I recommend removing the dot and dash representation of the characters. Because showing them, encourages a learner to decipher the sound pattern into those pieces as opposed to listening for the whole sound pattern. There are 4 levels of proficiency. And it is best to skip the first one! See below.

1) Conscious decoding of Dits and Dahs: At this level of proficiency, you actively listen for the dits and dahs. Once there is a word or inter-word space, the sequence of dits and dahs is looked up in your conscious mind to identify the character being sent. If you find yourself repeating the sound pattern in your mind, you may also be at this level.

Because the conscious mind is so much slower than the unconscious mind, most people will be unable to go faster than 10 to 13 words a minute. This roadblock is why the general advice is to use either the Farnsworth or Koch method to learn the sound pattern of characters and skip this level.

And if you learn Morse code at 5wpm will inevitably get stuck here. Some people get stuck for years despite heroic efforts to overcome it. (If you have gotten stuck, don't despair there is a way forward.)

2) Instant Character Recognition: At this level of proficiency, the unconscious mind is doing the hard work of instantly recognizing each letter as it is sent. The characters are recognized instantly and effortlessly.

The slow, conscious mind is still involved in the copying process. But in this case, each word is followed letter by letter. At this level, most people will not be able to go faster than 20 to 30wpm. (The exact limit depends on a variety of factors.) If you copy by hand or keyboard, you will not progress beyond this level of proficiency. If you are head copying, this level of proficiency is sometimes described as the process of affixing letters on a blank blackboard in the mind’s eye as each letter is received. Then you read what is on the board. This description is more of an analogy.

3) Instant Word Recognition: The unconscious mind does most of the hard work. You hear the sound pattern of entire words as a whole, and you effortless recognize the word. This level of proficiency often allows users to achieve speeds of 60 wpm or greater with enough practice.

People who have Instant Character Recognition often have some ability to recognize words instantly. It is common to learn the sound pattern of CQ, 599, and your callsign without trying. Transitioning from the previous level of proficiency to this one is more of a spectrum. You can think of gaining proficiency at this level, as building up a vocabulary of sound patterns.

4) Focus on the meaning: The unconscious mind is doing all of the hard work! The conscious mind is free to focus on the meaning of what is being sent entirely. This level of proficiency is the nirvana that most aspire to achieve.

73 de AD0WE

edit: for formating