The 60 Second Spelling Routine

The goal is for learners to become self-teaching and reduce their need for explicit instruction, so teachers show pupils how t use the technology (show the code) and ensure they can independently complete the 60-Second Spelling Routine.

As much explicit instruction as they need, and no more.

When adults attend Word Mapping Mastery® training, they learn how to use The Word Mapping Formula, The Word Mapping Tool and The 60-Second Spelling Routine.
These are used whether a learner is 3, 13 or 30, because the goal is to ensure that they become self-teaching and that reading and spelling become easier. It's never too late! However, it's far easier to prevent the need for intervention, so please do follow the Upstream Team at UpstreamSEND.com. We've just been awarded over £200,000 in funding to get the ball rolling towards screening all three-year-olds for dyslexia risk and providing support upstream. First Ripple SEN Support!

Once learners know which letters form the graphemes in a word, which phonemes those graphemes represent, and what the word means, they need to bond this information together in their orthographic lexicon.

This enables them to recognise the word instantly when reading and retrieve its conventional spelling when writing, without having to work it out each time.

Recognising a word when reading doesn't necessarily mean a child can spell it.

For example, a child may instantly recognise said when reading but write sed when spelling. They know the word, its meaning and its pronunciation, but haven't yet securely bonded the specific grapheme–phoneme correspondences needed to retrieve its spelling.

This is why word mapping needs to support both reading and spelling. The goal isn't just recognition. It's establishing a sufficiently secure orthographic representation that the learner can retrieve the spelling independently.

Although learners can complete the routine without Phonemies®, orthographic interference can make it difficult to remember the sound values of unfamiliar graphemes. Phonemies® provide a constant visual reminder of the phonemes those graphemes represent in THAT particular word.

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A child in Reception using the spelling routine to learn the word 'was'

A severely dyslexic Year 6 student learning the routine using a word he already knew how to spell.

At this stage (Week 1), he hadn't yet learnt the Phonemies®, so he was using a modified version of the routine.

He knew all Phonemies® by Week 3.

We also use a modified version of the 60 Second Spelling Routine (the Monster Routine) with pre-school-aged children and Reception children during the 10-Day Speech Sound Play Plan, before phonics instruction begins. The Monster Routine uses the six phonemes /s/ /æ/ /t/ /p/ /ɪ/ /n/, represented by the graphemes ‹s› ‹a› ‹t› ‹p› ‹i› ‹n› and helps children develop phonemic awareness by learning to identify, isolate, segment and sequence the phonemes in spoken words. Children use the Speech Sound Monsters® (Phonemies®) as visual representations of phonemes, without needing to know letters or grapheme–phoneme correspondences. This helps them focus on the sounds in spoken words before introducing the written code. It also means that transitioning to the full 60 Second Spelling Routine is easy.

Speech Sound Play was originally known as Phase 1 of the Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach, which introduced a self-paced alternative to whole-class phonics instruction. Children progressed through the Core Code (the grapheme–phoneme correspondences assessed in the Phonics Screening Check) at their own pace, rather than following a whole-class teaching schedule. Speech Sound Play is our prevention-before-intervention approach for children identified as being at risk of dyslexia.

Follow our Upstream Screening work at UpstreamSEND.com.

Showing children which letters form the graphemes in words and their corresponding sound values, alongside teaching them to use the Spelling Routine, helps them develop the skills needed to become self-teaching readers and spellers, even at three to five years of age.