Sight Words Game Jump-starts the Road to Reading

One of the first steps of mastering the important skill of reading is the recognition of sight words. A sight word is a word found with high frequency in printed materials that emergent readers should identify without phonetically sounding it out. The importance of teaching children to instantly recognize these words is that it builds a foundation for the reading process and builds confidence in the beginner reader. Various research studies, which used sight words to help teach reading, support this method. These studies found that over 50,000 words are written in English, but only a few hundred are used regularly in print. Doctors Edward W. Dolch and Edward B. Fry developed practical sight word lists that teachers and parents use when teaching children to read. 

Edward W. Dolch revolutionized the method used to teach reading when he published a landmark study in 1948. Through his book, “The Problems in Reading,” Dolch developed a theory that children who memorize or recognize a key group of core words by sight are able to learn reading more easily with improved comprehension. Dolch systematically compiled a list of 95 nouns and a list of 220 service words. He picked words, which were frequently used in children’s reading books published in the 1930s and 1940s. When emergent readers could recognize these words upon sight, they became more adept readers in a shorter time span.

Then, in the 1990s, Edward B. Fry furthered Dolch’s findings with his book called “1,000 Instant Words.”  He compiled a list of words most commonly used and arranged them in order of frequency. Fry’s research unearthed the fact that only 25 words (those at the beginning of his list) make up approximately one-third of all words published, and that 100 words comprise approximately one-half of all print.

Both Fry and Dolch understood the importance of sight word recognition when learning to read.  Many of the Dolch and Fry words do not follow the phonic rules; which further supports memorization of these words.  Knowing sight words streamlines the reading process, making high frequency and common phonetically irregular words understood quickly, leaving less frequent and more complex words to be phonetically decoded.  

During past decades, many schools employed the whole word approach when teaching emergent readers.  Under this method students were taught to recognize approximately 5,000 to 10,000 words with little to no focus on phonics or decoding words.  The whole word approach is no longer prominent in U.S. schools.  For the most recent 10-20 years educators have shifted to a balanced approach that employs both phonics and sight recognition.  The specific list of words that educators encourage beginner readers to instantly recognize varies from school to school, but generally contains a few hundred words, virtually of which are found on Dolch’s and / or Fry’s lists.