Show the Code : Ortho-GraphiX®
The Reading Hut® is innovating across communication, reading and spelling. Powered by Ortho-GraphiX®, our technologies and learning pathways help every child achieve Word Mapping Mastery®. Join us and learn how to Show the Code
Word Mapping Mastery® book is coming out soon—stay tuned.
Look how big the Word Mapping Mastery® System is now!! Managed by The Reading Hut Ltd
Visit the Speech Sound Mapping Shop
https://www.thereadinghut.com/speech-sound-mapping-shop
And with 12 months of support from Innovate UK through Women in Innovation 2026/2027 (thanks for recognising the relevance of my work, guys!), we can reach even more children moving forwards.
I’m still working on the Word Mapping Mastery® book, but as the system has expanded so much, I’ve had to put back the launch date. See why below!
WordMappingMastery.com
One Goal. Many Routes. One Foundation.
The goal is always the same: confident bidirectional word mapping, connecting speech, print and meaning for life.
Children do not all follow the same pathway. Learning to communicate, read and spell is not linear. Some children need support to find their voice. Some need support with speech sounds, phonological working memory or articulation. Some need a more systematic route into learning the Core Code. Some are ready to become independent readers from a very young age. Some require individualised intervention.
For parents and teachers, the starting point is always the Word Mapping Mastery® Foundation Training at ShowTheCode.com. The training helps adults understand what their individual child needs, rather than following a one-size-fits-all programme. Specialist courses are also available, including Birth to Three Guided Giftedness for parents wanting to understand how to support communication, reading and spelling from birth.
ShowTheCode.com
The Foundation Training: understanding how to Show the Code and support each child’s individual journey.
Parents, teachers and practitioners learn the underlying Word Mapping Mastery® system, where speech is made visible and children learn to map speech and print in both directions.
Children learn to listen for individual speech sounds and use Duck Hands® to segment words from left to right. Speech Sound Lines and Numbers help them order the phonemes, and on those lines sit their visible versions: Speech Sound Pics® (graphemes).
Phonemies® are Phonetic Symbols for Kids. They show the sound value of every Speech Sound Pic® used in a word, meaning no letters are viewed as "silent". This makes the English spelling system accessible to learners of all ages, without the need for adults to explain rules, morphology or etymology.
The system also allows children to understand their own Individual Pronunciation Code, making accent variation visible and reducing confusion when the sounds they use differ from those represented in traditional approaches.
Show the Code! Our technology maps all words in English. No more guessing, memorising or being confused when the sound values do not match the way the individual child speaks.
Simply register, pay the £25 fee and access the Foundation Course pages from the drop down menu! Dip in and out of different topics to find what is relevant to you. The more videos you watch, the easier it will be to understand how to Show the Code and what your child or student needs at any one time. If you are new to the concept please follow MySpeekie and watch the free word of the day clips! ALso download and print the word as a card
Birth to Three Guided Giftedness
A specialist Show the Code course for parents of babies and toddlers, sharing for the first time the early years insights developed through my experience as an owner-manager of Outstanding nurseries and later as an OFSTED Inspector. Discover how supporting communication, speech, reading and spelling from birth, and even during pregnancy, can unlock extraordinary potential. We can nurture unique abilities and support children to become confident readers and spellers far earlier than is usually expected.
Dys-Code
Age 3 dyslexia risk screening, identifying the 1 in 5 children who may benefit from additional support before starting school.
This is a Specialist Course launching on ShowtheCode.com
MySpeekie.com
The world’s first one-screen AAC: Thought to Voice with Fliss and the Phonemies®.
SpeechSoundPlay.com
Speech Sound Play and the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach, supporting phonemic awareness, phonological working memory, speech, systematic phonics and accurate spelling.
Australian schools should ask for a bespoke quote with shipping or purchase order via Support@TheReadingHut.com.au
SpeedieReadies.com
The reading-for-pleasure route using The Village With Three Corners series, with the first 52 books mapped to Show the Code.
TheSpellingRoutine.com
A daily or 'in the moment' 60 Second speech-to-print and print-to-speech word mapping routine, with no need to teach phonics or spelling rules. We use this with all children, at any stage, and it is introduced in the Speech Sound Play Plan on Day 6
MyWordz® Word Mapping Technology
MyWordzTechnology.com
Sign up to access technology that makes the English spelling system visible through Code Mapping® and Phonemies®.
Special £75 per year offer at MyWordz.tech
MonsterSpellingPiano.com
A fast and engaging way to learn the Core Phonics Code tested in the UK Phonics Screening Check, and over 100 mapped Common Exception Words, for example <s> <ai> <d>.
Speech Sound Mapping (SSM)
An individualised intervention approach, including EHCP provision, delivered by specialist teachers and tutors with QTS, drawing from across the Word Mapping Mastery® System.
Beyond the Word Mapping Mastery® System, we are also pushing for change at a national level.
PhonicsReformEngland.com
We are campaigning for six key reforms in England because 1 in 4 children still cannot read and spell at the minimum expected level by age 11, despite improvements in Phonics Screening Check results. The way phonics is currently taught needs to evolve so that it works for every child.
I’m also finishing my doctorate and will be returning to Australia in 2027 to launch this system and support Reception teachers again. If you loved SSP, you are going to be deliriously happy with what we will be able to achieve now!
Get ready to move beyond one-size-fits-all PowerPoints, scripts and the idea that every child must follow a programme with fidelity, even when the children in your class do not fit the mould those programmes were designed for.
