Visual Phonics is a system developed to help teach reading and speech to children who are deaf or hard of hearing.  It is a set of 45 manual prompts suggestive of the sounds of English Language.  There is also a set of written symbols that are designed to look similar to the manual prompts.  I use visual phonics as a tactile kinesthetic appraoch to teaching phonics, sound production and sound placement.  I find that it helps many of my students who have articualtion weaknesses or phonological weaknesses.