Review of Literature Teaching students to read has been a primary goal in education since 2000, when the National Reading Panel released its report; Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for teaching reading. The report identified the key skills needed to become a successful reader; Phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles, fluency, print concepts, vocabulary development, comprehension. Without these reading skills, it would be difficult to be independent in our society. Learning to read sight words helps with both fluency and vocabulary development. Children's exposure to the world of print occurs well before they start preschool or kindergarten. Nine-month-olds show interest in books, looking at pictures and enjoying the melody of nursery rhymes. According to Slavin, young children's emergent literacy skills usually develop before formal reading instruction begins in school due to their experiences with books and other printed media (Dulac). None of this happens through formal instructions; it is experienced and becomes part of prior knowledge. Children first learn the symbols and assume that the symbol represents a whole word such as the golden arches representing the word McDonald's (Wren, 2001). According to Paivio, the ability to create mental images is a primary cognitive form of nonverbal (visual) representation, a part of his dual coding theory. His theory breaks down cognition into two forms; verbal and visual codes. (Sadoski, 2005). The verbal code represents and processes language, both verbal and written words. The visual code processes events, objects and experiences... center of paper......Works Cited(nd). Retrieved October 11, 2011, from Picture Me Reading: http://picturemereading.com/Arlin, M., Scott, M., & Webster, J. (1978-1979). Image effects on sight word learning rates: A critique of the focal attention hypothesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 645-660.Dulac, B. (n.d.). 356.dulac. Retrieved October 15, 2011, from Literacy Development in Early Childhood Education: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.dulac/emergent_literacy-_first_encountersMeadan, H., Stoner, J. B., & Parette, H. P. (2008). Visual word recognition among at-risk young children: Supported by pictures vs. just words. Outcomes and benefits of assistive technologies, 45-58.Reed, S.K. (2006). Conative architectures for multimedia learning. Educational Psychologists, 87-98.Sadoski, M. (2005). A double vision of coding vocabulary learning. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 221-238.