You can read the spell the word. But can YOU show the code?
We can’t explicitly teach the whole alphabetic code, yet most adults aren’t aware of how much of it isn’t taught. Being shown the code helps everyone, including skilled adult readers. It is especially important that the one in four children who currently struggle to read at the single-word level, and aren’t yet successfully using phonological–orthographic mapping for self-teaching, have access to someone who can SHOW THE CODE.
MyWordz® shows which letters form the graphemes and their sound values, using Phonemies® as phonetic symbols for kids. It shows children, parents and teachers the code they don’t know.
The Code You Don't Know
We can’t explicitly teach the whole alphabetic code. If you don’t know it, MyWordz® shows it.
MyWordz® is the only technology that shows which letters form the graphemes and their sound values, using Phonemies® as phonetic symbols for kids.
If they don't yet know the Monster Sounds and you don't have MyWordz.tech, use the Monster Spelling Piano app ‘Phonemies®’ screen.
Click the Speech Sound Monster® to hear its sound.
💷 One-time price: £14.95
📲 Download on iPad (Apple):
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/monster-spelling-piano/id6717616998📲 Download on Android (Google Play):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edcode.msp
🏫 Schools: 50% discount available via Apple School Manager (for 20+ orders).
There are two ways you need to 'show the code' when mapping words with students.
1. Map the speech you use and hear
Say the word naturally in your own accent. Listen for the individual speech sounds you use, then connect those sounds with the graphemes in the written word.
This means starting with the spoken word, without allowing the letters you see, familiar spelling patterns or previously taught GPCs to change the sounds you identify.
This matters because children need adults who can listen to the sounds they actually use and show how those sounds connect with the written word.
2. Map an instructional reference pronunciation
Sometimes, you also need to map a shared reference pronunciation, such as standard British, Australian or American English.
Listen to the reference pronunciation, identify and produce its constituent phonemes, then connect each phoneme with the corresponding grapheme in the written word.
This enables teachers to use a consistent phonological–orthographic mapping for phonics instruction, even when the reference pronunciation differs from their own accent or the child’s.
Two ways of mapping the alphabetic code. Two essential skills.
Can you map the speech you actually use and hear?
Can you map the reference pronunciation used for instruction?
Understanding both allows you to distinguish natural accent variation from the shared reference mapping used for phonics instruction.
This is where we’ll show you words and ask, ‘Do you know the code?’
If educators don't know the alphabetic code, they can't show it.
For at least 1 in 4 children that adult can change their life.
Showing the Code is not Optional
National guidance doesn’t limit phonics to the correspondences explicitly introduced within a phonics programme. Teachers are expected to help children apply their developing code knowledge whenever they read and spell, including when words contain correspondences that haven’t yet been taught.
The Reading Framework explains:
“Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Pupils’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code, how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language, supports their reading and spelling.”
(Department for Education, 2023)
It also makes clear that teachers need this knowledge themselves:
“This guidance explains why teachers themselves also need to understand the alphabetic code: evidence supports the key role of phonic knowledge and skills in early reading and spelling.”
(Department for Education, 2023, p. 5)
Teachers must show children how words are mapped using the alphabetic code.
For reading, pupils are taught to identify the graphemes from left to right, say the phoneme represented by each grapheme and blend those phonemes to read the word (Department for Education, 2023, p. 47).
For spelling, pupils are taught to say the word, segment it into phonemes and select the graphemes that represent those phonemes (Department for Education, 2025, p. 41).
Crucially, statutory spelling guidance requires teachers to draw children’s attention to correspondences that extend beyond what they have already been taught:
“Teachers should draw pupils’ attention to the grapheme–phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.”
(Department for Education, statutory spelling guidance, p. 75)
That means teachers must be able to show the code in taught and untaught words. A phonics programme provides a systematic starting point, but it cannot explicitly teach every phoneme–grapheme correspondence children will encounter throughout the day and across the curriculum.
Children need access to the code beyond the programme
Children encounter the wider alphabetic code whenever they read or write words containing correspondences that haven’t yet appeared in their programme. They need someone who can identify:
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the phonemes in the spoken word;
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which letters form each grapheme;
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the sound value represented by each grapheme.
This is how adults help children move beyond dependence on explicit instruction and begin using phonological–orthographic mapping for self-teaching.
The requirement to apply the alphabetic code is already there. MyWordz® technology, powered by OrthographiX, provides a way to show it.
“Schools should test all teachers working in primary education, as well as those delivering interventions. If they don’t know the code, they can’t show it.”
Emma Hartnell-Baker MEd SEN
Doctoral Researcher, University of Reading
Developer of the Teacher Test of Phonological–Orthographic Mapping