Word Mapping Mastery®: The Early Years Playbook for Lifelong Learning
Orthographic Learning is not confined to classroom walls, scheduled sessions, or the presence of teachers—unlimited digital learning is crafted to captivate children’s imagination and creativity.
Empowering children to spend more time exploring what drives them. We’re leading the way in personalised, next-generation tech-learning to get children where they want to be, faster than ever before.
'Word Mapping Mastery'
The discovery journey towards independent reading #Playknowlogy
Across the globe, there is growing awareness that a one-size-fits-all approach to schooling is insufficient to meet the needs of learners or society at large. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) asserts that “access to quality education means access to personalised learning” (UNESCO, 2017, p. 57). Emma Hartnell-Baker, author of Word Mapping Mastery, has spent a decade supporting teachers in Australia to provide a personalised, fun alternative to the one-size-fits-all synthetic phonics approach mandated in England. Her approach, the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach, offers a tailored and engaging way to teach reading and spelling. Although educators are key to the effective implementation of pedagogical change (Zhang, Basham, & Yang, 2020a), teachers in Australia have received little guidance, structure, or support for implementing personalised learning (Prain et al., 2013; Stewart, 2017). This lack of support inspired her to write the book—not only for SSP teachers but for anyone seeking an alternative approach.
Mapped Words® makes reading and spelling significantly easier for ALL children, enabling them to master orthographic mapping skills in a fraction of the time using NextGen MyWordz® technology. With growing concerns about the number of children not only struggling to learn to read but also not choosing to read for pleasure, why wait until school? Even 3-year-olds are getting excited about Code Mapping® and cracking the code because they can start with what they already know—speech!
Why do they love learning this way? Because we don’t do one-size-fits-all. Even when teaching 'a foundation of phonics' in a whole-class setting, we ensure that every child learns at their own pace. Children feel like the learning is tailored specifically to them (because it is).
Emma Hartnell-Baker has a Masters Degree in Special Educational Needs and is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Reading.
Prain, V., Cox, P., Deed, C., Dorman, J., Edwards, D., Farrelly, C., Keeffe, M., Lovejoy, V., Mow, L., Sellings, P., & Waldrip, B. (2013). Personalised learning: Lessons to be learnt. British Educational Research Journal, 39(4), 654–676. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2012.667756
Stewart, S. (2017). Supporting personalised learning in schools: A case for change. Educational Review, 69(3), 302–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2016.1234698
UNESCO. (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Zhang, Z., Basham, J. D., & Yang, K. (2020a). Pedagogical changes in personalised learning: Exploring educators’ roles and supports. Journal of Educational Change, 21(2), 223–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-019-09362-3
Buy the Book!
Word Mapping Mastery:
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Understanding MySpeekie® - NextGen ONE Screen AAC
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Screening Three-Year-Olds for Dyslexia
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Ensuring that Children at Risk of Being Failed at School Learn to Read in the Way Their Brains Learn—Before Starting School
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Understanding How Brains Learn to Read and Spell (and why popular methods make it so hard for so many)
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Creating AttentiA within the Neurodiverse Classroom
An intrinsic desire to engage with spoken and written words -
Teaching a Whole Class of 4–6 Year Olds to Read in Less Than 18 Months
Even if most started school with no English or are non-speaking -
Incorporating Activities Throughout the Day with Words That Matter to Children
Short, engaging exercises that boost reading and spelling skills -
Screening Teachers of Phonics for Word Mapping Proficiency (it's hard when you can already read!)
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And More!
Children who can map words into speech sounds and “pictures of speech sounds” develop faster and more efficient word recognition during reading, which frees up cognitive resources for the ultimate purpose of reading: comprehension.
As children progress from novice to expert readers, their skills transform.
While this journey starts with phonological decoding, Emma Hartnell-Baker’s focus has been on building orthographic expertise. To make this possible, she has worked to simplify the phonological decoding phase, ensuring that all learners can move through it more easily and at an earlier stage.
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traɪ aʊə ɡraʊnd breɪkɪŋ kəʊd mæpɪŋ tuːl
Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between letters and phonemes (speech sounds) in words. It has become synonymous with one-size-fit-all synthetic phonics programmes and that is not how we get children excited about words.
Phoneme-to-grapheme mapping is used for spelling (speech-to-print), while grapheme-to-phoneme mapping is key for decoding (print-to-speech)—just one part of learning to read. HOW they are supported to master this matters enormously. 1 in 4 can't read when they leave primary school in England. Let's change that!
When phonics is hard to grasp, reading becomes much more challenging, with too much effort spent figuring out words, and spelling almost impossible without memorisation—yet there are far too many words to memorise!
We make 'code mapping' easy peasy lemon squeezy for all. Perfect for those who are homeschooling their children.
#PlayKnowlogy
Speech Sound Mapping: Connecting Young Minds to Spoken and Written Words through Personalised Discovery Word Mapping – MyWordz® – Mapped Words®
Discover how Mapped Words® enhances phonemic awareness: the ability to isolate, segment, and blend the smallest units of sound.
Discover how Mapped Words® help with Word Pronunciation 'Phonemies' offer a phonemic representation
Discover how Mapped Words® help children 'see' graphemes—what we call Speech Sound Pics® - Pictures of Speech Sounds
Discover how Mapped Words® makes phoneme-grapheme links visible, simplifies challenges like accents, and unlocks the Universal Written Code.
Discover how Mapped Words® facilitates the integration of Speech, Spelling, and Meaning, helping to store words in the orthographic lexicon.
Word Mapping Mastery with MyWordz® Emma Hartnell-Baker MEd SEN
Our word mapping tech highlights graphemes in words using an innovative contrasting 'black/grey' feature, making them easier to identify and understand.
Map any text, and explore!
Phonemic Representations:
Speech Sound Characters (Monsters) provide an alternative to phonetic symbols for learners, making the phoneme (sound value) clear.
Author of Word Mapping Mastery:
Screening for dyslexia BEFORE children start learning to read and spell. Empowering all within the neurodiverse classroom to map words with ease!
Being able to communicate exactly what you want to "say," even without a voice and before you can read or spell, is essential for everyone. We realised that children would want their messages displayed and voiced with as few clicks as possible—and on just one screen. So, we built it! MySpeekie
