Upstream Screening and Support: A New Vision
Our vision is simple. Togther, we stop waiting for children to fail . We identify vulnerability early, support speech sound processing from birth, and remove barriers long before written words are introduced. This avoids the dyslexia paradox and ensures every child with the cognitive capacity to read can thrive.
Get in touch. Let's set up a two hour training session that will help your TAs support and extend your existing programmes through word mapping technology and orthographically mapped stories that reveal every phoneme and grapheme. This can be delivered online if your school is not located in England.
Preventing the Dyslexia Paradox: Birth to Seven Matters!
Our vision is that as many people as possible are actively seeking out the 1 in 4 children who are at risk of finding reading and spelling difficult before they begin to struggle. We need early years teachers to start embedding speech sound processing activities in the toddler room.
We need to screen for risk when children are about to turn three, and before they are taught phonics, so that we can ensure they learn to map words in the way their brains will understand from day one. This is easier for nursery staff because they aren’t teaching phonics to a whole class.
We need a TA in every Reception and Year 1 classroom who is working on a 1:1 basis with these children at least four times a week for ten minutes a day until they no longer need it. This support might last for a couple of weeks or a term. We aim to find amazing TAs and we will tirelessly support them so that no child leaves Year 1 unable to pass a Phonics Screening Check and read what they want with comprehension.
The Speedie Readies Dual-Route to Word Mapping Mastery includes the One, Two, Three and Away! series of over 100 books that children love to read and to talk about. Let’s make sure every child can read the Main Readers before they start Year 2.
Together, we are preventing the dyslexia paradox and breaking the pattern that leads too many struggling readers into long-term disadvantage, including the well documented pathway from poor literacy to exclusion and involvement with the justice system.
Get in touch to book training for 2026!
Upstream Screening and Support Changes Lives
The study published in the European Journal of Linguistics (Vol. 3, Issue 3, 2024) recommends further exploration of the multifaceted nature of phonological awareness to advance theoretical models. It emphasised the need for early, systematic and engaging phonological awareness instruction in early childhood education. The authors called for individualised interventions for at-risk children, ongoing professional development for teachers and frequent monitoring of progress. The study also urged policymakers to invest in early literacy programmes, ensure equitable access to educational resources and include phonological awareness assessment within screening programmes. In addition, it advocated for stronger collaboration between researchers, educators and policymakers to create a cohesive approach to early literacy education.
The 2025 study Early Intervention Strategies for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyslexia in Individuals: A Bibliometric and Thematic Analysis highlights the most significant keywords in current research and shows the multidisciplinary nature of early intervention work in detecting and supporting dyslexia. Awareness of dyslexia and the importance of early diagnosis and early support has increased, demonstrated by rising publication numbers, a wider range of authors and a growing focus on diverse subject areas and keywords. This reflects a research landscape characterised by collaboration and diversity. The paper recommends further research on early intervention for both the detection and the therapeutic support of dyslexia. It also notes that understanding the impact of dyslexia across all aspects of children’s lives requires continued development of evidence-based strategies and an expanding knowledge base.
References:
European Journal of Linguistics study on phonological awareness
Khan, S. (2024). The role of phonological awareness in early reading development. European Journal of Linguistics, 3(3), 15–26. https://www.carijournals.org
2025 bibliometric study on early intervention for dyslexia
Ahmed, R. M., & Suleiman, T. K. (2025). Early intervention strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia in individuals: A bibliometric and thematic analysis. Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, 38(1), 12–28.
Birth to Age 3: Early Screening and Speech Sound Processing Support
Screening begins from birth to three, with a focus on how children process and attend to speech sounds during day to day activities.
From eighteen months to three, we check how children respond to the sound structure of language in playful, everyday interactions. This includes children who are non-speaking, autistic, minimally verbal, or who speak little or no English.
Screening at 3: Before Letters Are Introduced
At age three, before any teaching about letters:
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Can they isolate individual sounds in words
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Can they blend sounds into whole words
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Can they give the sounds in words when prompted
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Can they segment spoken words into their parts
All tasks are designed to be accessible for non-speaking and autistic children, and for children who are new to English.
This is risk screening, not diagnosis. Its purpose is to spot the early markers linked to later difficulty, so support is in place before reading begins.
➜ 2 Hour CPD for Early Years Teachers: Integrating Speech Sound Processing into Daily Play from Birth to Three
£1,200 plus travel
Ages 3 to 5: Speech Sound Play, Moving Towards Word Mapping
Between ages three and five we build a robust speech sound processing system through playful, child-centred (schema-driven) activity. A Speech to Print approach is taken.
Children learn to:
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Isolate sounds
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Articulate sounds
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Blend sounds into words
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Segment words into sounds
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Recognise their Monster Sound (Phonemies)
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Decode and encode words with Phonemies, so that connecting graphemes will be easy when they’re ready, and to produce words and sentences in MySpeekie® that can be voiced. This is the world's first one-screen AAC and it also lays the foundation for reading and spelling.
