For many students with significant reading disabilities, letters can feel abstract and difficult to remember. A traditional print-to-speech approach begins by showing a student a letter and asking, “What sound does this letter make?” But what happens when the student cannot recall the sound—or cannot produce it accurately? A speech-to-print approach begins with something the child already possesses: spoken language. Students learn to notice how a sound is produced, identify it within words, and then connect that sound to its written representation.
The sequence is:
Hear the sound → say the sound → feel the sound → connect the sound to print
For students who have struggled to learn through visual memorization alone,speech-to-print strategies can provide an important new pathway into reading and spelling.
Why Speech-to-Print Instruction Works
Reading is built on spoken language. Before children can understand that the letter p represents /p/, they need to recognize /p/ as an individual sound in spoken words.
Speech-to-print instruction makes an invisible sound more concrete. Students are encouraged to ask:
- What are my lips doing?
- Where is my tongue?
- Is the air flowing or stopping?
- Is my voice on or off?
- What sound do I hear at the beginning, middle, or end of the word?
- Which letter or group of letters represents that sound?
Consider the sounds /p/ and /b/. Both sounds are produced by bringing the lips together and releasing a small burst of air. The important difference is that /b/ is voiced and /p/ is unvoiced. A student can place a hand on the throat to feel that difference.
The sounds /t/ and /d/ share another mouth position. The tongue touches behind the upper teeth, but /d/ uses the voice while /t/ does not. Similarly, /f/ and /v/ are produced by placing the upper teeth against the lower lip. Once again, voicing distinguishes the two sounds.
These observations give students something they can see, hear, and feel. Rather than depending entirely on memory, they learn to use their own mouths as a source of information.
This articulatory awareness can help students identify, sequence, and manipulate the sounds within words. Once those sounds are connected to letters, students can use the same information for decoding and spelling. Phoneme-grapheme mapping supports the process of orthographic mapping—the formation of connections among a word’s pronunciation, spelling, and meaning that eventually allows the word to be recognized automatically.
Programs That Incorporate Speech-to-Print Principles
Several established programs use speech production, phonemic awareness, and multisensory cues to help students connect spoken sounds with written language.
Lively Letters
Lively Letters combines mouth cues, memorable characters, stories, pictures, hand and body movements, and music to teach letter-sound relationships. The letters are grouped according to the way their sounds are produced.
For example, students may learn that /p/ and /b/ are “lip poppers” because the lips come together and pop apart. These concrete labels help children remember the similarities and differences among sounds.
I have found Lively Letters especially helpful for students who need more than repeated practice with flash cards. The visual characters, movements, and articulatory cues give them multiple ways to retrieve a sound.
This paragraph would fit well in the Lively Letters section:
For some children, the Lively Letters songs provide another valuable pathway for learning and remembering speech sounds and their connection to print. The songs combine rhythm, repetition, mouth movements, memorable characters, and letter visuals, giving students several cues they can use when a sound is difficult to recall. As children sing, produce the sound, and look at the corresponding letter, they repeatedly connect what they hear and say with what they see in the text. I have found that some students begin to recall a familiar part of the song when they encounter a letter, helping them retrieve the sound more independently during reading and spelling.
Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing—LiPS
The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing, or LiPS, program teaches students to discover how speech sounds are produced and to use that information to identify the number, order, and identity of sounds in words.
Students learn to compare sounds according to the actions of their lips, tongue, mouth, and voice. They then use this awareness to sequence sounds, read words, and spell. This can be particularly valuable for students who have difficulty perceiving subtle differences between speech sounds or maintaining the correct sound sequence within a word.
The LiPS program works alongside reading and spelling instruction by helping students understand not only the correct answer, but also why it is correct. Rather than asking a child simply to memorize a sound, the instructor guides the student to discover how the sound is produced, where it occurs in a word, and how it changes when sounds are added, removed, substituted, or rearranged. Students learn to ask themselves questions such as, “What are my lips and tongue doing?” “Is my voice on or off?” and “Does the word I read match the sounds and letters I see?” This develops important metacognitive skills because students become aware of their own thinking and learn to monitor and correct their responses. Instead of relying on an adult to tell them that an answer is wrong, they acquire concrete strategies for analyzing the word, identifying the problem, and making an informed correction independently.
SPELL-Links
SPELL-Links connects phonological awareness, sound-symbol relationships, spelling patterns, vocabulary, and morphology. It emphasizes beginning with the sounds in a spoken word and then examining the different ways those sounds may be represented in print.
This is important because English does not have a simple one-sound, one-letter system. A student may hear /k/ and need to determine whether it is represented by c, k, ck, or another spelling. Speech-to-print instruction provides the starting point, while explicit teaching of orthographic patterns helps the student make an informed spelling choice.
Although SPELL-Links is not a program I have personally used, it incorporates a similar speech-to-print approach. Instruction begins with the sounds students hear and produce in spoken words and then connects those sounds to letters and spelling patterns. The program also integrates phonological awareness, word study, vocabulary, and morphology, reinforcing the understanding that reading and spelling are interconnected parts of the language system. I include it as another example of how speech-to-print principles can be incorporated into structured literacy instruction, rather than as a personal recommendation based on my own clinical experience.
Sound Walls
A sound wall is not a complete reading program, but it is a useful speech-to-print tool. Unlike a traditional alphabet display, a sound wall organizes phonemes according to how they are produced.
Consonants may be arranged by place and manner of articulation, while vowels are organized according to the position of the tongue, jaw, and lips. Photographs or illustrations of mouth positions can help students independently locate a sound and find its corresponding spelling or spellings.
The sound wall should be actively taught and regularly used—not simply displayed as classroom decoration.
