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“Teaching phonics before a child is ready is like taking a student driver on the motorway in their second lesson.”

In this episode of the Therapod Podcast, host Carolyn Gelenter sits down with Professor Helen Stringer from Newcastle University to explore the fundamental power of phonological awareness. While the education system often pushes formal phonics at age four, Professor Stringer explains that many children lack the underlying auditory skills needed to succeed, which can turn reading into a "trial" rather than a pleasure.

The conversation clarifies the vital difference between the two: phonological awareness is an auditory skill about how we deal with the words we hear in our brains, whereas phonics is a visual skill linking letters to sounds.

Key highlights from this episode include:

The Developmental Sequence: Why language develops from whole words to syllables and finally to individual sounds—and why jumping straight to sounds can lead to reading failure.

The NAPA & NIPA: An introduction to the Newcastle Assessment of Phonological Awareness and the Newcastle Intervention for Phonological Awareness—free, evidence-based tools designed to help practitioners support children effectively.

Vocabulary & Speech: How phonological awareness serves as the "hook" for learning new words and helps children with speech sound disorders resolve their difficulties more quickly.

A Social Justice Issue: A call to action to move away from "one size fits all" phonics programs and prioritize student readiness to ensure no child feels like a failure at age five.

Bilingual Advantages: Insights into how phonological awareness skills transfer across different languages, providing a bridge for children who speak more than one language.

Tune in to discover how moving "Beyond Phonics" can transform a child's journey into literacy and language.

#PhonologicalAwareness #Literacy #Phonics #SpeechAndLanguage #TherapodPodcast #InclusiveEducation #NAPA #NIPA #EarlyYears #Neurodiversity