Sight words are common words that readers are taught to recognize right away without sounding them out. These words show up often in writing, so it's important for Dyslexics to memorize them to improve their reading speed and understanding. Dyslexics often have a hard time with sight words because these words usually are not spelled the way they sound. They process written language differently especially when it comes to recognizing patterns and linking sounds to letters. Many sight words are abstract and are not easily connected to the "big picture" visual context that most Dyslexics need to understand, read and memorize words. As a result, struggling with these words can slow down their reading and comprehension.
Types of Sight Words
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High-Frequency Words: These are words that appear often in written texts, making it important for readers to recognize them instantly. Examples include "the," "and," "of," and "is." Lists like the Dolch Word List and the Fry Sight Word List are commonly used to teach high-frequency words to young readers.
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Irregular Words: These words do not follow standard phonetic rules, making them difficult to decode through phonics. Because of their irregular spelling patterns, readers must memorize these words by sight. Examples include words like "said," "could," and "through." The Dolch List also includes irregular words. (Note: These are sometimes referred to as "Red Words" because teachers will color these words red to help students remember them. This can be confusing for Dyslsexics because some are color blind and can't see the color red.)
The Dolch List
The Dolch Word List is a collection of 220 common sight words that children are encouraged to learn in order to improve their reading fluency. Compiled by Dr. Edward William Dolch in 1936, the list includes words that frequently appear in children's books but are often difficult to learn because they do not follow standard rules of spelling and pronunciation.
The Dolch List is the most difficult list of words for Dyslexics to learn. Often parents and teachers will tell us their Dyslexic children will be able to spell more challenging words like "volcano" or "dinosaurs" but not spell the really simple words. These words are often hard for a Dyslexic to learn and remember as they are not easily connected to something concrete in their minds. For example, they can picture a "volcano" and a "dinosaur" but how do they picture "that" or "or" or "soon". This is similar to their problem with visualizing individual sounds when sounding out a word. They have no meaning to them. "C-A-T" are only sound, "CAT" is an animal.
The Dolch list is divided into levels based on grade, ranging from pre-kindergarten to third grade, and is intended to be learned by sight. It also includes an additional 95 nouns.
THIS LIST IS VERY IMPORTANT TO DYSLEXICS BASIC READING AND SPELLING SKILLS AND WE EMPHASIZE THE NEED TO LEARN AND MEMORIZE THEM IN AN APPROPRIATE WAY FOR A DYSLEXIC.
WE SUGGEST USING OUR "14 STEPS TO SPELLING AND READING" WHICH SHOWS HOW TO STUDY THE DOLCH LIST WITH DYSLEXIC CHILDREN SO THEY CAN LEARN THEM AND COMMIT THEM TO MEMORY.
DOLCH WORDS BY GRADE LEVEL
Pre-primer (40 words)
a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you
Primer (52 words)
all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes
1st Grade (41 words)
after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when
2nd Grade (46 words)
always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your
3rd Grade (41 words)
about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm
Nouns (95 words)
apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood.
BOOK SUGGESTIONS TO PRACTICE SERVICE WORDS
TOON Books
More recently, the new line of TOON Books, innovative graphic early readers, has been using Dolch words in their comics by top authors and cartoonists, and three of the TOON Books have received the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award from the ALA, given to "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year."
Betsy B. Lee - Author of the A Funny Dolch Word Book series.
These are books using the Dolch Word List by Betsy B. Lee, Ed. S. in School Psychology and SCBWI member
Review of one of her books- A retired reading specialist who is working with adult literacy wrote this review of the first book in her series of Dolch books.
'I have enjoyed using A Dolch Funny Word Book in my adult literacy class. The first book in the series has given one of my students (a 47 year old man) a great feeling of accomplishment to be able to read an entire page without missing a word and there were NO SILLY KID'S PICTURES! These books have been a real blessing! Thanks. Click Link to her website Link to an Article by Betsy B. Lee about Dolch words
Dr Suess
Houghton Mifflin asked Theodor Geisel to write and illustrate a children's primer using only the Dolch List. The result of that challenge was "The Cat In The Hat."
"DOLCH WORDS"
Mr. Dolch had a look in book after book.
He saw these words in every book,
Again and again when he had a look.
You will see these words again and again, and so
The words that he saw are good ones to know.
- Margaret Hillert
THE FRY'S LIST
Another list of sight words to consider working with for Dyslexics is 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry.
The list is 1000 words, in order of frequency, that occur in all literature. The first 100 make up 50% of all written material.
We are providing a pdf file of these words.
1000 Words".
Also Edward Fry wrote an interesting essay on the benefit of sight reading. What's So Good About a Word List?
http://www.barbsbooks.com/DrFryPhonics.htm