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The 3 biggest problems with how your child is taught sight words

Updated: Oct 20, 2020




As parents, it’s harder to understand why what we’re doing just isn’t working. Sight words make up the foundation of your child’s reading journey, and with more than 75% of the average children's book made up of sight words, it’s easy to see why they’re so important.


If you’ve noticed that your child loses interest, struggles to remember, or fights against learning, it might be time to consider how you’re teaching, not what. We take a look at the 3 biggest problems with how your child is taught sight words, and how you can correct them.


1.

Your focus is on repetition, while it should be on having fun

Sight words can easily become a repetitive mess. If it’s all flashcards and no fun, you’re going to lose them. It’s important that learning should always remain fun, interactive and ever-changing. 


You should try to incorporate games, hands-on activities, writing, drawing and talking to encourage learning. 


Today, there is also a clear link between technology and learning. Gamification is also a great way to give children a fun break from “learning” without actually disrupting their learning. Apps can help your children to enjoy learning again!


At Sprout Words, we believe that children learn better and retain more information when they’re having fun! That’s why our interactive app was designed to feel like a game where children can sprout their own monsters by winning word coins to help them grow!


We are currently creating developing a fun lesson pack that will work alongside the app, and includes flashcards, worksheets, as well as a schedule/lesson plan to keep things simple for parents and fun for kids... no need to think about when to do what.



2.

Not engaging enough - keep their focus by mixing it up

Sight words can often become monotonous and that is a sure-fire way of losing your child’s interest. Teachers often mix a variety of activities, movement and playtime in between learning to keep them engaged. 


When to incorporate these activities is critical as doing it too soon can actually break their attention span. That’s why using interactive apps that do all the calculations for you is so important.


By incorporating movement into learning, you can mix up what they’re doing with some brain-boosting exercise. Children also need to feel engaged in what they’re learning, keeping it fun and age-appropriate is crucial.



3.

No differentiation - each child is unique, programs need to adapt

Every child is unique, they learn in different ways and they progress at different paces. You can’t force children to go faster or slower, and you shouldn’t. 


The Sprout Words app has three different difficulty levels to accommodate any child at any stage, and our dyslexic font setting helps children with dyslexia enjoy reading. Simple things like the spacing between letters, words and lines on a page, the font size, text colour and background, all have a huge impact on their reading experience. 


Every child should enjoy reading, and whatever tool you use, should work towards that goal.



Teaching your child sight words will help them read faster, build their confidence, and give them an advantage as they start to explore the written word. Being a teacher and a parent isn’t always easy, but if you can avoid the biggest teaching problems for young children and incorporate a fun learning environment, you’ve won half the battle.




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