**5. Applying the seven vowel phonic analysis system in stage two of child H's writing and spelling programme**

In Stage One of Child H's writing and spelling fluency programme, he had been taught that the vowel sounds are made when the mouth opens, and consonant sounds are made when the mouth closes. This had been done working with a mirror tile so that he could listen to and speak the sounds in words while looking at how his mouth moved when making the consonant and the vowel sounds. He was also shown that he could phonically analyse words by putting his or her hand under his chin to feel how his mouth moved when saying words while as the same time using the mirror to look at how his mouth moved when saying words.

At Stage Two of his writing and spelling fluency programme, written words and printed words drawn from the content of our reading fluency books were used to show Child H that each word is based on at least one vowel sound, and that what we say is what we write. This consistency was taught by analysing both single words and sequences of words in sentences. This was done by using printed material drawn from reading fluency books from our series, which Child H had read and used both for repetitive paired reading and had also used as workbooks for drawing and illustration.

The method used was as follows:


Phonological referencing was thus used in conjunction with colour coding to teach Child H how to phonically analyse individual words and sequences of words in sentences, and then in paragraphs drawn from the phonically based written material in our reading fluency books (Note on the fact that these are both phonically based and graded). Phonological referencing provided a simple activity-based process for identifying the letters which made the vowel sounds in each written word.

This then enabled the logic of the Seven Vowel Phonic Analysis System to be used to code from the written words back to the spoken words, and then to recode from the spoken words back to the written words in sequence. After being phonically analysed, these colour coded words were then revisualised in sequence and written from memory.

#### **5.1 Stage three: increasing span of sequential working memory for words**

Once Child H was able to recall sentences of between five and seven words accurately, span of sequential working memory was increased by work with sentences of increasing length, as well as by work with increasing numbers of sentences in sequence. As our reading fluency materials are graded and phonically based, words, sentences and paragraphs could be drawn from these as the basis for Stage Two activities which linked reading, writing, spelling and sequential working memory work.

Span of sequential working memory could then be increased by initially revisualising single sentences and then more than one sentence at a time. This took place gradually, first focusing on developing Child H's ability to analyse, revisualise and then write the sequences of phonically based words in a single sentence accurately, and then on increasing his span of sequential working memory by developing his ability to write more sequence of words in more than one sentence accurately.

Once it was apparent from Child H's written output that he was able to memorise and write three sentences drawn from a phonically based paragraph accurately, more complex graded paragraphs and sequences of paragraphs were then introduced. This was done in Stage Three of Child H's writing and spelling fluency programme using targeted revisualisation.

This was done using materials and methods from the Targeted Analysis, Revisualisation and Sequential Spelling Programme, which is described in the section following.

### *5.1.1 Stage four in child H's writing and spelling fluency programme: introducing the targeted analysis, revisualisation and sequential spelling programme*

As its name implies, the Targeted Analysis, Revisualisation and Sequential Spelling Programme aims to use targeted revisualisation to develop the ability to recall the words used in individual sentences and sequences of sentences accurately. This is done working with graded paragraphs.

At Stage Four in Child H's writing and spelling fluency programme, he was placed on graded material drawn from Schonell's Graded Dictation programme. As the content of Schonell's programme was written more than 50 years ago, some of the paragraphs were clearly dated, while others expressed content which was felt to be inappropriate and possibly offensive. These paragraphs were redrafted.

For this reason, the material was checked and then revised or rewritten. The content was then supplemented by other graded material using different language registers, as well as content drawn from Child H's school books.

This was introduced using the following hierarchy of activity-based methods (**Figure 6**):

#### **Figure 6.**

*Hierarchy of activity-based methods applied in the targeted analysis, revisualisation and sequential spelling Programme.*
