Kate's Sight Word Books were originally created for Kate's brother, Andy, a bright-eyed boy with Down syndrome. To keep him interested in reading, ten-year-old Kate illustrated whimsical pictures to give Andy context clues. Their mom, who teaches college English, wrote the stories using words Andy was learning. So, they thought they'd share the books with other kids like Andy who are learning to read.
This collection uses sight words, common nouns, and basic phonics to build early reading skills. The sight words come from the list of 220 Dolch sight words, starting at the pre-primer level. The last pages of each book include a list of the sight words and phonics words featured in the book so that parents can reinforce learning with additional sight word apps, phonics apps, and flash cards.
In addition, research shows that learning to read sight words is particularly helpful for children with Down syndrome and other children with special needs who tend to be good visual learners. Evidence also suggests that reading progress has a positive impact on spoken language for children with disabilities.
The first set of Kate's Sight Word Books includes 10 books and focus on the pre-primer Dolch sight words, common nouns that can be found in popular reading programs, and basic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) phonics words.
