Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words to Your Children

by Oye Akintan on May 06, 2021

Sight words are those common words that are taught to beginner readers. The intention is to familiarize the kids with these words so that they’ll recognize them instantly when they see them in sentences rather than put too much time into sounding each letter out. When a learner can recognize these high-frequency words, both their fluency and comprehension are improved. 

How Kids Develop Reading Skills

Children start gaining pre-literacy skills when they start having conversations with their family and playmates, as well as when their loved ones read to them from a young age. 

To be able to read a word, the child should be able to identify individual letters, their sounds, and certain combinations of letters. They map the right sounds onto these combinations in a process known as decoding. 

Because sounding out words require a lot of a child’s attention and cognitive skill, reading often starts really slow at the beginning as not that many words are familiar to the young reader. 

Teaching sight words to kids and students learning English as a second language is not as easy as you might think, though, especially when they are just beginning to read. However, if you want your kids to master sight words, there are several things that you can do to help them. 

Here are some tips that work from the team behind one of the best kids learning apps, Kids Plenty Mobile AR:

Hang or Post Them Around in the Room

One of the most effective ways to get young kids excited about learning sight words is by making sure they are always in sight. Create flashcard mobiles with sight words written on the cards or put up posters in their bedroom or playroom with the sight words of the month. This way, your child can always see the words. Make sure you talk about those sight words so the little one will understand their meaning and cheer them on when they get one right!

Do Some Sight Word “Hunting” With Their Favorite Books

At least 75% of a children’s book are sight words, so you won’t have a problem playing this game with your child. Dr. Seuss story books, for one, are filled with them! You can do a read-along session with your child at night where they get to spot and read the sight words you’re supposed to “hunt’ in the book. 

Regularly Use Them

Familiarity will happen when you keep using the words. But more than that, though, encourage your child to use the words. You can let them practice their writing skills with those sight words or perhaps let them type the words on a keyboard. 

Sign Them Up for a Typing Course

Since kids use computers in school today anyway, you can hit two birds with one stone if you allow them to take a typing course. There are some programs that offer modules with only sight words that can be great for little ones. Typing is especially helpful for those who have dyslexia or dysgraphia because typing exercises their muscle memory that helps them with their spelling, too. 

Use Learning Apps

There are some kids learning apps that can help children improve their reading skills. Kids Plenty, for instance, makes the idea of reading more exciting. Of course, you can use such apps to help your kids become more familiar with the sight words they are learning. 

Conclusion

Learning sight words can greatly benefit your child. Whether they are at that exciting age when they’re starting to learn how to read or they’re having difficulties at school because of dyslexia or dysgraphia, mastering sight words can improve their reading skills significantly. By practicing them regularly through typing or writing, placing the words easily within eyesight, incorporating them in your games, or learning them through an awesome kids app, your child can learn and recognize sight words in no time!

Kids Plenty is one of the best learning apps for kids that can help your child develop a love for reading in a fun and exciting way. It’s a great tool for learning sight words, too! Stay tuned to get it on your device soon!

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