Sarah Major, M.Ed. is passionate about working in harmony with a child's immaculate design to support their learning strengths.  As a Title 1 Program Director and Designer, Sarah earned awards for creating her own multisensory educational resources that have now been sold in all 50 states and over 150 countries.  By design, Sarah's materials incorporate stimulating visuals with related body movements, providing a solid foundation for all students, including kinesthetic and tactile learners. 

SnapWords® and the Science of Reading: How They Support Structured Literacy

If you've seen the pictures on SnapWords® cards, you may have wondered:

Are SnapWords compatible with the Science of Reading? Are the pictures a form of three-cueing? Do SnapWords replace phonics?

These are important questions.

The short answer is that Child1st resources are designed to reinforce explicit, systematic literacy instruction—not replace it.

SnapWords are not intended to teach children to guess unfamiliar words from pictures, context, or sentence meaning. Instead, the multisensory elements in SnapWords serve as memory anchors that help students retain and automatically retrieve words they have been explicitly taught.

Our core principle is simple:

Teach explicitly and systematically first. Then use Child1st's multisensory resources to reinforce learning, strengthen retention, and build automaticity.

This means Child1st resources can be used alongside instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, decoding, encoding, decodable reading, and fluency.

Are SnapWords a Three-Cueing Strategy?

No. SnapWords are not designed to teach children to guess words from pictures or context.

This distinction is important because the presence of an image can make SnapWords look similar to a picture-cueing strategy at first glance. The instructional purpose of the image, however, is different.

In a cueing approach, a student who does not know a word may be encouraged to use a picture, sentence context, or other information to figure out what the unknown word might be.

With SnapWords, the visual is used after the word has been explicitly introduced. It helps reinforce the word's spelling and pronunciation so the student can store and retrieve the word more efficiently.

The goal is not:

See a picture → guess the word.

The goal is:

Learn the word explicitly → reinforce it multisensorily → retrieve it automatically → recognize it in connected text.

As students become automatic with the word, they no longer need the visual support.

Why Do SnapWords Have Pictures?

Some students need more practice than others before a word becomes automatic.

SnapWords add visual, kinesthetic, and oral elements to that practice.

The image is embedded into the word itself so that it can serve as a temporary memory anchor. Students also use a related body motion and verbal explanation to engage multiple pathways during learning.

The visual does not replace attention to the printed word.

Instead, the multisensory support is intended to strengthen the student's memory for the word so that recognition becomes increasingly automatic.

This is especially useful for high-frequency and irregular words that students may hesitate over during connected reading.

How SnapWords Fit Into Structured Literacy

Child1st recommends explicit and systematic literacy instruction first.

That foundation includes:

• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics and sound-symbol mapping
• Decoding
• Encoding and spelling
• Decodable reading
• Fluency practice

SnapWords can then provide additional reinforcement for high-frequency and irregular words.

A typical instructional sequence might look like this:

1. Explicitly introduce the word.
Help the student identify what is regular and, when applicable, what is irregular or unexpected about the word.

2. Reinforce the word with the SnapWords visual and multisensory cues.
Use the image, body motion, and verbal connections to help the student remember the word.

3. Practice rapid retrieval.
Repeatedly practice until the student can recognize the printed word quickly without relying on the visual.

4. Apply the word in reading.
Have the student encounter and read the word in appropriate decodable or connected text.

The goal is automatic word recognition, so the student's attention can increasingly be directed toward fluent reading and comprehension.

This is the role Child1st describes for SnapWords in its structured-literacy framework: supporting orthographic mapping of irregular words, strengthening automatic recognition, and reducing the effort required to retrieve familiar words.

Do SnapWords Replace Phonics?

No.

Child1st does not recommend using SnapWords instead of explicit phonics instruction.

Our literacy framework begins with explicit and systematic teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics, followed by opportunities for decoding, encoding, decodable reading, and fluency practice. Child1st resources provide reinforcement around that instruction.

This distinction matters.

A student should learn to use the alphabetic code to read unfamiliar words. SnapWords have a different purpose: helping students develop efficient retrieval and automatic recognition of high-frequency and irregular words that have already been taught.

Phonics builds decoding skills. SnapWords provide additional multisensory reinforcement to support retention and automaticity.

