Mapped Words®: Speedie Readies, Spelling, and Universal (IPA-Aligned) Pronunciation of English Words that Support English Leaners from birth.
Phonemies®, pronounced /f əʊ n iː m i: z/, are IPA aligned Speech Sound Monsters® that show the word mapping code.
What are Speech Sound Monsters®?
Phonemies® show the pronunciation of a word, giving learners certainty about the sound value regardless of their phonics knowledge. They represent the spoken form of a word directly, separating pronunciation from letter-based assumptions that can arise because phonics programmes cannot cover the 300+ correspondences used in English, which has an opaque orthography.
Simone, SA
“My son is OBSESSED with the Speech Sound Monsters. He sleeps with the cards under his pillow. He knows over 120 sight words already. He's 4. I now tell every parent I meet to start learning the Monster sounds asap. Especially for tricky words"
Meghan James, QLD
"We started learning the Monster Sounds with Sasha when she was 2, not really understanding how it all works. Her brother had learnt with SSP in Prep. She's now reading the Village With Three Corners series and doesn't even start school for 12 months!"
Jodi, Australia
“After 20+ years as a primary teacher I've never seen anything like this. We use the Speech Sound Pics approach for phonics but don't need to teach high frequency words in class anymore, we have a Speedie Sight Words station and they learn the monster Mapped Words with their friends. They beg for extra time there. Can't recommend it highly enough ”
This can begin from birth, because children do not need to know graphemes before they can benefit from seeing how words work. Children are already processing speech sounds long before they are taught letters, and this early speech sound processing is exactly where many at-risk children struggle. By showing how spoken words are structured, and later how those speech sounds connect to spelling and meaning, we support the foundations that reading and spelling depend on. This makes it a powerful stand-alone support for children at risk of later reading difficulty, even before formal phonics begins, because it strengthens speech sound processing and prepares the brain for word learning rather than waiting for failure to appear. This is also the ideal support for children who are learnng English as a second language (ESL) or, as is also known, EALD (English as an Additional Language or Dialect)
Parents train with us and are supported at SpeedieReadies.com
Speech Sound Monsters, also known as Phonemies®, are visual characters that represent individual speech sounds, not letters.
Each Phonemie® stands for a specific sound the mouth makes when we speak. Together, they provide a child-friendly way to work with the full set of speech sounds used in English, including sounds that don’t map neatly onto single letters.
Phonemies® are based on the same principles as the International Phonetic Alphabet, but they’re designed to be accessible to children and adults, without requiring knowledge of phonetic symbols.
What Phonemies® do
Phonemies® help learners to:
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Focus on sounds first, without interference from letters
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Hear and identify sounds accurately in spoken words
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Separate speech sounds from spelling, before bonding them
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Build clearer links between sounds, spelling and meaning
Because they represent sounds directly, Phonemies® reduce confusion caused by inconsistent letter patterns and support accurate word mapping.
Why they matter
Many learners, especially those with poor phonemic awareness or a high dyslexia risk, struggle because letters pull their attention away from the sounds they need to hear.
Phonemies® remove that barrier by giving sounds their own visual identity.
This makes them especially supportive for:
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Dyslexic learners
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Neurodivergent learners
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Learners with speech and language differences
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Children who don’t intuit sound–spelling relationships
Phonemies® can be used as part of The Spelling Routine, or learners can work without them if adults prefer. Their role is to make speech sounds clear, stable, and accessible, so accurate bonding with spelling and meaning can take place.
Parents train with us and incoporporate the Phonemies (Speech Sound Monster) Sounds into daily life from birth, showing how speech and print connect in a way that toddlers understand.
Children are shown the code. To support instant recognition in the future, when the code is not shown, and to spell the word correctly, the word needs to be stored in the orthographic lexicon.
If you are a parent or tutor and want to know how to support all children to store words, simply sign up for a Speedie Readies membership to access ongoing support and training
They map words speech-to-print
They map words print-to-speech
We teach parents and teachers
what phonemic awareness is!
They start using Duck Hands
Even in term 1 of reception children 'follow the Monster Sounds to Say the word
The routine bonds speech sounds, spelling and meaning
in the orthographic lexicon
We introduce the Spelling Routine at any age and stage - without
Phonemies first if not yet known.
This child is dyslexic. They have memorised the spelling of wanted and know what it means, but they are not bonding the speech sounds (/w ɒ n t ɪ d/), the spelling (w a n t e d), and the meaning, because the speech sound component is missing. When the brain is required to identify the speech sounds first, self-teaching can begin.
Most children are taught phonics, but the code they are shown is limited. As a result, seeing the <a> confuses this learner, and the <e> also causes difficulty, because in phonics they have been taught that these graphemes usually represent other sounds. The routine supports the child to bond the speech sounds, spelling, and meaning for that specific word.
This clip was sent by someone training to tutor using this approach and it was a great share, as we could then talk about accents.
Phonemies - Speech Sound Monsters - Show the Speech Sounds of English
