About iPlay Phonics

Our Founder's Story

iPlay Phonics was founded by Aileen McSorley, a language teacher and specialist in Learning Support at Holy Cross College in Strabane. She came up with the idea for iPlay Phonics after thinking of ways to keep her own two children occupied in the evenings while helping them to learn.

Based on the beloved board game Snakes and Ladders, iPlay Phonics has been designed specifically to increase children's self-confidence in literacy. What started as a mother's solution has grown into a powerful educational tool used in schools across the UK and Ireland.

Previously published by the University of Glasgow and sold throughout England, Scotland and Wales, iPlay Phonics is the world's first educational resource to use voice interactive technology to aid in the learning of reading and speaking.

As Aileen says: "It is a fun-based, interactive computer board game with 14 different levels of difficulty, so your child can reach their full potential at their own pace."

The Phonics Approach

There are 40+ sounds in English. When these phonics are used fluently — saying the sounds that go with the letters — a learner's word attack skills, fluency and confidence are all increased.

In order to read a language it is necessary to decode the letters. This means an understanding of phonics is essential. It is for this reason that the government and the Inspectorate insist on the use of phonics in teaching for language acquisition — so by law teachers must use phonics programmes.

The phonic skill is to be able to look at the letters, say the sounds and hear the word being read. It is the ability to blend these sounds together that provides the ability to read unknown words. The skill of being able to blend letters together places the reader in a better position to master irregular unknown words.

Immediacy of Feedback

The immediacy of feedback to students is important for two reasons:

• Fluency and confidence — the faster the letter and sound is recognised, the easier it is for reading and writing to take place
• It prevents an emotional response — the main cause of barriers to learning

Best Practice

It is recommended that one letter sound is introduced each day and lower case letters are first to be taught. It is important that the letters are introduced by their SOUND and not their names.

Reinforcement of letter sounds is very important. Fluency in blending ensures few, if any, problems with reading. As a result the focus then becomes comprehension of the text.