve this. There is so much more needed.
While the alphabetic code is currently being taught in this way, because teachers in Reception and Year 1 have little choice, schools are going to need more and more WMM experts at hand to support the children who are not thriving within the existing system. More of it through English Hubs is also costly.
The DfE will fund Experts at Hand provision, and we hope this means they will eventually see the impact Word Mapping Mastery® has and review existing recommendations. It would be less expensive to prevent decoding and encoding difficulties in the first place.
Join us and learn how to map words in both directions for decoding and encoding throughout the day with any child, in any grade, without using a programme.
You can train simply to support your own child, the children you tutor, pupils in schools, children educated otherwise than at school (EOTAS), and children who are not yet reading and spelling with confidence.
Once you feel confident and have experience with WMM, you can choose a specialism and help us train and support nurseries and schools, not only changing the data but helping more children become confident readers who read for pleasure.
Show the Code: Less teaching, more self-teaching.
We are the first to create phonetic symbols for children. MyWordz® technology is Innovate UK funded and enables children to type in phonemes and see the spelling, and also say or type a word and see the mapping. MySpeekie® offers the first one-screen AAC, as the words they build using the Phonemies® keyboard are voiced, and MyReadie® is being added so that children can read the Village With Three Corners books and check the code as and when needed, building code knowledge and moving into the self-teaching phase so that they are able to read chapters by the end of the series.
Each Speech Sound Monster (Phonemie®) says an English speech sound (phoneme) and can therefore show the sound value of every grapheme. Our Code Mapping algorithm also shows which letters are graphemes. Together, they show the alphabetic code for all words.
Rather than expecting children to always figure out (without any clues, and told not to 'guess') which letters are graphemes and what sound value they represent, we show the code directly so that they can quickly recognise the word and THEN take in how those letters and sounds map together within that word.
If they know what the word means, we can then use the 60-second spelling routine to bond those speech sounds, graphemes, and meanings into the brain’s word bank, so that the word can be stored for instant recognition and accurate spelling in future. Some children need only one run-through of the routine, while others need more.
This is not just about being able to read and spell that one unfamiliar word. Children begin taking in the patterns across words, and this dramatically increases the rate of statistical learning that takes place through implicit learning.
The more words they successfully store, the more efficient and automatic the process becomes.
Show the Code: Less Teaching, More Self-Teaching.
Less Teaching, More Self-Teaching
Isn’t it ironic that most reading and spelling is acquired through implicit learning and self-teaching, not explicit phonics instruction, despite the Science of Reading being very clear about that?
Through the Phonics Reform England (PRE) movement, we’re prompting practical discussions about:
• risk screening on school entry
• who actually needs explicit and systematic phonics instruction
• how it should be delivered
• for how long
• and what needs to change so fewer children fail SATs and more are reading independently, confidently, and for pleasure before the end of Year 1.
How can we make phonics (the ability to decode and encode any word) work for ALL?
We’re also comparing all DfE-validated synthetic phonics programmes specifically through the lens of:
• the child at risk of reading failure
• and the child who starts school with strong phonemic awareness and language comprehension, needs very little support with word mapping, and may actually be held back by having to work through a two-year phonics programme.
No more than 75% of children have met the expected standard in reading since 2016. They struggle to 'sound it out'
This impacts on reading fluency and comprension. After a decade of synthetic phonics policy, the outcome of the existing system is clear. The promise of synthetic phonics has fallen short.
That’s why we’re building a Directory of SLCN, SEN and SpLD specialists as Experts at Hand (EAH), able to step in with personalised alternatives when synthetic phonics instruction isn’t working, ideally before children begin failing.
The goal is to move away from the “wait to fail” model and prevent the dyslexia paradox, using a responsive approach that is used by each individual at THEIR time of need. No program required. We even supply the word mapping technology that shows adults the code when they are unsure. Training shows how to use this with individuals, for example when they have a different pronunication code (accent).
Word Mapping Mastery® is not a programme. It is an approach used throughout the day to secure phonemic awareness and bond together phonemes, graphemes, spelling and meaning more efficiently in the brain’s word bank, freeing cognitive resources for fluency and comprehension.
This aligns with the Science of Reading and newer models of reading development that extend beyond the Simple View.
WMM Experts at Hand will be invaluable to nurseries and schools because they can show staff how to map words with children throughout the day, at the point of need, using ANY words, at ANY stage of learning.
Less teaching, more self-teaching.
Nurseries and schools can also train their own staff through our specialised Word Mapping Mastery® Experts at Hand training course.
Innovate UK-funded Word Mapping technology shows the code of ANY word at the point of need and offers a spell check with a difference, because words are mapped orthographically.
While synthetic phonics programmes typically teach around 100 GPCs, skilled readers use more than 350+ grapheme-phoneme correspondences every day without even realising it.
That’s how you can read The Chaos Poem.
No-one explicitly taught you all those correspondences. Your brain learned to navigate the full code via statistical learning.
We hope this renews important conversations around whether teacher-led whole-class synthetic phonics instruction is the right pathway for every child. In the meantime, an army of Word Mapping Mastery® experts will work to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive.
How do children blend the wrong sounds, given by adults, into the right word?
Let's talk about speech sound mapping!
We have an Orthographic Mapping group
The Word Mapping Mastery® course is designed so that anyone, including parents, can learn how to support self-teaching through word mapping with Mapped Words®.
It is not a programme with a fixed scope and sequence. It is an approach that centres on individual need.
Following this, specialist WMM experts at hand awards will be available for professionals with QTS supporting specific groups of children, including:
• Early Years and Birth to 5
• SLCN
• SEN and SpLD
• neurodivergent children
• and children with dyslexia diagnoses.
There will also be a specialist Teaching Assistant pathway.
Word Mapping Mastery® is not a programme. It is an approach used throughout the day, with children in any grade, to secure phonemic awareness and bond together phonemes, graphemes, spelling and meaning more efficiently in the brain’s word bank, freeing cognitive resources for fluency and comprehension.
It can be used from birth, connecting speech and print with Phonemies® to support SLCN and prepare the brain for orthographic learning, even when weak speech sound processing has been identified.
As the DfE rolls out its Experts at Hand initiative, we are preparing to launch the Word Mapping Mastery® experts at hand training course and a directory of trained specialists, ready to support nurseries, schools and families with practical, personalised alternatives for children who are not thriving through synthetic phonics instruction alone.
WMM experts at hand will be able to show staff how to map words with children throughout the day, at the point of need, using ANY words, at ANY stage of learning. They store the word in the brain's word bank using a 60 second Spelling Routine. It can also be used as a stand-alone intervention for children who are not yet able to decode and encode words with confidence, especially those with neurodivergent profiles, children learning English as an additional language, children whose accent does not align with the expected pronunciation code used within synthetic phonics programmes, and children with SLCN, SEN or SpLD.
Word Mapping Mastery® is also crucial for children with EHCPs, including those educated otherwise than at school (EOTAS), because it can be clearly specified within Section F provision and linked to measurable SMART targets and outcomes.It is particularly suited to children with dyslexia diagnoses, SLCN, SEN and other neurodivergent profiles who are not yet able to decode and encode words with confidence.
Show the Code: Less teaching, more self-teaching.