What are sight words? “Sight words” is a term that parents of elementary students have probably heard before, but not many people outside of the education community know what these important words really are. A simple definition of sight words would be common words that a reader should recognize in “sight”. These important words are also known as “high frequency words” or “instant words”.

Sight words are a group of common words with a high frequency of use that readers must know at first sight, instantly and automatically to become an efficient and fluent reader. Some examples of these important words are a, is, the, of and that, in, you, I and to. The two most popular sight word lists are the Dolch word list and the Fry word list.

Many high-frequency words are “service words” (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs), which cannot be learned through the use of pictures and often cannot be pronounced. Also, phonic analysis and decoding rules generally do not apply to learning sight words. To learn these important words, a child will want to have them memorized. There are many effective ways to teach these important words. Many teachers teach these important words to their students through word games, word lists, and online word activities. Learning sight words will ultimately help children become more fluent and efficient readers.

Studies show that high-frequency words make up 50 to 75 percent of all words used in school textbooks, library books, newspapers, and magazines. And the 25 most common sight words make up about a third of our written material. Undoubtedly, these important words will play an important role in your child’s early childhood education and impact your child’s reading efficiency and development.

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