Sight words are very important for your child to master because, believe it or not, “sight words account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s printed material."
Beginning readers need an effective strategy for decoding unknown words, and being familiar with sight words is an effective method. Other benefits of sight words include:
Sight words promote confidence. A child who has mastered the list of sight words can already recognize words in a sentence. If your child begins to read a book and can already recognize the words, chances are he or she will not feel discouraged and put the book down. The child will continue to read and, choose another!
Sight words help promote reading comprehension. When your child opens a book for the first time, instead of trying to decipher what ALL of the words mean, he or she can shift attention to focus on those words he or she is not familiar with.
Sight words provide clues to the context of the text. If your child is familiar with the sight words, he or she may be able to decode the meaning of the paragraph or sentence by reading the sight words. And, if a picture accompanies the text, your child may be able to determine what the story is about and come away with a few new words under his or her belt.