I'll be honest I haven't read all posts on this so sorry if this was said... but I think you could teach most kids to memorize shapes that are letters in an order that forms a word. The question is 5-6 years down the road are these kids reading at high levels and comprehending. Does memorizing sight words get any of these kids to be able to sound out words sooner so they can do what I would consider reading.

Or in with less words, what Shari said ;-)