Reading and Sight Words

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

And how can I tell if DS is actually reading vs knowing the word/phrase by sight?

DH and I had a discussion about this the other day. DS saw a sign and said "*word!!!* Look Mama, *word* *word* *word*!!". DH swears he was actually reading it and not knowing it by sight, but honestly I don't know the difference.

DS does know an AWFUL lot of sight words..probably in excess of 200 (and that's not counting words that aren't car brands or WalMart related. ). But how can you tell if he's actually 'reading'?

We read to him..a lot. Last night we finished an illustrated version of Robin Hood. I've read all books 1-4 (I thought 5,6 and 7 were too scary) of Harry Potter to him, The Tale of Despereaux(which we both loved), and most of The Book of Virtues to him, as well as a kajillion other books (he's a Berkley Breathed fan) from the library. As I have hearing issues, whenever DS and I are at home together I watch TV with the captions turned on (which I've read is a good way to help kids associate words with language). And I let him see me reading..I read almost everything I can get my hands on from the Reader's Digest to Star Trek novels to real-life crime stories (just finished The Monster of Florence.

I really hope he's reading, as opposed to just knowing words by sight. My mom says I was an early reader--reading LHJ by the time I was 2 and able to read (if not totally comprehend) her old college texts by the time I was 4.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Hi and to the disABILITIES Community Board.

Just wondering, how old is your son?

 

[J'aime Paris]

Does your DS sound words out?
Try giving him a word to read that you are certain is new to him, and see what strategies he uses.

 

[Snoopymom]

The way I can tell is when ds8 replaces words. He's getting better, but he'll say probably for the word maybe, store for the word shop, forest for the word woods, etc., so he sees a word and gets the meaning, but he's not actually reading the letters. It makes me crazy sometimes

His school leans toward sight words, so I'm trying to teach him phonics at home, which is how I learned way back when so I'm a little biased.

Hope this helps.

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

CF--he's 4 1/2.

Does your DS sound words out?

Sometimes..when he was younger and still interested in it, we would watch PBS's Between The Lions which focuses on sounding out new words. So sometimes he will try to sound them out.

His school leans toward sight words

So does DS's Sp.ed. PreK, I think.

And I know he picks up a lot of sight words from TV, believe it or not. It's weird how many sight words he's picked up from TV. I don't know if that's a good thing or it just means we watch too much TV.

 

[Piper]

Sight words are not a bad thing. Think about it.....you don't stop and sound out every word as you read....you "know" almost all of them. You need a really large bank of sight words AND the ability to sound out words you don't know (as well as the ability to use other clues--such as pictures, the context of the word, etc.) in order to read.

Substituting a word that makes sense in a sentence is also a way to know that the child is gaining meaning from what he is reading. If a child reads a sentence that says "The dog is running." as "The puppy is running." it makes sense. If the child reads "The door is running." then they are not getting meaning out of what they read.

Mini lesson over.

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

Learning to read is such a foreign concept to me. I've been reading since before I was DS's age so actually having to TEACH him to read is very odd for me. Fun, but still makes me go "God if I could do it at his age, why can't he do it?". I have to remember DS is not me and that I"m the weirdo because I COULD read at that age.