MyWordz® : Personalised Word Mapping that 'Just Makes Sense'
MyWordz®: Immersing Children in Spoken and Written English From Birth in Neuroinclusive Ways
Phonemies: Fun IPA Aligned 'Phoneme Characters' (Speech Sound Monsters)
The forthcoming book outlines how Phonemies are used to make learning to read and spell in English—with its opaque orthography—easier for all neurotypes.
Associating an English speech sound with a fun character and movement also helps children who are learning to speak English with accurate phoneme articulation!
Young children learn more when they are moving! Previous research has centred on pairing a phoneme with a single letter grapheme, however scientists have been underestimating what young brains are capable of! When a child sees /a/ and starts performing an action for an ant (or eating an apple, or whichever mnemonic is used), we are limiting their learning. The letter “a” can represent nine different sounds in English, so let's not pair the movement with one spelling choice!
Ehri’s research, particularly in relation to programs like Letterland, which use embedded mnemonics (e.g., character names and stories to represent letters and sounds) assert that associations help children initially connect letters with sounds, making learning fun and engaging, especially when movement is involved. However, the benefits of such mnemonic devices and movements—which pair only one letter with one phoneme—are short-lived, particularly in languages with opaque orthographies like English.
English’s complex and inconsistent letter-sound relationships significantly reduce the long-term effectiveness of these strategies. For example, the letter /s/ can represent the sound /s/, but it can also represent other sounds. Consider mapping words like sugar /ʃ/, was /z/, or leisure /Ê’/. Similarly, the sound /s/ can be represented in 14 different ways, with the letter “s” being just one of them. We display all these variations in our Spelling Clouds® on the Speech Sound Wall. This is helpful for all teachers, as many are not aware of every possible mapping.
While Dr. Ehri has posited that embedded mnemonics are useful for accelerating students’ understanding of basic letter identification and phonics, she has been critical of expanding this practice past single letters and sounds. Indeed, many scholars have posited that embedded mnemonics are limited in their usefulness to primarily basic letter sounds and letter ID. Ehri's critique highlights a significant limitation: “While there are commercially available programmes that use mnemonics, many are unlikely to be successful because there are too many associations to remember, and the associations are not personally relevant” (Shmidman & Ehri, 2010).
As students advance and encounter more diverse and complex words, this type of multisensory or mnemonic support no longer provides sufficient scaffolding. Learners need to develop deeper phonemic and morphological awareness to achieve lasting proficiency. We listened! We created tools for children that would make learning to read and spell as enjoyable and easy as possible!
Children, therefore, learn the movements of ‘Phonemies’—Speech Sound Monsters—which they can use throughout their learning journey, not just at the beginning stages of phonics. Initially developed for our non-speaking autistic children as alternatives to phonetic symbols, they are also used by speech pathologists to help children articulate difficult sounds early and increase engagement in listening for them. The Phonemies make these sounds visible in words, and they are integrated into our spelling routine. We are 'action researchers!' We study what exceptional teachers are already doing—particularly in neurodiverse classrooms, where whole-body learning is being applied to great effect, and not only for a very short period of time! When embedded they children can figure out any words and see the mapping. If they then use the Monster Spelling Routine the speech sounds, spelling and meaning become 'glued' together in the orthographic lexicon.
