Emma Hartnell-Baker is a world-leading expert in teaching autistic children to read and spell, with a proven track record of developing innovative approaches that cater to the unique learning needs of neurodivergent students. Her expertise lies in crafting personalised, child-centred learning experiences that simplify the complexities of literacy, making them both accessible and engaging for autistic learners. Through pioneering technology and techniques such as Speech Sound Mapping (SSM), 'Miss Emma' has empowered countless children to overcome barriers in reading and spelling, transforming the experience for those who struggle with school-based synthetic phonics instruction.
Speech Sound Mapping (SSM) engages autistic, pattern-seeking minds by offering a structured, visually and linguistically cohesive way of understanding how words are constructed. Many autistic individuals are highly attuned to patterns and logic, and SSM leverages this by turning the complex process of reading and spelling into something intuitive and predictable.
Here’s how it works:
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Visual and Linguistic Mapping: SSM allows children to see and hear how words are constructed. Words are not just symbols (graphemes) to be decoded; instead, they are mapped visually (through symbols) and linguistically (through sounds). This dual coding helps make the process clearer and more logical for pattern-seeking autistic learners, who often thrive when they can see clear rules and relationships in learning material.
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Predictability and Structure: Unlike synthetic phonics, where children are often required to guess or infer sounds based on graphemes without clues, SSM provides structured, predictable clues. This predictability aligns well with autistic learners' preference for consistency and clear expectations, reducing anxiety and confusion about “what comes next.” This is also why we map predictable and repetitive texts.
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Engagement through Pattern Recognition: Autistic children often excel at recognising patterns, and SSM taps into this strength. Words are mapped in a way that highlights their underlying structure—such as the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and their visual counterparts. This pattern-based learning can make decoding language more enjoyable and accessible for autistic learners.
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Flipping Traditional Phonics: In synthetic phonics, children are asked to decode graphemes and “say the sound,” often without any visual or auditory support. This can be challenging for learners who need more concrete connections between symbols and sounds. SSM flips this approach by providing visual and auditory cues simultaneously, allowing children to understand the mapping of words holistically, rather than relying on abstract rules or memorisation.
In summary, Speech Sound Mapping is designed to align with the natural strengths of autistic minds, offering a pattern-based, structured way of learning that makes reading and spelling more intuitive and less frustrating. This approach provides both visual and linguistic clarity, making the connection between words, sounds, and symbols much clearer than traditional synthetic phonics methods, where their rules can sometimes feel arbitrary or inconsistent.
Jasper was 4, in this clip. He is autistic, as is his younger sister, shown below. She is non-speaking.
Kensi was 4, in this clip. She is autistic, as is her brother - the enjoy reading together. They learned to read and spell with Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters) in sunny Queensland!
Autistic children tend not to thrive with one-size-fits-all whole-class synthetic phonics programmes. It can be really traumatic.
So proud of Alf and his Mummy!
After about three years of synthetic phonics it still wasn’t making much sense (phonemic awareness issues hadn’t been identified, so linking sounds to letters was a nightmare), and he wasn’t engaged. He needed different instruction. Not more (and more and more) of the same.
And when children fidget, can’t focus, become distracted (or distracting), and ‘play up,’ what happens? Nothing that makes the child think reading is a joyful experience.
It’s so much harder when you’re more or less starting from scratch at age 8, but his parents believed he was capable of so much more. They sought someone who could tap into his unique learning style.
They found me!—and my obsession with mapping words visually and linguistically, in meaningful contexts.
He’s just figured out ‘Mr Brown’ from the 1, 2, 3 and Away! reader Brown.
I dedicate a chapter of my forthcoming book to understanding how autistic minds learn to read, outlining the technology and resources I designed to help them experience success and enjoy ‘less teaching, more learning!’
Well done Alf!!
An autistic child exploring spelling patterns
using the Phonemies (Speech Sound Monsters)
One of the huge benefits of "Train-the-Teacher" is that parents and carers can do the activities at home! This is Alf, who has SSM included in his EHC plan in Dorset (BCP Council).
When the package is purchased for use in school under an EHC plan, a second set of resources is provided for home use.
Send Miss Emma your clips, and she will give you daily feedback during the 4-week period. You can also join a support group and connect with others.
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