Sight words are words which have been mastered by readers. Word mastery refers to words which have been committed to memory.  These words can be read on sight without having to decode them.  Sight words are vital for all readers’ comprehension and fluency.  Fluent readers only decode, or “sound out,” words they do not already know by sight.  Phonics decoding is an important skill for early readers.  However, ensuring that children have a basic sight word vocabulary before introducing systematic phonics instruction allows for more efficient and confident learning of phonics.

When we teach phonics beginning with words that children already know by sight, it becomes easier to pick out individual sounds within the familiar words.  This makes phonics instruction less intimidating for the child, leading to more confident learners!  But whether children have already started on phonics instruction or not, sight word learning is vital for all readers.

This is where Picture Me Reading comes in.  Picture Me Reading teaches sight words using a visual/conceptual approach to teaching the most important and most difficult to learn sight words.  Picture Me Reading teaches the basic Dolch word list.  This is a list of the 220 words most frequently found in basic English text.  This list includes words like ‘the’, ‘what’, ‘could’, ‘why’, etc.   Dolch words make up a large portion of children’s literature, up to 75% of the vocabulary in these reading materials.  High frequency, or “service” words have to be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language.  These words also form a large portion of newspaper, magazine and online text.

Mastery of Dolch words can be challenging for children.  Dolch words are mostly abstract words.  There are no nouns on the list, aside from the color and number words.  Both factors make it difficult for children to form mental images of these words.  This is especially challenging for visual learners.  If they can form a mental image of a word they are learning, it will help them to master the word more quickly.

Many of the Dolch words are phonetically irregular.  They do not follow basic phonic or structural decoding rules.  This is why it is imperative to commit these words to memory.  Instant recognition of Dolch high frequency words frees the early learner to concentrate on the remaining words in the text using whatever decoding skills they have, context clues and illustrations.

Children need to see a word and hear it read or sound it out correctly many times before it is mastered.  Some children need to see a word ten times, some one hundred times or more.  Most young learners are visual learners.  The more extreme visual learners are usually diagnosed with Dyslexia as they get older, when it becomes obvious that phonic decoding alone is not working for them.  Picture Me Reading lowers the number of exposures needed to master words.

Picture Me Reading Sight Word Flashcards are a tool that can be used for many different sight word activities. The most basic use of them is as flashcards, used with individuals, small groups, or in whole-class settings.  They may be used with sight word Bingo, Hide-and-Seek, or any number of activities.

Picture Me Reading has developed several resources for use with the cards, but they may be used with any sight word game or activity.  They have also been used to teach sight words to children online, or in a hybrid educational setting.  The most fun, exciting use of Picture Me Reading cards for children is taking them home to share with friends and family, for extra practice and for showing off their progress!

Picture Me Reading Sight Word Cards are different from other high frequency word flashcards because they have a pictograph embedded in each word on one side (visual) and a matching auditory cue to provide context for the word (conceptual) on the other side.  They were developed in the 1990s by educational psychologist Marlys Isaacson in response to the need she was seeing in many of her clients.  After much trial and error, she realized that basic black-and-white pictures embedded in the words were far more effective than colorful illustrations.  This is because colorful illustrations, while attractive to teachers and parents, distract from the word being learned.

Picture Me Reading cards are unique on the market because they only use color in the illustrations when a color is the clue to the word.  The rest of the Picture Me Reading cards use only black-and-white illustrations. Other products that have used illustrations on their flashcards have made the mistake of making them highly colorful.  Our cards are simple but not childish, meaning they are suitable for older children and adults, as well as young children.  Many of our visual/conceptual cues are humorous, making them all the more appealing to children and adults, while adding a bit of fun to a teaching session.

As noted earlier, children need to see a word and hear it read or sound it out correctly many times before it is mastered.  This is why sight word activities are so important.  Few reading materials have the repetition of high frequency words needed for these words to be mastered by most learners.  Our visual/conceptual approach to learning sight words shortens the time it takes for a child to master a word because they can visualize the picture clue, recall the concept, and recognize the word when the word is encountered later without the cues. This was demonstrated in an Illinois State University study entitled Sight Word Recognition Among Young Children at Risk: Picture-Supported vs. Word Only, by Meadan, H., Stoner, J.B. and Parette, H.P. (2008).  See our Why use Picture Me Reading? page, for further studies.

Children who have struggled to learn to read by any other approach have succeeded with Picture Me Reading, gaining confidence in their own ability to learn to read.  Many teachers and parents have reported that otherwise discouraged learners enjoy learning with Picture Me Reading. And I have personally found that to be the case!