Beginning Reader - Encourage or Discourage Sight Reading?

[wendyroo]

My son is 3.5 and in the last few weeks has started reading a lot. I have been emphasizing phonics (and memorizing unphonetic sight words) and he can sound out CVC words and simple blends like bump and drip. He is reading a lot of Bob books and Fantastic Phonics readers. However, as he reads he is not doing much sounding out and I'm wondering if that should be encouraged or discouraged.

 

For example, while reading a book, the first time he encounters any given word he will sound it out, but after that every time he comes to it he will just say it without sounding it out. The vast majority of the time he is reading the words correctly, but that may be because he is still reading books that only have a dozen distinct words. Or could he be sounding them out in his head already even though he has only been reading for a few weeks? Sometimes when he gets to a word he does pause for a few seconds and I almost think I see his eyes moving from letter to letter and sometimes his mouth even moves a bit like he is silently making the letter sounds.

 

Should I be encouraging him to sound out each word (except true sight words) or is he intuitively practicing and gaining fluency? I've always covered the pictures on each page until he reads the words to try to prevent guessing. We have also been playing some games decoding and encoding nonsense words to practice pure phonics that he can't guess.

 

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Seeing a problem where there is actually just a precocious reader?

 

Thanks,

Wendy

[alisoncooks]

Well, aside from what you're already doing, I don't know that there's much more you could do to discourage sight reading. And -- IMO -- all fluent readers become sight readers as they gain fluency, no? Perhaps he is just that advanced and able to quickly decode mentally. (But -- wow! 3.5 years old, just a few weeks reading and that far along?! Congrats! :D)

 

Keep covering pictures, keep playing decoding/phonics games. If you aren't already, you may want to begin some formal phonics instruction to discourage bad habits (sight reading, etc). OPGTR can be done orally, since he's so young.

[wendyroo]

Thank you for the reassurance.

 

I am doing All About Reading 1 with him slowly. Other than that, I will just continue to offer him lots of beginning readers.

 

Wendy

[boscopup]

For example, while reading a book, the first time he encounters any given word he will sound it out, but after that every time he comes to it he will just say it without sounding it out.

 

That's the goal in reading. They sound out to see what the word is, but once they know it, they just read it like you and I do. You're all good. Keep it up. :D

[StartingOver]

My daughter owns a word as soon as she sounds it out. She very rarely ever sounds out a word twice, but can attempt any unknown word. I say roll with it happily. My son was one that had to read to build fluency, not so with my daughter.

[Ellie]

There are very few true "sight words." :)

Are you using something systematic for phonics? If not, that would be my first recommendation. Encouraging a child to sound out words is always good, but things will go more smoothly if he has been taught actual phonics. :)

[awisha.]

There are very few true "sight words." :)

Are you using something systematic for phonics? If not, that would be my first recommendation. Encouraging a child to sound out words is always good, but things will go more smoothly if he has been taught actual phonics. :)

 

She said she was using AAR 1 in post #4.

[suzielou]

Count your blessings and run with it! :D I have had two that way and one that struggles. As long as you keep up the phonics in the background, you should be fine.

[Farrar]

I think the answer to the question is neither. Don't encourage a child to memorize the words as sight words. You want to encourage sounding out and phonics. But don't worry about it or somehow discourage it either. It's natural for many kids to do it.

[Tracy]

My ds starting doing this just before he turned 4yo. He had known his basic phonics for 2 years at that point, but I could not get him to even try to sound things out. It was clear to me that he was actively trying to memorize his words. I think it is a very bad habit to get into. While I cannot stop him from doing it, I can and do actively teach him how to sound out words. I use SWR for this. Every day, we sound out a couple of words and he writes them as he says the sounds. Then he "teaches me" how to write them by giving me each sound of the word. (I really believe that the best way to teach how to sound words out is through writing/spelling.) He is still memorizing and guessing, but I feel like I am concurrently developing a new habit of sounding words out that will eventually overshadow the memorizing/guessing habit.

[CatholicMom]

Sounds like you just have a quick learner to me! My 5 yr old is at about the same stage and I'm quite sure she sounds out the words in her head before she says them. I would bet part of the time your son is doing that, and maybe part of the time he is just saying words he recognizes, which is fine, IMO. As you keep giving him more challenging reading material he will keep running into words he has to decode so he will keep up those skills, in addition to your phonics program.

 

Sometimes I think you can emphasize phonics TOO much and it will actually hinder fluency. I think I did this with my first son. Not enough actual reading, too much strict decoding, and it didn't work out well for a while. You can't possibly read fluently while recalling a zillion different phonics rules. Nobody does that. You need to let their minds learn to read the way they are designed to learn... by experience. That sounds like what is happening, so with continued phonics support I think he will do great!