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Name their visual prompt words and connect meaning to word mapping activities.
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If appropriate, this extends into the initial Code Level. Children work with words that matter to them, including their own names, pets, and family members. Graphemes such as s, a, t, p, i, and n can be introduced if the child is ready, but the focus is always on their interests and speech sound awareness.
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âžœ 2 Hour CPD for Early Years Teachers: Connecting Speech to Print within Daily Play from Three to Five. Includes MySpeekie® training
£1,200 plus travel
Reception: Before Whole Class Phonics Begins
Before Reception children start whole-class phonics instruction, they complete a ten day Speech Sound Play plan. This can be extended (in Australia the teachers I support spend about 4 weeks on this plan)
During this period:
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Children learn to use Duck Hands and play with the Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters)
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All names are mapped before the start of term and they learn to 'follow the Monster Sounds, to Say the Word'
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Children learn the Monster Routine with the Visual Prompt words
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Children have the opportunity to form satpin lower case and the numbers 1 to 10
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Children are introduced to the Monster Spelling Piano app and MySpeekie.
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All childen are tracked using the screener checklist
âžœ 2 Hour CPD for Reception Teachers and Support Staff: Connecting Speech to Print within the Speech Sound Play Plan. Screening for Dyslexia Risk. Includes an introduction to bi-directional word mapping with MyWordz® and MySpeekie® training
£1,200 plus travel
Speedie Readies: Show the Code.
The Dual-Route to Word Mapping Mastery in Reception and KS1.
Ten Minutes a Day, With a TA!
Detailed Information is here
After the Speech Sound Play Plan the TA then supports children 1 to 1 using the Monster Spelling Piano app, mapping high frequency words across the term.
Mapped Core Code readers form Path 1. This ensures children can access early reading more easily and are set up to pass the PSC.
Once children reach the end of the Purple Code Level, they begin the Pre-Readers with the TA. This is Path 2.
The TA works with all children, but prioritises those flagged as at risk. By the end of Year 1, any child with the cognitive capacity to read will be thriving.
We have prevented the dyslexia paradox.
âžœ Hour CPD for SENDCos and Teaching Assistants: Screening for Dyslexia Risk. Guiding children towards word mapping mastery using Speedie Readies: Show the Code and understanding the two learning paths. Includes an introduction to bi-directional word mapping with MyWordz® and MySpeekie®
£1,200 plus travel
This will potentially be the most powerful aspect of our vision for the next five years because it is where we can make the greatest impact on England's SEN crisis. By training TAs to deliver daily Speedie Readies sessions, supported by technology that shows every sound and every spelling inside each word, we can ensure that children who have the cognitive capacity enter the self-teaching phase long before difficulties take hold. This is a proactive, scalable solution that strengthens speech to print and print to speech mapping for every learner, including those with SEN, SpLC or SLCN.
​​Ages 7 to 11: Support for Children We Didn’t Reach Earlier
Speedie Spelling: Ten Minutes a Day, With a TA!
Children not reached before age seven follow the Speedie Readies pathway:
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Revisiting GPCs on the Monster Spelling Piano app
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Building high frequency word knowledge - words are mapped orthographically.
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Exploring accents and concepts previously missed from instruction or misunderstood
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Learning the Spelling Routine
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Becoming familiar with the MyWordz Word Mapping Mastery technology.
Support remains structured, visual, accessible, and child centred.
âžœ 2 Hour CPD for SENDCos and Teaching Assistants: Screening for Word Mapping Difficulties . Guiding upper primary aged dyslexic children towards word mapping mastery using Speedie Spelling: Show the Code and understanding the two learning paths. Includes an introduction to bi-directional word mapping with MyWordz® and MySpeekie®
£1,200 plus travel
​​Non Age specific: Support for Children With SEN and SpLD
1:1 EHCP Support with a TA.
Children follow the Speedie Readies pathway:
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Mastering Phonemic Awareness and GPCs on the Monster Spelling Piano app
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Building high frequency word knowledge - words are mapped orthographically.
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Exploring MySpeekie as an AAC and bridge between speech and print
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Developing fluency and comprehension through the One Two Three and Away series
âžœ 2 Hour CPD for Specialist Teachers and Support Staff: Connecting Speech to Print through Word Mapping with a Visible Code. Includes an introduction to MySpeekie as an AAC and bi-directional word mapping with MyWordz® £1,200 plus travel
Personalising Speech to Print phonics through classroom based word mapping with IPA aligned Phonemies
Children who aren’t reading with fluency and comprehension, or spelling effectively, aren’t storing words in the orthographic lexicon. This means they’re still slowly and laboriously decoding each word, grapheme by grapheme. This uses so many cognitive resources they can’t focus on comprehension.
Learn how to speed up word mapping in both directions.
Learn to explore which letters are graphemes and which phonemes they represent, depending on accent.
Learn what to do when a child can’t figure out a word.
Show students who can read how to be their own spelling coach.