The document provides an overview and guidance for using the Phonics and Talk Time books by Debbie Hepplewhite. The books integrate systematic phonics instruction with language development for preschool-aged children. Each book introduces letters and sounds, and builds oral blending and segmenting skills. Guidance is given on using the books to develop literacy skills through repetition and completion activities. The document recommends following up with a full phonics program to teach the full alphabetic code.

1. Phonics and Talk Time 3+
Aa to Zz alphabet letters linked to sounds
and the core phonics skills and sub-skills
for reading, spelling and handwriting
by Debbie Hepplewhite
 Suitable for use in the home
and in nurseries, pre-schools
and pre-kindergartens.
 Also suitable for use in schools
for young beginners when the
Roman alphabet is a different
script from the first language.

2. The PowerPoint Presentation
• Part 1: An introduction to Debbie Hepplewhite
and a look at the Simple View of Reading diagram and
what’s involved in teaching reading, spelling and writing
• Part 2: About the main content and guidance of the two
‘Phonics and Talk Time’ books to enable transparent review
- see from slide 8
• Part 3: What next after ‘Phonics and Talk Time’?

3. Part 1: An introduction to
Debbie Hepplewhite MBE FRSA
• Previously: primary teacher, headteacher, special needs teacher
Currently: teacher-trainer, consultant and writer
• Author of the online Phonics International programme for all ages and
contexts (Phonics International Ltd, 2007)
• Phonics consultant for the Oxford Reading Tree Floppy’s Phonics
Sounds and Letters infant programme (Oxford University Press, 2011)
• England: received MBE Queen’s Honours Award for
Services to Education (2012)
• Author of Phonics Training Online featuring Debbie’s ‘two-pronged
systematic and incidental phonics teaching and learning’ approach
(Phonics International Ltd, 2015)
• Author of the No Nonsense Phonics Skills programme (Raintree, 2016)
• Author of Phonics and Talk Time (Phonics International Ltd, 2017)

4. The Simple View of Reading
To teach reading and for children to be
‘readers’ in the full sense:
*We need to teach the letter/s-sound links
and the phonics sub-skills and blending skill
for the technical ability to read unknown print:
What ARE the words?
How do we decode print into spoken words?
*We need to develop children’s spoken language,
enrich their stock of words and build their
knowledge and understanding of the world:
What do the words MEAN?

5. Teaching reading, spelling and writing
To teach reading, spelling and writing:
1) It is essential to develop children’s spoken language to enrich their stock
of words and build up their knowledge and understanding of the world:
This is ‘cultural capital’ or ‘literacy capital’: Provide lots of high-quality
conversations and activities and plenty of ‘life’ and ‘book’ experience.
2) Teach explicitly and systematically the letter/s-sound links of the English
alphabetic code and the three core phonics skills and their sub-skills for
reading, spelling and writing.

6. The Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Teaching Principles
https://phonicsinternational.com/Triangle_sub_core_skills.pdf
1. Systematically teach the KNOWLEDGE of
the letter/s-sound correspondences of
the alphabetic code and the three core
phonics SKILLS and their sub-skills.
2. Application: Use cumulative, decodable
words, sentences and texts for ample
practice.
3. Don’t teach, or promote, multi-cueing
reading strategies that amount to
guessing words from pictures, context or
initial letter cues as these detract from,
and dilute, the phonics application and
result in weak reading profiles.
For a very detailed free pdf, see:

7. Part 2: The Phonics and Talk Time series:
Pre-school books 1 & 2
back cover

8. Content of the two Phonics and Talk Time books
The two books integrate systematic, cumulative phonics content and language comprehension.

9. Guidance in the Phonics and Talk Time books
Full guidance is provided via the front cover notes and throughout the pages of both books.

