Heart words is a term used in some phonics programmes to describe high-frequency or so-called tricky or irregular words that children are told they need to “learn by heart”. The idea is that part of the word can be decoded, because those grapheme–phoneme correspondences are taught in the programme, while the remaining letters or graphemes are memorised because the programme does not cover them.
 

The problem is not the label. It is the learning mechanism being relied upon. Systematic, synthetic phonics programmes do not offer sufficient support for all children to start self-teaching. 1 in 4 are failed. They do not provide the technology to show the code they do not explicitly teach, or a robust multisensory routine that bonds speech sounds, spelling, and meaning in the orthographic lexicon, the brain’s word bank. Instead, children are told there is something “tricky” about part of the word, when in reality teaching 'heart words' exposes the limitations of the programmes themselves.

Programmes could add MyWordz® word mapping technology, funded by Innovate UK, to show the code for sight words and incorporate a routine such as the Monster Spelling Routine. Where this does not happen, we show parents how to do this at home and show tutors how to add it so their pupils can recognise hundreds of high-frequency words “by sight” quickly and easily. It is likely the most valuable two-hour training a parent can do. We recommend it for anyone who is pregnant. Start early. Prevent the dyslexia paradox.
 

The science is clear: words are not stored in memory through memorisation of whole words or parts of words. They are stored when speech sounds, spelling, and meaning are bonded together in memory. This bonding is what creates a stable representation of a word that can be recognised, read, spelled, and used flexibly. This leads to orthographic mapping, something we call Word Mapping Mastery®. Our focus is on HOW to get children to this stage by showing them the code - including the sight word code. All words are recognised by sight when stored in the brain's word bank.

When children are asked to memorise graphemes “by heart”, they are still relying on rote memory rather than building this bond, and it gives them a distorted message about English and its opaque orthography, and ignores both the self-teaching hypothetic and orthographic mapping theories. Whether a child memorises the entire word as a visual pattern, or memorises selected letters or graphemes without linking them to speech sounds and meaning, the outcome is the same. The word is not securely stored.
 

When using Mapped Words®, we also invite curiosity about why words are mapped in that way, including etymology, the history of the word, and morphology. This mirrors how children who learn to read and spell without ever being explicitly taught process words. For the first time, we can offer that to all learners.
 

Bonding speech sounds, spelling, and meaning allows the brain to reuse the same information repeatedly. Each accurate encounter strengthens the word because the child understands how the letters represent the sounds in the word and what the word means. This is why fluent readers can read and spell words effortlessly and apply the same knowledge to new words.
 

Teaching heart words without explicitly showing how every grapheme represents a speech sound and without a multisensory routine does not create this bond. It repackages memorisation and leaves children dependent on fragile recall and guessing. Without the bonding of speech, spelling, and meaning, words do not become part of a self-teaching system.