This fourth edition of the teacher handbook has been adapted to support the mapping of the pre-readers and introductory books for neurodivergent learners, and the subsequent republication of One, Two, Three and Away! by The Reading Hut Ltd. It explains why these stories deserve renewed attention within the neurodiverse classroom, with a focus on Word Mapping Mastery with comprehension.
This handbook outlines how we support NeuroReadies in Reception and Year 1, as part of Speedie Readies, the Preventing the Dyslexia Paradox intervention system. We don’t “wait to fail.” A TA leads this intervention on a 1:1 basis and it does not conflict with whole class phonics instruction.
McCullagh displayed striking insight into how children learn to read, anticipating principles that were only formalised two decades later when Linnea Ehri described orthographic mapping theory. McCullagh understood that successful reading instruction requires the growth of a sight vocabulary, where words are stored for instant recognition through repeated encounters. She also included phonics instruction, as this handbook shows, but she did not yet know that to benefit from any type of word-mapping instruction, such as phonics, children must first be able to perceive and process the individual speech sounds in words, and that word mapping happens across all words.
This insight matters because it explains why two children in my own first class did not learn to read despite being able and motivated. At the time, I did not understand what was missing from my support.
The scheme provides everything needed for at least three in four children to achieve independent reading, but those two pupils lacked the phonemic awareness required to connect letters and sounds and therefore could not reach the self-teaching stage. They needed explicit help to see how letters and sounds connect, without losing the central focus on reading for pleasure.
This handbook retains what worked, while word mapping strategies build on it. Word mapping happens as part of a learning to read with joy pathway!
Let’s get all children reading for pleasure, early.
Emma Hartnell-Baker, MEd SEN
DyslexiaWhisperers.com