The Reading Hut®
"On a mission to inspire every child to read, learn, and find joy in books. To achieve this, we must stop making learning to read so difficult for so many."
The earlier we screen children and identify those who need help, the sooner we can support them and become part of their village.
Word Mapping Mastery: The Early Years Playbook for Lifelong Learning #playknowlodgy
The Code Mapping® Tool app launches shortly.
Download the paid app - a one-off payment of £74.99
Map and then download your Mapped Words®
Word Mapping Mastery: MyWordz®
Mapped Words® revolutionise orthographic mapping, bypassing teacher-led whole class phonics instruction to accelerate the reading process—an approach that each child feels was uniquely designed for them.
We SHOW the Code: Graphemes (Sound Pics®) are presented through Code Mapping®, and Phonemes are represented via Monster Mapping® using Phonemies. This is the NextGen Letters and Sounds approach, designed for learners who simply want to reach the 'reading for pleasure and meaning' stage as quickly as possible, and for parents and teachers who —and for parents and teachers who want to explore rich content, not phonics in isolation."
Orthographic mapping becomes easier when graphemes are clearly displayed, accompanied by a phonemic representation for the corresponding phonemes.
The Reading Hut Ltd: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Immerse Neurodiverse Learners in Spoken and Written Word Mapping for Easier, Purpose-Driven Reading & Spelling
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Mission
At The Reading Hut®, our mission is to train and empower teachers to ensure that every child can learn to read and spell proficiently. We address a crucial gap in literacy education: many teachers struggle to map words due to orthographic interference and lack the phonemic awareness needed to teach reading effectively. Our goal is to equip teachers with the skills and tools necessary to guide every child toward literacy success.
The Problem
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Teacher Knowledge Gaps: Many educators face challenges when mapping words for their students, due to a lack of training past synthetic phonics programme GPCs and also orthographic interference—where their understanding of spelling patterns interferes with their ability to focus on phonemes (speech sounds) in words.
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Lack of Phonemic Awareness: 1 in 4 children lack the phonemic awareness on school entry necessary to learn to read, and most adults—teachers included—are unaware of their own limitations in this area.
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The current literacy crisis in the UK is alarming, with 25% of children unable to read proficiently by the end of primary school. This affects their future education and life opportunities.
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Challenges for Neurodivergent Students: Children with learning difficulties, particularly those with dyslexia, struggle significantly when educators aren't equipped with the right tools to support their phonemic awareness development.
Our Solution
The Reading Hut Ltd offers a comprehensive solution by training teachers to:
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Map Words Effectively: Our training programmes help educators understand the phonemic structure of language and overcome orthographic interference. They get excited about the possibilities Mapped Words® offer!
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Build Phonemic Awareness: We provide teachers with tools and resources to enhance their own phonemic awareness, allowing them to teach reading with greater confidence.
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Use Innovative Screeners: Our Phonemic Awareness Screener helps teachers identify children at risk of reading difficulties before formal phonics instruction begins.
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Facilitate orthographic mapping by making the correspondences between letters and sounds easier for ALL children to understand from day 1.
Focus on Teacher Training
Our programmes are practical, research-driven, and designed to meet the needs of modern educators who are tasked with teaching NextGen children! We focus on:
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Overcoming Orthographic Interference: We teach educators how to focus on the letters and sounds in words—key to teaching children to read and spell.
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Phonemic Awareness Mastery: Our training ensures that teachers build strong phonemic awareness, helping them support all students, especially neurodivergent or learners of concern.
Although Emma Hartnell-Baker's doctoral research is ongoing, it directly informs our Word Mapping Mastery approach. We are focused on understanding how orthographic interference affects teachers' ability to map words, which is a critical factor in teaching reading, particularly for children with dyslexia.
'Word Mapping Mastery'
The discovery journey towards independence #Playknowlogy
Written by the Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®
Emma Hartnell-Baker's design of IPA aligned phoneme characters introduces a direct and explicit teaching method that transcends the limitations of phonics and picture embedded mnemonics by focusing on grapheme and also phoneme representation without relying on contextual knowledge. This approach promises a more inclusive and effective phonics instruction by accommodating diverse learning needs and facilitating personalised learning.
Strategies for Overcoming Challenges:
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Integrating a Broader Range of Phonemic Experiences: Expanding the curriculum to include a wider variety of phonemes and graphemes from the start enhances flexibility and engagement.
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Using Direct Phoneme Representation: IPA aligned phoneme characters (Speech Sound Monsters) offer a clear, universal path to phonemic awareness, overcoming the issues many learners face when being taught with traditional picture embedded mnemonic.
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Encouraging Personal Connection and Relevance: The phoneme characters enable teachers to adapt and enhance existing materials to reflect diverse experiences. This enhances motivation and fosters a deeper interest in mapping words for reading and spelling.
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Facilitating Transition to Complex Phonemic Awareness: Visible sound symbols embedded into orthographically mapped words (another unique tool designed by Emma Hartnell-Baker) offers a simple and logical introduction to the variability of phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
