Photo of a mother teaching sight words to her twin daughters.

How to Get My Child to Memorize Their Sight Words

A Matter of Strengths

The first step in helping your child to memorize their sight words is discovering their learning style and ensuring that you and they understand their learning strengths. For learners with a strong left hemisphere profile, traditional teaching methods will likely lead to success. However, for learners with a right hemisphere profile, a multisensory approach is proven to be the most effective. Important elements of a multisensory approach:

Incorporate images, stories, auditory sensations, body movement, and hands-on activities.
For active, kinesthetic children, incorporate activities and games that relate to the sight words, allowing them to move while learning
Visual learners will benefit greatly from stylized sight words, as the embedded image carries the word into visual memory
Utilize an auditory amplification device, to access their auditory pathway
Let your child to choose what words they would like to work on, allowing them to have ownership

Depending on your child’s learning style, some of these elements will be more beneficial than others; allow your child to lean into the ones that work for them.