If you are a parent of a young child who is learning to read you may come across a term called ‘sight words’ or ‘high frequency words’. Around 50% – 75% of all words in text material are common words that are repeated. They are found in children’s books and what we read in daily life. These words are known as “High Frequency Words” or “Sight Words”. These words include adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs.

The list was originally compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD and published in his 1948 book, “Problems in Reading”. There are 220 words on the Dolch list and recognising them at a glance helps children to read with confidence. You can get the list easily on the internet by searching for ‘Dolch Sight Word List’.

For most of the words on the list you cannot find pictures so they need to be learned, (e.g. “if”, “the” “soon”, “but”, etc.). It is an important step in learning to read because these words are so frequent that learning them leads to more fluent and confident reading for children. It is important for a child to practice over and over again until the words are learned and this can be done in many ways. These are words that cannot usually be broken down phonetically [i.e. by their individual sound combinations] and as they appear so regularly in the English language it is quicker for children to recognise these by sight rather than trying to decode them each time.

Spot the Pairs
Create 2 small cards for each of the words on the Dolch list. Chose 10 words that the child is learning and place the 2 sets of words face down. Turn two cards over and try to find a match. If the cards match, the child should say (and spell) the word and place the two matching cards together.
If the child does not make a match, turn the cards back over. Repeat the process until all of the cards have matching pairs.

Go Fishing
Deal five cards (face down) to each player. Place the rest of the cards in a draw pile (face down). Have one person start the game. Have that person choose a word that they have in their hands and ask another person, “Do you have the word ‘xyz?’ If the person that was asked has the card, they give it to the person who asked and the matching cards are placed face up. If the person that was asked did not have that word, say, “Go Fish!” and the requester takes a card from the draw pile. If a matching pair is made that person will get another turn. If not the next player goes next. If anyone runs out of cards, they can take a card from the draw pile. Repeat the game until all the words have been found. The player with the most matching sets of words wins the game.

Word Bingo
Create 5 by 5 grids and write the common words you are working on into the grids. Create small cards with all the words and mix these up in a small bag. Draw one card out at a time. The child should read the word on the card and search for the word on their grid. They cross off the words as they are drawn from the bag. For more than one child this works really well with different word combinations on the grids. The winner is the first child who has crossed off all their words on the grid.

Get a Treat
Place a small treat e.g. a candy or sticker on each word. When the child says that word correctly they collect the treat! A special reward chart can be created to place the stickers on so your child can see their progress.