See-the-Sound Visual Phonics

Using See-the-Sound/Visual Phonics

See-the-Sound/Visual Phonics was conceived as a mechanism to make the phonemic aspects of spoken language visible to students who are DHH. It consists of 45 hand cues and symbols. The hand cues provide visual and kinesthetic information that can be associated with the way a sound is produced verbally. For example, the /p/ sound is represented with a hand cue that simulates the “plosiveness” of /p/ - the air being released from the lips. The symbols are unique and are used to pair with letters to provide students with a visual correlate for the sound a letter might “make” in a particular word.

During trainings, participants frequently receive suggestions about how Visual Phonics can be used in classroom instruction. Visual Phonics can be used with any reading curriculum as an assistive tool. It is also frequently used by Speech-Language Pathologists who are working on sound production with their students.

Who uses Visual Phonics?

Teachers, instructional assistants, and Speech/Language Pathologists can use Visual Phonics for literacy and speech production and perception. Some parents use Visual Phonics to help their children master the concepts of phonemic awareness and phonics.

Does Visual Phonics work?

There are years of anecdotal evidence that support its use with many children. There's been little empirical evidence that validates the efficacy, despite its use for over 20 years with children in schools. Recently, there have been several published research articles that support its use.