Phonics for SEN Letter Sliders

by
Ann Sullivan

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

The Letter Sliders enable the pupil to manipulate letters to play with and practice working
with words. There is a Letter Slider for each set (1-7) in the programme.
Assemble the Letter Sliders according to the instructions. The pupil can then slide the strips
up and down in the slots on the base card and isolate letters to work with them in words.
Note that the strips are labelled for each set and its position within the word.
Letter Sliders are multipurpose as they can be used in a number of ways:

• Teacher builds a word and the pupil reads it – BLENDING.

• Teacher gives a spoken word and the pupil segments the word sequentially and moves
the strips to match the letters one by one and so spell it – SEGMENTING.
• Teacher asks pupil to change a base word into another given word by sliding the strips
to change the letters – PHONEME MANIPULATION. e.g. Set 3 nap>map>mat>cat>can
etc.
• By focusing on the sounds in the spoken word first and then how the letters represent
the sound is supportive of ORTHOGRAPHIC MAPPING.
• ASSESSMENT of the pupil’s understanding of how words are put together, knowledge
of the basic code and blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation skills can be
carried out by working with nonsense words*.

* Inclusion of nonsense words should be limited at this stage as the pupil needs repeated
exposure to real words that can be mapped and stored in long term memory as a ‘sight word’
lexicon. Use of nonsense words should be limited to assessment situations.

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

Instructions
Print on card, laminate and cut out the base card below. Cut slits (using a sharp craft knife
along) the grey lines. Print out the sliders and cut into the three vertical strips of letters.
Thread the strips through the card as shown on the front page. Slide the strips up and down
to make a variety of words.
Base Cards

______________ ______________ ______________

______________ ______________ ______________

______________ ______________ ______________

______________ ______________ ______________

______________ ______________ ______________

______________ ______________ ______________

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

Slider cards
Set 1 Set 2
Set 1: 1 Set 1: 2 Set 1: 3 Set 2: 1 Set 2: 2 Set 2:3

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

Set 3 Set 4

Set 3: 1 Set 3: 2 Set 3: 3 Set 4: 1 Set 4: 2 Set 4: 3

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

Set 5 Set 6
Set 5: 1 Set 5: 2 Set 5: 3 Set 6: 1 Set 6: 2 Set 6: 3

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020

Set 7

Set 7: 1 Set 7: 2 Set 7: 3

©Ann Sullivan Phonics for Pupils with SEN 2020