Why are phonemes called Speech Sound Pics within the SSP Approach? The Reading Whisperer explains. www.facebook.com/readaustralia

4. Say the word (grass)
Listen for the speech sounds
____ _____ _____ _____
1 2 3 4
Imagine you are taking a picture of each of the
4 speech sounds with your speech sound camera
– what might each one look like?
Which sound pic shall we choose?
The children imagine they are taking pictures of the 4 speech sounds, and choose
sound pics (representations) When you talk about letters these are simply letters
of the alphabet – and also have their own name. So, yes, this is an ‘es’ but what speech
sound is it a picture of? It’s one (there are 8 or 9) of the pictures for the speech sound ‘ssss’

8. Neuroscientist perspective

10. Key Research Findings About Phonemic Awareness:
Research has identified phonemic awareness as the most potent predictor of
success in learning to read. It is more highly related to reading than tests of
general intelligence, reading readiness, and listening comprehension
(Stanovich, 1986,1994).
The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the
likelihood of failure to learn to read because of its importance in learning the
English alphabetic system or how print represents spoken words. If children
cannot hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words, they have an
extremely difficult time learning how to map those sounds to letters and
letter patterns - the essence of decoding. (Adams, 1990).
It is the most important core and causal factor separating normal and
disabled readers (Adams, 1990).
It is central in learning to read and spell (Ehri, 1984).

11. Phonemic awareness can be developed in children by providing them with rich
language experiences that encourage active exploration and manipulation of sounds.
These activities lead to significant gains in subsequent reading and spelling
performance. Most children will learn basic phonemic awareness from these activities.
Some children need more extensive assistance. Children should be diagnosed mid-
kindergarten to see if they are adequately progressing, and if not, given more
intensive phonemic awareness experiences. For all children, the more complex
phonemic awareness abilities are learned in the context of learning letter/sound
correspondences.
A close relationship exists between a child's control over sounds and his reading
ability. Some quick test instruments that reliably assess development of phonemic
awareness in about five minutes include the Rosner, the Yopp-Singer tests, and the
Roswell-Chall.
In numerous studies, correlations between a kindergarten test of phonemic awareness
and performance in reading years later are extremely high. Thus, phonemic awareness
has been identified by researchers in replicated studies in many countries as a very
potent predictor of success in reading and spelling achievement. In fact, Professor
Yopp indicates that such high correlations remain even after controlling for
intelligence and socio-economic status.

12. Incase you were wondering why SSP assessments, and monitoring
tasks have been created in this way (see
slideshare.net/readingwhisperer to download)
Hallie Kay Yopp, Ph.D, Professor, Dept. of Elementary and Bilingual Education,CSU
FullertonProfessor Yopp addresses the critical role of phonemic awareness in the
early stages of reading acquisition. She defines phonemic awareness as "the
awareness that phonemes exist as abstractable and manipulable components of
spoken language. It is the ability to reflect on speech and experiment (play) with its
smallest components (phonemes). Phonemic awareness is not phonics and not
auditory discrimination.“
The research outlines a progression of phonemic awareness development in pre-
school, kindergarten, and early first grade that includes the ability:
to hear rhymes or alliteration
to blend sounds to make a word (e.g., /a/-/t/ = at)
to count phonemes in words ( how many sounds do you hear in "is"?)
to identify the beginning, middle, and final sounds in words
to substitute one phoneme for another (e.g., change the /h/ in "hot" to /p/)
to delete phonemes from words (e.g., omit the /c/ from "cat")

13. http://www.csus.edu/ier/reading.html
Excellent paper that shows why SSP is
developing in this way

15. SSP breaks it down into specific skills
Children won’t
understand skills
if they can’t hear
the speech sounds

16. * Children won’t understand skills if they can’t hear the speech sounds
Marilyn Adams, Ph.d., Senior Scientist, Bolt Beranek and
Newman, Inc.
• Dr. Adams focuses on the need for children to develop
automatic word recognition and the system to achieve this. Dr.
Adams supports Dr. Yopp's conclusion that training in phonemic
awareness is the foundation for learning to recognize words. Such
training is necessary because most children enter kindergarten
without the conscious awareness that words are made up of distinct
sounds; rather they hear words as complete units. Dr. Adams
discusses the value of whole language in encouraging flexible class
organization, the use of quality literature, and the emphasis on early
writing. However, she faults the methodology of whole language for
operating under the mistaken assumption that skillful readers "skip,
skim, and guess" instead of reading what's on the page.

