Reading is a peculiarly human – yet unnatural – human ability. It is acquired and must be taught. Reading instruction ensures that the child is able to transform squiggles on a page into meaningful letters, and then sounds and then words, and then entire sentences and paragraphs. The theoretical basis of reading is not essential for parents; however, a familiarity with the two building blocks of reading – sight words and phonics – is vital for you to supplement the school’s efforts. Remember: from pre-KG (or KG1) to Class 3, children learn to read; from Class 4, they read to learn.
Sight words
Sight words are words that should be memorized to help a child learn to read and write. Learning sight words allows a child to recognize these words at a glance — on sight — without needing to break the words down into their individual letters and is the way strong readers recognize most words.
Knowing common words by sight makes reading easier and faster, because the reader does not need to stop to try and sound out each individual word, letter by letter. Other terms used to describe sight words include: service words, instant words, snap words, and high frequency words. You will also hear them referred to as Dolch words or Fry words, the two most commonly used lists of sight words.
Sight words fall into two categories:
Frequently Used Words: Words that occur commonly in the English language, such as it, can, and will. Memorizing these words makes reading much easier and smoother, because the child already recognizes most of the words and can concentrate their efforts on new words. For example, knowing just the Dolch sight words would enable you to read about 50% of a newspaper or 80% of a children’s book.
Non-Phonetic Words: Words that cannot be decoded phonetically, such as buy, talk, or come. Memorizing these words with unnatural spellings and pronunciations teaches not only these words but also helps your child recognize similar words, such as guy, walk, or some.
The two common lists of sight words are the Dolch and the Fry; there is a great deal of overlap among the two.
Dr. Edward William Dolch, a faculty member at the College of Education, University of Illinois, studied the most frequently occurring words in children’s books of the 1930s and 1940s, and came up with the first list. There are a total of 315 Dolch words. These words comprise 80% of the words you would find in a typical children’s book. Once a child knows this list of words, it makes reading much easier, because the child can then focus his or her attention on the remaining words.
Dr. Edward Fry was a Professor of Educational Psychology, Rutgers University, New Jersey. He created his original list in 1957; he attempted to capture the most common words to appear in reading materials used in Grades 3-9 during that era. He updated the list of 1000 words in 1980, and again in 1996. Learning all 1,000 words in the Fry list would equip a child to read about 90% of the words in a typical book, newspaper, or website.
In a traditional school setting, these words are often taught as early as kindergarten. Once children are familiar with the alphabet and letter sounds, you can begin introducing these words. Start with only five to ten words. Once your child masters that list, add five to 10 more, but continue to review the previously mastered words.
Phonics is a method of instruction that helps children learn and be able to use the alphabetic principle – the concept that words are made up of letters and that letters represent sounds.
Phonics instruction does this by teaching children to decode words by sounds – showing them how to make connections between the letters of written texts (graphemes, or letter symbols) and the sounds of spoken language (phonemes). Phonics is the process of connecting the smallest units of sound (phonemes) with its corresponding letter/s (grapheme).
It is generally agreed that there are approximately 44 sounds in English, with some variation dependent on accent and articulation. The 44 English phonemes are represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet individually and in combination. The 44 English sounds can be divided into two major categories – consonants and vowels. A consonant sound is one in which the air flow is cut off, either partially or completely, when the sound is produced. In contrast, a vowel sound is one in which the air flow is unobstructed when the sound is made. The vowel sounds are the music, or movement, of the language.
Parents must become aware of reading milestones. Infants and toddlers (6 months – 2 yrs.) should be exposed to printed books with plenty of color pictures. They can be encouraged to look at and touch the pictures in the books. By 24 months, most children can be expected to look at pictures and name familiar items like ball, cup and dog. By the time they are in pre-KG or KG1, they should be able to understand that words are read from left to right and pages are read from top to bottom. They will start noticing words that rhyme, and recognize about half the letters of the alphabet.
Around age 5 yrs, you can introduce sight words using flash cards or apps; basic principles of phonics-based learning can be incorporated in a similar fashion. Remember that reading is a vital skill, and every parent must strive to provide as much reading practice to the child. If the school is doing good work with reading, be happy – but do make your efforts as well. There is no such thing as “too much” reading!