5 August, 2024

Handwritingbot now has around 12,000 words programmed with phonemes / letter sounds as an audio option for your custom handwriting animations!

To use this feature, type/dictate/paste your text, press play, then click the ‘settings’ button and select the ‘letter sounds / phonetics’ tab and select your accent. Press the play button at the top again and it will play an animation of how to form each letter and word you’ve written. You and all your students will automatically be using this function instead of the handwriting instruction / letter name audio option.

 

Using phonetics reflects current best practise with the science of reading / structured literacy approach. We have chosen the ‘spelling voice’ method of breaking words up (more information below).

 

When choosing the sounds for each grapheme (letter / group of letters) we used the following method:

1.     The letters and sounds that match a common spelling choice such as those mentioned in various phonics/decodable structured literacy approaches, for example:

• The ‘WR’ in ‘write’ we chose ‘rrrr’
• The ‘AL’ in ‘calm’ we chose ‘arrr’
• The ‘A’ in ‘wash’ we chose ‘o’

2.        If the sound was not a common one for those letters, we chose the closest sound those letters make, for example:

 

·      the ‘AR’ in wary, we chose ‘arrr’

·      the ‘AR’ in ‘warm’, we chose the sound ‘o’ for the ‘A’ because ‘ar’ rarely makes the ‘or’ sound.

·      Wear – ‘air’ is not a common sound for the letters ‘EAR’ so we chose the sound ‘ear’ because that’s what a child would sound out.

 

The reasoning behind these decisions is that we are trying to teach students the common sounds letters make and also to use a ‘spelling voice.’

 

3.        For words with the schwa sound (Australia), we generally chose the most common sound those letters make e.g. the ‘ER’ in teacher but we chose ‘urrr’.

4.        For words with ‘silent’ letters such as the ‘T’ in ‘listen’, we’ve generally chosen to keep that sound, in keeping with the ’spelling voice’ as detailed below.

 

This has not been an exact science and there are probably people who would disagree with some of the choices made, but if you think there’s been an obvious error with the sound in a word, please let us know by emailing [email protected] so we can fix it 😊.

 

If you’d like more information about why we chose the sounds we did for the phonemes, there’s a great article by Allison Clarke, the Senior Speech Pathologist at Spelfabet which we believe reflects current best practise. Spelling voice is also mentioned in various phonics/decodable structured literacy approaches and methodologies. The summary points related to Handwritingbot are listed below:

1.         Modelling Spelling Behaviour: Adults should model saying sounds/syllables/words as they write to encourage children to do the same. This helps bridge the gap between silent, visual writing and spoken language.

2.         Phonemic Awareness in Spelling: Developing phonemic awareness is crucial for spelling accuracy. Encouraging students to break down words into syllables and pronounce them phonetically aids in remembering tricky spellings, such as “Wed-nes-day” and “bus-i-ness”.

3.         Conscious Awareness of Phonemes: When learning to read and spell, learners need to consciously become aware of phonemes and how they’re produced in the mouth. Slowing down speech and feeling the sounds can aid in this process.

5.         Abstract Concepts in Language: Children develop abstract ideas of phonemes, similar to how they understand abstract concepts like “cat” and “dog”. These concepts are based on both the auditory and articulatory properties of speech sounds.

6.         Developing a “Spelling Voice”: Using a “Spelling Voice” involves saying words slowly while writing them, aiding in the linking of sounds to letters/spellings. Over-pronouncing words with unstressed vowels can also help in remembering spellings.

7.         Using Analogies for Understanding: Analogies like speaking “like the Queen” or “like a robot” can help children understand the importance of pronunciation in spelling. For example, robots pronounce each sound clearly, similar to how one should pronounce each sound when spelling.