10. Guidance for the phonics activities pages – Book 1

11. Guidance for the phonics activities pages – Book 2

12. Introducing both CAPITAL and lower case
letter shapes ‘as code for’ the same sounds
Characters’ names
exemplify capital letters.
Key picture-words
exemplify lower
case letter shapes.
Book 1 includes sub-skills and
full phonics skill for reading
with cumulative words.
Book 2 progresses to
include spelling with
writing, and reading
to sentence level.

13. The characters for the CAPITAL letters

14. Enjoy language play and language development
Book 2: Conversations are generated by themed pictures along with
further themed all-through-the-word reading and spelling activities.
Book 1: Recite and talk
about characters’ rhymes.
‘Let’s talk about...’ pictures
include phonemic awareness
activities for beginning sounds.

15. The key picture-words for the lower case letters
Sounds (phonemes) linked to
alphabet letter shapes:
Vowel sounds shown in red
letters within the slash marks:
/a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/
Consonant sounds shown in blue
letters within the slash marks:
e.g. /b/ /k/ /l/ /r/ /s/
Try not to add “…uh” on the
end of the consonant sounds:
e.g. s pronounced “sss” not “suh”

16. Oral blending of any sounds
‘Phonemic awareness’ = tuning into the smallest sounds of speech
The child’s ‘ear’ is tuned into any sounds (phonemes) with activities of oral blending (reading
sub-skill) and oral segmenting (spelling sub-skill).
Book 1 features lots of practice of oral blending – a sub-skill of reading (decoding).

17. Oral blending & oral segmenting of any sounds
Book 2 features lots of practice of oral blending – a sub-skill of reading (decoding)
alternating with oral segmenting – a sub-skill of spelling, and full spelling (encoding).
Identify the sounds all through the picture
words and then allot letters for each sound.

18. How is it best to use these books?
Complete and repeat
Like any early years favourite alphabet books, use over and over again.
Keep copies in the book corner to browse constantly - this is important.
In addition, children need their own copies to complete and repeat.
The repetition is key to effective learning of alphabetic code knowledge and phonics skills.
Please note:
The original hard copy versions of these books
are produced in very high quality card and paper
for durability and longevity!

19. Teaching letter groups as code for the sounds
‘incidentally’ – drip-feeding how reading works
The Phonics and Talk Time books introduce the single letters of the alphabet as code for the
sounds of speech – not letter groups such as sh and ch (the exception is qu as code for /kw/).
You can point out any letter groups ‘incidentally’ – including in children’s names and story books.

20. Please note: Further teaching
• The Phonics and Talk Time books provide an introduction to the full range of letter
shapes of the alphabet linked to sounds (but not the full ‘alphabetic code’) along with
the three core phonics skills and sub-skills required to read, spell and write.
• Follow the thorough completion of the Phonics and Talk Time books with a systematic
synthetic phonics (SSP) programme from the beginning - to teach the English
alphabetic code comprehensively. This will introduce many spelling alternatives for
the 44+ sounds of speech (the letter groups such as sh, th, ee, oa, igh and so on) and
the pronunciation alternatives for various letters and letter groups (for example, ea is
pronounced differently in ‘eat’, ‘bread’ and ‘great’). See free printable Alphabetic Code
Charts at: https://alphabeticcodecharts.com
• In England, a full systematic synthetic phonics programme would ideally begin by the
time the children are four to five years old in their Reception class.
• To hear the full range of sounds and to note their spelling alternatives, see video:
https://phonicsinternational.com/new_hear_sounds.html

21. Part 3: What next after ‘Phonics and Talk Time’?
If you would like to investigate Debbie’s wide range of FREE RESOURCES
and her full systematic synthetic phonics programmes and range of
training provision, please visit:
https://syntheticphonics.com
You will also find a comprehensive online audio/pictorial Alphabetic
Code Chart.

22. Research and Reading Debate
• For research information and up-to-date commentary on
foundational literacy, the following three sites are highly
recommended:
• The UK Reading Reform Foundation (RRF) https://rrf.org.uk
• The International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction (IFERI)
https://iferi.org
• Susan Godsland’s award-winning site https://dyslexics.org.uk