Peter J. Hatcher & Fiona J. Duff 
Sound Linkage 
An Integrated Programme for Overcoming Reading Difficulties

The updated edition of this successful resource has been
developed to support children with reading delays and dyslexia. It
contains a phonological training programme, an explanation of how
this programme can be embedded within a broader reading
intervention, a standardized test of phonological awareness and a
methodology to grade children’s reading books.

* This third edition has been revised throughout to include the
latest developments in the field

* These resources have been used with a wide range of children
and found to be suitable for use with any reading-delayed children,
irrespective of cognitive ability and age

* All activities are accompanied by a set of photocopiable record
sheets, a set of pictures, and an appendix of additional activities
useful in helping children master a particular skill or to
reinforce existing learning

* The ten sections of activities within the guide include:
identification of words and syllables; identification and supply of
rhyming words; identification and discrimination of phonemes; and
blending, segmentation, deletion, substitution and transposition of
phonemes within words.

About the author

Peter J. Hatcher was, until his retirement, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of York. He also worked as a Senior Educational Psychologist with the Cumbria Education Authority. His work in the area of understanding and helping children with reading difficulties master the skills of reading, with Charles Hulme and Andrew Ellis, culminated in their groundbreaking research (1994) that supported the Sound Linkage Hypothesis. Prior to working as an Educational Psychologist, he taught primary, secondary and tertiary-age students in special and mainstream settings in Australia, the Bahamas, Sierra Leone and the UK.

Fiona J. Duff is a Research Associate at the University of Oxford. She was previously a research fellow at the University of York, where she also completed her Ph D. During her studies, she was awarded the British Psychological Society Postgraduate Award and was seconded to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, where she authored a briefing note for parliamentarians on teaching children to read.

Charles Hulme is Professor of Psychology at University College London. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Scientific Studies of Reading and is currently a Senior Editor of the Association of Psychological Science’s flagship journal, Psychological Science. His publications include five authored and four edited books, over 190 journal articles, as well as several psychometric tests, including the United Kingdom’s new standard test of reading comprehension, the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension.