In some ways, the current emphasis on whole language in education is quite valuable. It gives students an appreciation of stories and how they fit together from a very early age. Unfortunately, there is a downside to the whole language approach. Often, some of the most fundamental aspects of reading get left out. For some kids, it isn't a problem – they learn anyway. For others, however, it can be a crippling experience. While their peers bound ahead of them, these students are still stuck trying to learn their kindergarten sight words.
Sight words – also called high frequency words – are basically short words that appear over and over again in the language. For early readers, sight words pose a unique problem. You see, unlike longer words, sight words can almost never be sounded out phonetically. Basically, they just have to be memorized. Some kids can do this by simply reading early readers stories, but other students badly needs sight word lists.
My son is one of the latter. Although he is a bright child, he is learning disabled. He has grown to think he is stupid because so many of his classmates are getting ahead in reading while he is still stuck at a pretty low level. I actually had to make my own first grade sight words lists for him because he was not getting it on his own. The teacher wanted to hold him back, and he felt humiliated in front of his classmates. He is now in second grade, but he is only at a first grade reading level. His problems with sight words – although they have only been going on for a couple of years – have already crippled him. His self-esteem is poor, and I worry about his future.
This is why it is so important to catch reading problems at an early age. Once you do, there are plenty of sight words activities that you can use to fix them. Up until that point, however, your kid is on his own. Problems with reading sight words may be masked by difficult behavior. Often, kids who are having learning problems act out, using aggressive behavior to hide their disabilities. The key is to get to the source of the problem as quickly as possible. The sooner, the better. After all, the school keeps going on, and the learning disabled kids continue to fall behind. A bit of tutoring with some sight word review can do wonders.
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