What is POPAT?

POPAT is a highly structured teaching programme that has proved itself to be a successful teaching tool in an increasing number of educational establishments.

It is used by teachers, teaching assistants, parents, Educational Psychologists and Speech and Language Therapists.


This new approach to phonics and the remediation of phonological disorders teaches an in-depth understanding of speech sounds and their order in words before letters are introduced.

It is used widely as a remedial programme for various speech and language difficulties.



Very young children discover that spoken words are made up of discrete sounds, what those sounds are and how to sequence and blend them in a way they enjoy and readily engage in.  

They learn the segmentation, ordering and synthesis that are the bedrock of synthetic phonics and the discrimination, sequencing and practice that underlie intelligible speech.




Letters are introduced when the Learners have taken these analytic and synthetic processes securely on board and can use them easily.
 
POPAT accelerates the literacy learning of mainstream pupils and impacts dramatically on emergent writing.

It provides the focused listening and repetition that help to generalise new learning into everyday usage.

It unravels the complexities of English spelling, punctuation and grammar.

The programme has proved itself to be a highly successful approach for all learners with Special Educational Needs such as: Dyslexia; Dyspraxia; Delayed or Disordered Phonological Development; PMLD; Visual Impairment and in Adult Literacy.

POPAT is not language specific; it can be adapted for use in any alphabetic language and is at present translated into Welsh.