Dys-Code® Assessors

As part of our £215,875 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded project, we’re training Dys-Code® Assessors to identify dyslexia risk from age three using Dys-Code®3, with Dys-Code®5, Dys-Code®7 and Dys-Code®9 extending screening into the school years.

Assessors will also develop specialist skills in bidirectional word mapping analysis, investigating errors in print-to-speech mapping when reading and speech-to-print mapping when spelling. By examining children’s reading processes and written responses, they’ll learn to understand WHY children struggle with reading and spelling and what they need next.
By examining children’s reading processes and written responses, they’ll learn to identify WHY children struggle with reading and spelling, so parents can better understand what is happening, what knowledge their child may be missing and what support they actually need.

What Will Dys-Code® Assessors Do?

Understanding WHY children struggle with reading and spelling

We're training Dys-Code® Assessors to identify dyslexia risk earlier, analyse children's writing and investigate WHY children experience difficulties with reading and spelling.

This training is being developed as part of our £215,875 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded Contracts for Innovation project.

We're developing Dys-Code®3 to identify dyslexia risk from as young as three years old, before children have even started learning about letters and sounds. Dys-Code®5, Dys-Code®7 and Dys-Code®9 will extend screening into the school years.

A number of existing assessments are designed to screen for dyslexia risk or establish a diagnosis. We already have professionals on our team who are trained and qualified to do that.

But we want to dig deeper.

We don't just want to find out what children know, or establish that they have difficulties. We want to understand WHY they are struggling, how they are making decisions and what they need next.

This is particularly important when identifying risk at such a young age. If we can recognise potential difficulties before formal reading and spelling instruction begins, what can we do differently to prevent avoidable difficulties from becoming entrenched?

Some parents have been led to believe that their child has dyslexia because they haven't responded to phonics instruction. But that doesn't necessarily mean phonics itself hasn't worked for the child. The way phonics has been taught may not have met their needs.

That's why we're also training Dys-Code® Assessors in bidirectional word mapping analysis, investigating errors in print-to-speech mapping when reading and speech-to-print mapping when spelling.

Our future Assessors are learning to look beneath the surface of children's responses, combining specialist knowledge of phonemic awareness, bidirectional word mapping, orthographic learning and children's writing with the Word Mapping Formula and Show the Code technology.

Importantly, we're not prescribing how teachers should teach. We're developing the knowledge needed to understand children's difficulties and make informed decisions about what support they need.

And we want to show parents and caregivers what they can do differently to support their child's reading and spelling development.

It's not just about identifying risk or diagnosing dyslexia. It's about understanding WHY children struggle and knowing what to do next, as early as possible.

Looking Beyond Reading and Spelling Scores

Traditional assessments often tell us whether a child is performing above or below an expected level. They may identify which words a child can read, which spellings they produce or which grapheme–phoneme correspondences they have been taught.

But scores alone don't necessarily explain WHY a child is struggling.

A child may successfully recognise a written word without having securely stored its orthographic representation for future reading and spelling.

Another child may know exactly what they want to write, produce the spoken word successfully, but struggle to select the graphemes that represent the phonemes they use.

We're training Dys-Code® Assessors to investigate and understand these differences rather than simply recording whether a response is right or wrong.

What Can Children's Writing Tell Us?

Consider a child reading the sentence:

The rat likes writing.

The child successfully reads the word writing.

They may have used partial decoding, Set for Variability and syntax to identify the word.

But when writing independently, they produce:

‹riding›

Why?

The child knows what they want to say. They can produce the spoken word. But how are they deciding which graphemes represent the phonemes they use?

In British English, writing can be mapped as:

Phonemes: /r/ /aɪ/ /t/ /ɪ/ /ŋ/

Graphemes: ‹wr› ‹i› ‹t› ‹i› ‹ng›

So why has the child chosen ‹d› instead of ‹t›?

Is it how they pronounce the word? Are they perceiving something different? Are they using a familiar spelling pattern? What happens when we ask them to say the word, listen to its phonemes and show us how they made their choices?

These are the questions we're training Dys-Code® Assessors to investigate.

