Welcome to Speedie Readies. Join the Three Learning Corners, and access the orthographically mapped One, Two, Three and Away! series of books online. Show the Code with Phonemies! Train as a Tutor.

Why do children in England need us? 

 

In England, children spend two full years in Reception and Year 1 on synthetic phonics programmes. Yet one in five can’t pass the Phonics Screening Check, and by age eleven one in four still can’t read at the minimum expected level. England is the only country to mandate this approach, and reading for pleasure has declined on a scale not seen in comparable countries. This shows it doesn’t work. Is it surprising? How can one teacher meet the word mapping needs of more than twenty-five five-year-olds? The reason for whole class phonics is organisational, but it’s leaving at least one in four behind. However the way it is organised means there is not enough time - or the system in place - for children to start reading stories for pleasure. 
 

The response to 1 in 4 being unable to read at the minimum expected levels by age elevent hasn’t been to question the way phonics is taught. It hasn’t been to give teachers more help or explore different ways to make sure children in a neurodiverse classroom can move into the self-teaching phase quickly and easily.
Instead, the Department for Education has looked for others to blame, whether parents, teachers or the children themselves, often by labelling them with special educational needs. Children don’t have special or additional needs when we begin with what they truly need to learn and thrive. The idea of additional needs comes from the DfE normalising a one-size-fits-all programme and viewing difference through a deficit mindset. Because there’s an expectation that every child will learn to read through whole class synthetic phonics, a wait-to-fail approach is in place. At the end of Year 1 teachers undertake a Phonics Screening Check (PSC) - which is highly unpopular among teachers , mainly as they are then blamed if the children can't pass. Not the programmes. The PSC also doesn’t correlate with reading comprehension. How could it? It’s simply a check of a set of graphemes to see whether children can blend them together.
 

Now, with results worsening, plans are being made to test reading in Year 8. There are currently no real efforts to prevent the Dyslexia Paradox. This is why we’re launching the pilot through MySLCN.com.
 

Ten Minutes a Day with a TA will ensure that all children with the intellectual capabitiy to pass the PSC will do so using the Monster Spelling Piano app. Speedie Readies will also help them read with fluency and comprehension as they work through the 100 One, Two, Three and Away! books. The first fifty-two are mapped and the code is shown. This 1:1 time with a TA and close observation of their learning journey re-routes dylexia. 

The Dyslexia Paradox describes the contradiction that dyslexia risk can be identified early, yet most children aren’t supported until they’ve already experienced years of reading failure. We know this can change through early word mapping support that a TA can provide. Parents who do this at home can also help in the classroom. ​
 

Research in cognitive neuroscience has established that the brain’s capacity to form the neural connections linking speech, print, and meaning is greatest before the age of seven. Dehaene (2009) demonstrated that learning to read reorganises neural circuits involved in visual and auditory processing, but this process becomes less efficient as neural plasticity declines. Hulme and Snowling (2016) showed that weaknesses in phoneme awareness and letter–sound mapping during the early years are among the strongest predictors of later reading disorders, highlighting the need for early, proactive intervention. Seidenberg (2017) emphasised that fluent reading depends on the automation of these mappings through exposure and self-teaching, but this process can only occur if children reach that stage early enough.
 

By Year 3, prevention is no longer possible. The focus shifts to remediation because the window for early intervention has been missed. Children who have not mastered phoneme–grapheme mapping by this stage are already behind in reading fluency and spelling. They often work harder but achieve less because their brains have not yet automated the link between speech, print, and meaning. This is not a reflection of ability but of timing. The system waited too long to act.
 

The paradox persists because the current system waits for children to fail before intervening. National policy mandates uniform, programme-based instruction in the early years, assuming that all children will respond equally to synthetic phonics. Yet around one in four do not progress as expected. These children often include those with speech, language, and communication needs or other neurodivergent profiles who require more adaptive, linguistically grounded approaches.
 

Preventing the dyslexia paradox means identifying and supporting these children early, before difficulty becomes entrenched. Interventions such as Speedie Readies focus on word mapping within meaningful context, helping learners connect speech and print through visual and linguistic cues. The system is designed to move each child towards the self-teaching phase, where reading and spelling become self-sustaining.

Early, individualised support is not about replacing phonics but about making it accessible to all learners. Every child deserves the opportunity to experience success, joy, and independence in reading from the start. The earlier this happens, the less likely it is that dyslexia will define their educational journey.
 

Miss Emma, the Neurodivergent Reading Whisperer®, shows there is another way, when we focus on preventing the dyslexia paradox. With the Speedie Readie system, children see from the very start how speech maps to print and how print maps back to speech. They begin reading real words and stories far more quickly and easily. Speedie Readies start self-teaching early, with word mapping mastery facilitating reading fluency and comprehension for all.