Silly or Right?

What Silly or Right? practices

Silly or Right? trains careful reading of the middle and end of a word. One picture sits above two printed words that differ by a single sound: dog and dig, map and mop, pin and pan, pot and pop, sit and sip.

The changed sound is never the first one, so a child who reads only the opening letter and guesses will meet a funny mismatch. Tapping the silly word says it and, where there is one, pops up its own little picture, which makes the difference easy to see and laugh about.

Who it suits

Readers who can already blend short words and know the sounds in both displayed choices, but sometimes stop after the first letter and guess the rest. If a sound is unfamiliar, pause the game and practice it together first. If joining familiar sounds is still difficult, try Stretchy Blend with an adult before returning.

How a round goes

Before tapping, ask your child to read both words aloud, looking through all the letters, then choose the one that matches the picture. The right word slides into place under the picture and is spoken. A wrong word is spoken, shows its own picture when it has one and wiggles, and the question stays open.

After two misses the right word gently pulses as a hint, so nobody gets stuck. Which side the right word sits on changes from round to round, so position is no help either.

A tip for home

Using the words on screen, point to the middle or last letter that changes. Model reading each word by saying and joining all its sounds, then invite your child to read both with you before tapping. After the game, if the sounds of s as in sun, short a as in cat, and t as in top are familiar and sat was not just shown, write sat on paper without a picture. Ask them to try reading it; help with the sounds and blend together if needed. Notice whether they look through the whole word and what help they need. One supported attempt is enough; a correct tap in the game does not show they can read a new word alone.

Try next

• Change a Sound — now your child makes the one-sound swap themselves, turning box into fox.
• Same or Different? — the same one-sound difference, heard with the ears and no print at all.
• Stretchy Blend — practice joining familiar sounds with an adult before returning to word contrasts.
• Picture Pick — one printed word at a time, with the picture there to confirm the reading.

More from “Reading words”

• Read the Word — Sound out a new word and read it out loud.
• Heart Words — Learn tricky words like said and was.
• Flash Word — Read a short word at a glance, out loud.

Read more

Why children guess at words: why stopping at the first letter happens, and calm ways to build the habit of reading the whole word.