A single spelling cannot tell us exactly what a child was thinking. But by examining their responses, listening to their explanations and exploring how they make word mapping decisions, we can begin to understand what may be happening.

We're training Assessors to get into the child's mind, not simply mark their spelling as wrong.

What Are Dys-Code® Assessors Being Trained to Investigate?

1. Early Dyslexia Risk

Dys-Code® is being developed to support the identification of dyslexia risk from as young as three years old, before children are necessarily reading or spelling.

Our Assessor training will include understanding early indicators of literacy difficulties, interpreting screening findings and recognising when further investigation or support may be needed.

The project includes consideration of children who are non-speaking, children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and children learning English as an additional language.

Screening for dyslexia risk is not the same as diagnosing dyslexia. The purpose is to identify potential barriers earlier and support informed decisions about what children need.

2. Phonemic Awareness

Before investigating how children connect speech sounds to written symbols, we need to understand how they perceive and process the phonemes in spoken words.

We're training Assessors to examine phonemic awareness, including children's ability to identify, distinguish and manipulate phonemes, where developmentally appropriate.

This involves recognising the distinction between a child's ability to produce speech sounds and their ability to perceive and process those sounds.

A child may have speech production difficulties without necessarily having difficulties with phonemic awareness.

Understanding these differences is important when investigating why children struggle with reading and spelling.

3. Bidirectional Word Mapping

Reading and spelling are related, but they involve different directions of mapping.

Print to speech for reading: Identifying graphemes in written words and determining their phoneme values.

Speech to print for spelling: Identifying phonemes in spoken words and selecting graphemes to represent them.

We're training Dys-Code® Assessors to analyse both directions using the Word Mapping Formula, British English IPA and Show the Code technology.

This includes learning to identify grapheme boundaries, determine phoneme values, recognise alternative correspondences and understand how accent and pronunciation influence children's responses.

The training goes beyond the correspondences explicitly taught within a particular phonics programme.

Assessors will learn how to calculate the code in words children actually encounter, including words containing grapheme–phoneme correspondences they haven't yet been explicitly taught.

4. Analysing Children's Writing

Spelling isn't simply 'talking on paper'.

Children don't necessarily speak in the way synthetic phonics programmes teach them to connect graphemes and phonemes.

A child's spelling may reflect their pronunciation, their perception of speech sounds, their existing orthographic knowledge or the strategies they use when selecting graphemes.

We're training Dys-Code® Assessors to investigate these possibilities.

Rather than simply counting spelling errors, they will learn to examine:

Which phonemes the child appears to have identified.
Which graphemes the child has selected.
Whether the spelling reflects the child's pronunciation.
Whether the child recognises graphemes as units rather than individual letters.
Whether familiar spelling patterns may be influencing their decisions.
Which grapheme–phoneme correspondences the child may not yet know.
What further questions or activities could help explain the child's choices.

Returning to ‹riding› for writing, the important question isn't simply whether the spelling is incorrect.

It's WHY the child selected those graphemes and what that tells us about the knowledge and processes involved.

We're developing Assessors who can investigate those decisions and use the findings to inform what happens next.

5. Orthographic Learning and Self-Teaching

Children are not explicitly taught every grapheme–phoneme correspondence they will encounter in written English.

Phonics instruction provides a foundation for developing the processes needed to read unfamiliar words and establish their orthographic representations.

However, successfully identifying a word does not necessarily mean that a child has securely mapped and stored it.

A child may use partial decoding, Set for Variability and contextual information to work out a word without establishing all the grapheme–phoneme relationships needed to recognise and spell that word independently in future.

We're training Dys-Code® Assessors to investigate this distinction.

This is particularly important for children who appear to read words successfully but continue to experience difficulties with independent spelling.

The aim is to understand whether children are developing the orthographic knowledge needed for increasingly independent reading and spelling, rather than assuming that successful word recognition always demonstrates secure word mapping.

From Understanding WHY to Knowing What Comes Next

Identifying a difficulty is only useful if the information helps us understand what the child needs.

Dys-Code® Assessor training is being designed to develop the knowledge needed to interpret children's responses, investigate possible explanations and identify where additional support may be beneficial.

