If a child isn’t reading yet, the focus shouldn’t be only on memorizing sight words, even though that’s a common fallback because reading is hard. It should also include emergent literacy goals.
Many kids can learn letter names and letter sounds pretty quickly, especially with repetition. But then something confusing happens: even though they know the sounds, they still can’t really read words. The missing piece is often phonological awareness. That’s the ability to hear, notice, and play with the sounds in spoken language — like hearing that c-a-t blends together to make cat.
It often takes more time, more support, and more intentional teaching. Progress can be harder to see, which is why teams sometimes fall back on teaching sight words to memorize. Memorizing words can look like progress, but it limits how many words a child can read to only the ones they’ve been taught. When we focus on decoding, we open the door to reading many more words, not just a small, memorized list.
Experts say that parents should be mindful of the different types of literacy skills that are in their IEPs, and be an advocate and ask for different components. Ask about, ‘Where is my child at with phonological awareness? Where are they at with their letter sounds?’ For kids who use AAC, ask the school to help them embed a phonetic keyboard.
For more information, see our full articles Phonics and the Science of Reading Are for Students With Disabilities — Here’s How and IEP Tips for AAC and Literacy.
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