Published on 1st June 2025

Spike’s Sight Words create award-winning educational games to help children learn to read and spell. AAH met CEO and founder Sophie Bradley and the brand’s eight-armed mascot Spike at her Mannings Heath home to find out more… 

What was the inspiration for Spike’s Sight Words?

I have always encouraged my two children to read books, as it was something I loved during my own childhood. My daughter, Georgina, who is now nine, inherited that love and was reading when she was only two years old. To help her develop, I would write “sight words” for her to learn and place them under her pillow, and she would be so excited when she woke up to find them. However, our son Alistair, who is a year younger, was not interested in this game and was obsessed with his toy cars. We didn’t mind that, but I didn’t want him to miss out on the joy of reading. The eureka moment came when I thought of a way to incorporate cars into a learning game. 

How did you achieve this?

I drew a racing track across a sheet of plain paper and told my son to pick a toy car to play with. I chose one too and they acted as our playing pieces. We set up a game on the living room table and started rolling dice to move the cars around the board, reading out words as we went. It was the first time I had seen him express any enthusiasm for learning new words. He is an intelligent boy, but like many children, he is more of a visual learner, who responds to being engaged in the process, rather than learning directly from a book. This gave me great encouragement, so I designed an improved race track on a computer and we used this to play many more times. It made me think that many other children would benefit from the idea and would like to learn words in such a way.

But not just a racing track?

It made sense to help my son’s learning to base a game around cars. However, I wanted to encourage that same level of excitement for every child, so I came up with 30 designs, including aliens, ancient Egypt, cats and dogs, Chinese dragons, dinosaurs, football and a magic forest. I worked with a specialist artist to come up with original designs and the insects board has hundreds of individually drawn ants! Each board has a series of holes that can be filled in from a bag of tokens. These tokens all have words on them, divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced words, to appeal to children of different ages and abilities. 

Do you choose certain kinds of words?

We use common exception words, also known as sight words, which is a word that doesn’t follow typical phonetic rules and has an irregular spelling. I focused on spike words as my son struggled with these. He couldn’t grasp why ‘know’ and ‘knee’ were spelt with a K and why ‘said’ is spelt the way it is. We also use high frequency words, which are key for early development. These are the small words that make up much of our language, such as ‘the’, ‘to’ and ‘our’.’ 

How long do games last?

Games take only a matter of minutes. We sell theme packs which contain three boards, and the idea is that you can use the same bag of tokens to play on different boards. The key to learning spike words is repetition, and the more you read a word, the more familiar it becomes. The rules are flexible, so that a parent – or educator if in a school environment – can set their own rules. The packs do come with playing pieces, but we encourage children to use anything. My daughter sometimes played with a pepper grinder, as she found that funny, and it helped her engage with the games. With the word tokens, some children like to learn words phonetically, while for others it tests their spelling too. 

Where is the most interest coming from? 

When I set up the business, I imagined that the greatest demand would be from parents wanting to assist their children’s learning. However, we have found that the themed boards particularly appeal to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) as they are visually engaging and the tokens use a dyslexia-friendly font. We were nominated for a British Dyslexia Association award and recently won a Best Educational Support Program award too. We find that the games are also good for those learning English as a second language, and there is potential to adapt the concept for other languages in future. Because they are so flexible, people find their own way of using the packs. One client even made her own ‘emotion’ tokens to use with boards, helping young people to understand and express various feelings. 

Do you have previous experience of designing board games?

Most of my previous work has been in the film and television industry, where I have worked as a location manager and logger, who transcribes and logs footage, creating a detailed document that summarises key scenes. I was involved in programmes including Big Brother and Wife Swap, before working in Qatar for 14 years. There, I worked as a live graphics operator, a technical specialist who creates on-screen graphics during live broadcasts. It was an exciting and sometimes high-pressure job. If we received a breaking news report of a major event in Bangladesh, for example, I would have a matter of seconds to source a map and create a visual pin-point to accompany the report. I also established a small company called Dining in Doha, reviewing hotels, bars and restaurants. It did very well and took us to some beautiful venues until social media largely negated the need for such websites. I then returned to the UK with my husband, Moe, and established Spike’s Sight Words.

You have a mascot too. Tell us about it…

From the outset, I wanted to include an animal in the company name and logo. I liked the alliteration of Spike’s Sight Words, so it was a matter of deciding what animal Spike would be. It needed to be an intelligent animal to complement the concept of learning, so we thought about an owl, dolphin or chimp. Then I read about how the octopus has excellent cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills, and thought it was perfect for the brand. We designed Spike, our own mascot, and I’m very grateful to my husband Moe, who wears the costume during school visits. The children really respond to Spike, although having a giant octopus around does tend to distract them from actually playing the game!

What is the next step for the business?

Marketing remains a challenge. However, I have big plans for the business and we recently launched an international donations scheme, where businesses and individuals can cover the costs of a Spike’s Sight Words pack to be sent to schools, community groups or orphanages around the world. One pack was sent to a Ugandan orphanage and it was incredible seeing videos of children enjoying the games. We have also had discussions about expanding into India.  

Can traditional games still excite a digital generation?

I think people like the fact that it’s a physical product. We have considered the idea of developing an online version, but it simply doesn’t offer the same benefits. Our whole concept was to encourage children to develop their communication and language skills through social interactions. I have no interest in encouraging young people to spend even more time in front of a screen, as I believe they can learn in a more enjoyable and beneficial way though play.  

WORDS: Ben Morris / PHOTOS: Alan Wright

Further information: Find more information at www.spikessightwords.com