This might involve gaps in phonemic awareness, uncertainty about grapheme boundaries, difficulties selecting graphemes when spelling or patterns suggesting that orthographic learning is not developing as expected.

Our aim is to move beyond general descriptions such as 'poor spelling', 'weak phonics' or 'below expected standard'.

We want families and educators to understand what the child appears to know, what may be missing and why particular difficulties are occurring.

Supporting Teacher Knowledge and Autonomy

Importantly, we're not prescribing how teachers should teach.

We're supporting educators to develop the knowledge and autonomy to make word mapping decisions aligned with Department for Education (DfE) expectations, including when children need to read or spell words containing grapheme–phoneme correspondences they haven't yet been explicitly taught.

Teachers shouldn't have to rely entirely on a programme's sequence of taught correspondences to understand the words children encounter.

Through the Word Mapping Formula and Show the Code technology, our future Assessors will learn how to investigate the alphabetic code and support informed decisions at the point of need.

Our guiding principle is:

As much explicit instruction as they need, and no more.

The objective is not to create dependence on more programmes or interventions, but to strengthen professional knowledge and children's opportunities for independent learning.

Using Show the Code Technology

Our Assessor training includes the use of technology designed to make the alphabetic code visible.

MyWordz® supports bidirectional word mapping, showing which letters form graphemes and their associated phoneme values.

Phonemies® are speech sound characters that make phoneme values accessible to children.

Together, these tools can support investigation of word mapping decisions and help educators and children explore the relationships between spoken and written language.

The technology supports professional knowledge and decision-making rather than replacing it.

Who Is Dys-Code® Being Developed For?

The project focuses on earlier identification and understanding of literacy difficulties, including children who:

May be at risk of dyslexia before formal reading and spelling instruction begins.
Experience persistent difficulties with reading or spelling despite receiving phonics instruction.
Can recognise words when reading but struggle to spell them independently.
Have speech, language and communication needs.
Are non-speaking and need alternative ways to demonstrate their knowledge.
Are learning English as an additional language.

The development and evaluation of Dys-Code® will consider how children's different language experiences, communication methods and developmental profiles affect assessment and interpretation.

Training the Next Generation of Dys-Code® Assessors

Dys-Code® Assessors are currently being trained.

We're developing the training, assessment processes and supporting technology through our UKRI-funded research and development project.

The training is intended to equip future Assessors with specialist knowledge of early dyslexia risk, phonemic awareness, bidirectional word mapping, children's spelling decisions and orthographic learning.

Assessors will be required to demonstrate their own word mapping knowledge, with annual reassessment planned as part of maintaining the expected standard.

The aim is to establish a network of Assessors who can investigate literacy difficulties with greater precision and help families and educators understand what children need next.

If YOU can give the sounds and they can blend, you can explore any texts together, at any age.

Speedy Paired Decoding! Used within the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach in Australia.

We’re training Dys-Code® Assessors to do this in England as Speedy Paired Bidirectional Word Mapping, or Buddy Mapping for short, as part of our £215,875 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded project.

We’re training Dys-Code® Assessors to identify dyslexia risk from age three using Dys-Code®3, with Dys-Code®5, Dys-Code®7 and Dys-Code®9 extending screening into the school years. Open to Aussie Word Mapping Nerds in 2027!

#buddymapping #dyslexia #phonics #upstreamteam

Re-Routing Dyslexia

The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it claims to do.

Too many children experience difficulties with reading and spelling before anyone investigates WHY they are struggling.

We're challenging that approach.

Through Dys-Code®, we're developing ways to identify dyslexia risk earlier, investigate children's thinking and support informed decisions before avoidable difficulties become entrenched.

We don't just want to know which words children can read or spell. We want to understand how they're making those decisions, WHY they're struggling and what they need next.

We're not simply developing another assessment or prescribing another intervention programme.

We're re-routing how dyslexia risk is identified, understood and addressed.

Dys-Code® Assessor training and screening technology are currently being developed and evaluated as part of our £215,875 UKRI-funded Contracts for Innovation project. The Assessor role and associated assessment processes are not yet established services.