Other Effective Speech-to-Print Strategies
A speech-to-print approach can be incorporated into many structured literacy lessons.
Use a Consistent “Sound Check”
One routine I have used is:
- Hear it: Listen carefully to the sound.
- Say it: Produce the sound.
- Feel it: Notice the lips, tongue, airflow, and voice.
- Name it: Describe or categorize the sound.
- Write it: Connect the phoneme to its grapheme.
- Check it: Say the sound again and confirm the spelling.
For a student that loved Legoes and space I created this as a visual for the student to learn the sequence.
A consistent routine reduces the language and memory demands of the task. Over time, students can internalize these questions and use them independently.
Map Sounds Before Adding Letters
When teaching a word such as ship, first have the student stretch and segment the spoken word:
/sh/ – /ĭ/ – /p/
The student can push a token into one box for each phoneme. Only after identifying the three sounds are the letters added:
sh – i – p
This helps the student understand that sh contains two letters but represents one phoneme.
Integrate Decoding and Encoding
Reading and spelling should reinforce one another. After students map and spell a word, they should read it. After they decode a word, they can segment and write it.
This reciprocal practice strengthens the connection between speech and print and helps students understand that decoding and encoding are two directions within the same language system.
Use Decodable Text Purposefully
Students need opportunities to apply newly learned correspondences in connected text. The text should primarily contain patterns they have already been taught so that they can practice decoding rather than guessing from pictures or context.
For some students, the amount of print on a page is also important. A student may be capable of reading the words but become overwhelmed by a densely printed page. Presenting fewer lines at a time, increasing spacing, or covering part of the page can make the task feel manageable without reducing its instructional value.
I once worked with a student who would shut down as soon as he saw a full page of print, refuse to attempt the task, and insist that it was too difficult. This occurred even when the story contained only decodable words and high-frequency words he had already demonstrated that he could read. When I reformatted the same story so that each page contained fewer words and more white space, he was willing and able to read it—even when the new text included more complicated words. This experience was an important reminder that a child’s response to reading is influenced not only by the difficulty of the words but also by how the print is presented. When supporting a student with reading difficulties, we must consider text density, spacing, font size, page layout, and the amount of information presented at one time. Sometimes changing the appearance of the task allows a student to demonstrate skills that were there all along.
Connect Phonics With Meaning and Oral Language
Word reading should never become disconnected from language. New words can be discussed, acted out, illustrated, placed into sentences, and connected to the student’s experiences.
When students learn to read and spell a word, they should also understand what it means and how to use it. This creates a bridge among phonology, orthography, vocabulary, syntax, and comprehension.
What I Have Observed in My Own Work
As a speech-language pathologist, I have long been interested in the relationship among speech production, oral language, reading, and writing. In my work with students with significant disabilities, I have seen speech-to-print strategies produce benefits that extend beyond decoding.
Some of my students entered instruction with limited verbal output and significant difficulty learning letter-sound relationships. When sounds were made visible and tangible through mouth pictures, mirrors, gestures, tactile cues, and repeated opportunities to produce them, the students became more active participants.
They did not simply point to a letter or select an answer. They began producing sounds, attempting words, explaining what their mouths were doing, and using more language during lessons. As their understanding grew, so did their willingness to communicate.
I observed students increase both their literacy skills and their verbalizations. Speech-to-print instruction gave us a meaningful reason to look at one another’s faces, imitate movements, listen carefully, compare sounds, make choices, and talk about what we noticed. Literacy instruction became language instruction as well.
Speech-to-Print at a Summer Literacy and Language Clinic
I used many of these strategies again this summer while participating in a literacy and language clinic for students with substantial reading needs.
Instruction included Lively Letters and LiPS-inspired articulatory cues, explicit phonemic-awareness activities, phoneme-grapheme mapping, decoding and encoding practice, high-frequency word instruction, handwriting, and decodable connected text.
One student entered the program with significant reading needs as well as severe speech difficulties. Some of his speech was challenging to understand, and he had difficulty accurately producing and differentiating several sounds.
We began by helping him discover what his mouth was doing. He learned to describe sounds by their articulatory features. He could identify whether his lips or tongue were involved, whether the airflow stopped or continued, and whether his voice was on or off. We then connected those discoveries to letters and used the same cues during reading and spelling.
Over the course of the program, he became increasingly independent in identifying and producing the sounds that had been taught. He began applying this knowledge to blending and decoding words. Just as importantly, his speech production and intelligibility also improved.
I would not suggest that reading instruction alone remediated his speech disorder. He received intentional support for both speech and literacy. However, the same articulatory cues supported both areas. The work was integrated rather than divided into unrelated tasks.
The student also began explaining sounds to other people. This demonstrated more than memorization. He was developing metalinguistic awareness—the ability to think and talk about how language works.
More Than Learning Letter Sounds
Speech-to-print instruction is not a shortcut, and no single program will meet the needs of every learner. Students with significant reading disabilities still require instruction that is explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and responsive to their individual profiles.
However, beginning with speech can provide an accessible entry point. It allows students to use their existing oral-language system while bringing together listening, speaking, movement, vision, reading, and writing.
For some students, this approach does more than improve their ability to decode words. It gives them tools for monitoring their own speech, expressing what they know, asking questions, and participating more fully in instruction.
When we help students discover that print represents the language they already carry within them, letters become less abstract. Reading becomes something they can hear, see, say, feel, and ultimately understand.
RELATED BLOGS:
- Elementary Literacy Tools That Boost Reading, Writing, and Language Success
- 10 Ways to Make a Cozy Reading Corner in the Classroom
- What are the Five Essential Components of Reading?
