My Childs Teacher Says That “Sight” Words, Recognized As “Wholes,” Must Be Learned Before Phonics Instruction Is Begun. Is She Correct?
No. The Assumption that children recognize words by “sight,” that is, without using their letters as cues to their recognition, is not substantiated by the experimental research. Individual letters are the cues all readers use to recognize words. For example, we know cat and rat are different words because we see that their first letters are not the same.