17. The whole of
the code can
be taught
(Phonics)
within Prep
and Year 1
if every child
has good PA

19. Teaching order and resources are adaptable, based on education
and neuroscience research, are child centred and FUN.
They have been developed
by Emma Hartnell-Baker BEd Hons (Early Years
Specialism) MA Special Educational Needs (inc
Dyslexia), a former Early Years Education Inspector
for UK Education Dept (OFSTED) and are offered for
free, so there is no driving motivation other than to
help ALL schools and families. This can be a
community effort, based on collaboration, and with
one goal. That EVERY child is able to read and spell.

21. SSP goes far deeper than ‘teaching
reading and spelling’ as children are
taught (and guided to discover) the
alphabetic code. It is deeply layered,
including all necessary elements, and
also allows for children to work at their
own pace.
Watch Prep aged children reach the Blue Level in less
than two terms, and see how effectively they tackle
unfamiliar words within reading and spelling activities.
www.youtube.com/soundpics

23. Alongside this explicit teaching
children also investigate the code, and
use the Speech Sound Clouds

26. To develop exceptional spelling (encoding) skills we need to
start from SPEECH. If children cannot hear the smaller parts
in words (phonemic awareness) they will not be able to
develop these skills. They need to SEE words as made up of
speech sound pics (pictures of the speech sounds, not letters)
At all times, from term 1 of Prep, those using SSP try to see sound pics
in words, and encourage children to do the same. This really helps to
shape their reading AND spelling brains and prevent difficulties. It also
allows teachers to see where there are gaps in PA and code knowledge.
Use every opportunity to do this !
Questions? Emma@ReadAustralia.com

27. Practice this yourself!

30. Everything is chosen to shape reading and spelling
brains- including letter formation in Prep
Please download the letter formation or home folder
powerpoint www.slideshare.net/readingwhisperer
Children need to practice all letters of the alphabet as soon as
possible, regardless of the phonics teaching. However using the
phrase will actually also help with the phonics!
All letters and phrases are shown, and can be used on
whiteboards.

31. New resources for each level
are on slideshare.net/readingwhisperer
Simply save to your laptop, and the power point presentation (including
animations) will work in your classroom. Ideal for the whiteboard. For example
* Decoding – specific practice using only their sound pics and helpful words
* Encoding – specific practice using only their sound pics and helpful words
If children are ready for more than the level the class is working on, they can
progress. Children who need additional work to keep up, can also use these with
TAs. (Covered in another twilight PD)
*Home Folders (again, TAs’ can make good use of these to help monitor
individuals)
* Assessments (screening Preps, monitoring progress of each individual,
assessing new older students) Emma will offer some free training to TAs so that
they can undertaken these assessments.
* All Speech sound clouds (recently updated)

32. Including fun resources to help
children with common issues
Shhhhhh ! Don’t tell anyone our tricks!
Don’t be a cheeky monkey !!

33. deb
bed
ed No room to sleep ! I need the bed posts
the other way around to make a bed
__ ____
1 2

34. When they see this sound pic
they say
Cuckoo! Cuckoo !!
Is it oo as in look or oo as in moon?
Put eyes on them when
it’s an ‘oo’ as in look !
cook

35. SSP scaffold learning, with skills and
concepts clearly set out within each
level.
These will link with the assessment
and monitoring tools (green level
currently shown, all other levels
uploaded shortly)

40. eg – a few blue level sound pics
e
aw wh ph ew oe ure are
claw whip dolphin few toe pure are dare
I love the cute dolphin, who kisses my nose
She splashes my fingers, and blows on my toes
I ask ‘are you sure?’ I ask, ‘do you dare?’
To whip up the water, and make the crab stare!
He’ll peep out from under the stone, it’s his door,
and wave a few times with his big orange claw !

41. blue level ‘sound pic sandwiches’
Say the word and listen to the last speech sound.
The Speech Sound Pic Sandwich Maker jumps
the last sound from the end, into the sandwich!
a-e e-e i-e
cake athlete bike
o-e u-e
coke flute
which of these sound pic
sandwiches can you see?

44. Additional info – how are the speech sounds
represented within the SSP Approach?
Please see all Speech Sound Pics as follows.
Children use these to learn all of the spelling variations.
This investigative work helps the brain understand the
code, for reading and spelling, for more efficiently

45. Use the clouds to investigate the way in which
we represent every speech sound

46. Use the clouds for your
detective work now,
and to work out ALL of the
sound pics for all of the
speech sounds you haven’t
explored in
the levels.

47. Use the clouds
to help with
spelling.
This is a blue
level sound
pic sandwich

48. Oh my word- have you heard?
Miss Emma hurt her nose
poor girl
Choose a cloud and see if you can create a song, poem, art work or something else to creatively
show ALL of the sound pics for that speech sound.

96. i

100. Give children
access to all
speech sound
clouds in their
own folders