They are complementary rather than competing instructional approaches.

What About Orthographic Mapping?

Successful readers don't need to consciously decode every familiar word each time they encounter it.

Through repeated successful encounters with words and their spellings, words become stored in memory for increasingly automatic recognition.

Child1st uses multisensory reinforcement to support that learning process.

For SnapWords, students first attend to the word and its regular and irregular features. The multisensory visual and motion then provide additional support for remembering it. Students practice retrieving the word rapidly and apply it in reading.

The objective is not dependence on the picture.

The objective is automatic recognition of the printed word without the picture.

How the Child1st Literacy Resources Work Together

SnapWords are only one part of the Child1st literacy system.

Different Child1st resources reinforce different components of literacy instruction.

Child1st Alphabet — Sound-Symbol Mapping Support

Best suited for students who need additional support with grapheme recall and foundational phonics skills.

After explicit instruction, the Child1st Alphabet can reinforce phoneme-grapheme connections and provide practice toward increasingly automatic recall.

Right-Brained Phonics & Spelling — Encoding and Pattern Retention

Designed to reinforce phonics and spelling patterns after explicit instruction.

Students practice spelling and encoding while strengthening their retention of grapheme-phoneme correspondences and spelling patterns.

SnapWords® — High-Frequency and Irregular Word Automaticity

Designed to reinforce high-frequency and irregular words after explicit word instruction.

Students use multisensory memory anchors, practice rapid retrieval, and then apply the words in reading.

Easy-for-Me™ Reading — Controlled Fluency Practice

Provides opportunities for students to apply taught skills in controlled reading and build fluency through accurate, repeated practice.

Together, these resources can provide additional reinforcement for students who need more practice moving from explicit instruction to retention, retrieval, and fluent application.

Child1st's teacher decision guide connects slow grapheme recall with the Alphabet, weak pattern retention with Right-Brained Phonics & Spelling, high-frequency-word hesitation with SnapWords, and fluency gaps with Easy-for-Me Reading.

When Should I Use SnapWords?

SnapWords may be helpful when a student:

• Has been explicitly taught a high-frequency word but continues to hesitate when reading it
• Needs additional practice retaining irregular words
• Can decode but has difficulty developing automatic word recognition
• Benefits from visual, kinesthetic, and oral reinforcement
• Reads accurately but slowly because word retrieval requires too much effort

SnapWords should be used as reinforcement within a broader literacy program, rather than as a substitute for explicit phonics or decoding instruction.

What SnapWords Are—and What They Are Not

SnapWords ARE:

• A multisensory reinforcement tool
• A way to support retention of high-frequency and irregular words
• A tool for practicing rapid word retrieval
• Designed to move students toward automatic recognition
• Intended to complement explicit literacy instruction

SnapWords ARE NOT:

• A strategy for guessing unknown words from pictures
• A replacement for phonemic awareness
• A replacement for systematic phonics
• A substitute for decoding instruction
• A three-cueing strategy

The distinction comes down to how the visual is used.

With cueing, a picture can provide information a child uses to identify an unknown word.

With SnapWords, the student is explicitly taught the word first. The picture then acts as a temporary memory anchor while the student develops increasingly automatic recognition of the printed word.

Same Goal, Additional Reinforcement

The Science of Reading has brought important attention to explicit instruction, systematic phonics, decoding, encoding, orthographic mapping, decodable practice, and fluency.

Child1st supports those instructional priorities.

Our resources are designed for the students who may understand what has been explicitly taught but need additional reinforcement to retain it and retrieve it automatically.

That's where Child1st's multisensory approach fits.

Teach explicitly. Reinforce multisensorily. Practice retrieval. Apply in reading. Build automaticity.

The goal is not to create dependence on pictures or memory tricks.

The goal is to help students move toward accurate, automatic, confident reading.

Find the Right Child1st Resource for Your Student

If your student struggles with sound-symbol recall:
Explore Child1st Alphabet

If your student struggles to retain phonics and spelling patterns:
Explore Right-Brained Phonics & Spelling

If your student hesitates over high-frequency or irregular words:
Explore SnapWords®

If your student reads accurately but needs greater fluency:
Explore Easy-for-Me™ Reading

Not sure where to begin?
Explore the Child1st Literacy Ecosystem to see how the resources can work together.