Miss Emma MEd SEN
Emma Hartnell-Baker
The Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer® aka Word Mapping Nerd
"Word mapping should be an exciting journey of orthographic discovery, where children uncover the hidden patterns of language, making sense of words in a way that sparks curiosity and confidence."
— Emma Hartnell-Baker, author of Word Mapping Mastery®
Word Mapping: How Phonemies Make the WHOLE Code Visible
Did you know that commercial phonics programmes typically teach only around 100 grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences, with approximately 85 tested in the Phonics Screening Check (PSC)? Yet, skilled readers navigate over 350 correspondences. You can see these in the Spelling Clouds, which are always available as a reference for children. However, they will only be explicitly taught the ones positioned on the outer edges.
To ensure clarity in terminology, we will refer to 'irregular words' as those that contain at least one grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) not explicitly taught in phonics programmes.
For example, in the sentence:
"The village is as pretty as a picture."
There are at least five GPCs not tested in the PSC or covered in standard phonics instruction.
5 GPCs in the sentence "The village is as pretty as a picture" that are not explicitly taught in the PSC:
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e → /É™/ (the schwa in the)
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a → /ɪ/ (the a in village)
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e → /ɪ/ (the e in pretty)
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t → /ʧ/ (the t in picture)
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ge → /ʤ/ (the ge in village)
Children may not be able to decode the words as they may not know the GPCs.
Phonemies will be used to visually highlight these missing correspondences, in ANY words, supporting children in both directions—decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). They can do this independently, at any time.
Code Mapping® makes the written code visible, showing the Sound Pics® (graphemes), while Monster Mapping® reveals the speech sounds (phonemes) with Phonemies—the Speech Sound Monsters®.
We are SEN experts and specialists in linguistic and neurodiversity—advocating for personalised learning and celebrating the diversity of language and minds. 1 in 4 children won’t master phonics without Phonemies—Visible Phonics from The Reading Hut®
Sounds First Phonics: Speech Sound Mapping works better for all!
In England, the USA, and Australia, approximately 1 in 3 children start school with speech and language challenges. At least 1 in 4 become instructional casualties, unable to read by age 11. In England alone, the number of homeschooled children has reached over 111,700 as of autumn 2024, reflecting a 21% increase from the previous year. In Australia, the figure exceeds 45,000, and in the USA, an estimated 3.7 million students are homeschooled. Combined with the ongoing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Speech, Language, and Communication (SLC) crisis—affecting millions of children globally—this highlights the urgent need for systemic change in how we support learners.
Take control of your child’s happiness and confidence—support their language and literacy learning before they even start school with MyWordz® tech, featuring the world’s first speech sound keyboard for toddlers: MySpeekie®! Discover Word Mapping Mastery, a ground-breaking book that challenges the one-size-fits-all synthetic 'print first' phonics programmes, many of which rely on scripted instruction and fail to address the unique needs of each child. Instead, we embrace 'schema-driven' learning and start from what children already know. ie speech! Personalised learning is at the heart of everything 'Miss Emma' advocates for, empowering parents and educators to support every child’s journey to reading and spelling success.
Children may want to learn differently—using words they care about and through personalised discovery mapping. They can type in speech sounds using Phonemies and watch the word appear—then explore the letters! They’ve already chosen the words! We also want children to be able to look at the WHOLE word, figure it out by 'following the monster sounds' and THEN check out the mapped letters.
Word Mapping Mastery was written by ‘Miss Emma,’ the Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®, who has a long track record of managing ‘outstanding’ nurseries—enough to be appointed to inspect for OFSTED—and proven success in guiding schools towards whole-school reading for pleasure (with improved literacy outcomes as demonstrated via NAPLAN). Known for her outspoken and fierce advocacy for children and for equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), Emma’s results speak for themselves—she is urging school leaders to take a 'child first' approach - and that means choosing a 'sounds first phonics' approach, and embrace differentiation.
Change within education can be excruciatingly slow when the focus isn’t on what teachers and children want (and need).
Emma Hartnell-Baker’s methods are not only liberating and empowering for children but also for teachers who crave autonomy, the ability to have fun with children, and a focus on word mapping for meaning and pleasure. The best people to ask why SHOWING them the code is so powerful are the children themselves. Phonemies make learning to communicate, read, and spell easier for all. They reduce cognitive load and ensure that every child can succeed.
They make sense of the written code.
Speech Sound Mapping: Discovery Learning in Mind
When you show the code, you don't need to 'explicitly teach' the concepts—the 'Code Mapping®' (black/grey to indicate the Sound Pics®/graphemes) plus the Phonemies to show the sound value just make sense to children's brains.
Word Mapping Mastery!
The Book!
Word Mapping Mastery:
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Understanding MySpeekie® - NextGen ONE Screen AAC
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Little Mappers - Reading at Three with Mapped Words®
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Screening Three-Year-Olds to defy Dyslexia with Speech Sound Play
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Ensuring that Children at Risk 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 phonics programmes make it so hard for 1 in 4, especially if neurodivergent)
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Adding 'Authographic Mapping' into your vocabulary to demonstrate an awareness and celebration of Ausome Autistic Pattern Seeking Minds
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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
using 'Speech Sound Pics' even if most started school with no English or are non-speaking -
Incorporating Word Mapping 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.
Lara participated in a Speech Sound Play pilot programme in Australia, where I supported parents online. Lara became an avid reader before starting school. Word Mapping provides an excellent foundation for orthographic learning. The Word Mapping Mastery® Book shows you how to do this at home!
Emma Hartnell-Baker aka The Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®.
