If your child is in elementary school, chances are that you have heard the term "sight words" or "red words". These words don't follow typical phonics rules; therefore, they can't be sounded out in order to decode the word. There are several strategies to help your child familiarize and eventually master sight words.
1) SOS- Simultaneous Oral Spelling
SOS is a quick and easy multi-sensory activity that helps reinforce the spelling of sight words. It is best to focus on 2 to 3 sight words at a time. Write the sight word of choice in large, neat handwriting for your child. Then, the child chooses 3 different colored pencils. Your child will trace the sight word 3 times while saying each letter name followed by underlining the whole word and saying the word aloud. After using all three colors, the sight word should be nice and colorful. But been more importantly, your child will have a better understanding and knowledge of the word.
2) Heart Words
Another way to reinforce sight word knowledge is a method called heart words. Write out the desired sight word and tell the child what the word is. Next, ask the child how many sounds they hear in the word. Then, the child will use their previous knowledge of letters/sounds and decide what part of the sight word is "tricky". For example, the word "said" is mostly phonetic, however, "ai" is irregular because it sounds like "e" in this sight word. Once they identify the "tricky" part of the word, they will put a heart above that part.
3) Elkonin Boxes
Sound-letter mapping is a visual approach to reading. Each box represents one sound or phoneme. It is important to note that more than one letter can belong in one box: digraphs (sh, ch, th), welds (ing, onk, etc.), and vowel teams (ai, ee, ea, etc.) have more than one letter, but only have one sound. Being able to separate and distinguish what letters are producing what sounds in a word can help a child visualize the spelling of a word.
Written by Madison Dwyer