Phonics vs. Sight Reading? 3 Reasons You Should Worry.

You may be aware that some educators are at odds over which approach is more effective—phonics vs. sight reading (memorizing whole words at a time). Schools seem to focus more on one or the other, and many parents are left to wonder if their child didn’t miss out on the ‘better half.’

If you are teaching your child to read using phonics, you don't need to worry about this. But what if you're not confident your child is learning phonics at school? Look below for 3 reasons your child might be at risk.

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3 Reasons You Should Worry About Phonics vs. Sight Reading

1) Without a systematic approach to teaching phonics, children rely too much on memorization and 'guessing.'

Many schools have integrated a 'balanced literary approach,' which relies on a variety of 'cues' to read words. Some of these cues might be the sounds of a letter, but others might be reading by sight, looking at surrounding words, or guessing using the pictures. The idea is that this might be more fun for the kids, rather than the rote process of learning phonics. 

As far as young children are concerned, reading is optional. (OK, it’s not really. But they don’t know that yet.) Some kids are motivated to learn how to read, but for others, it’s too much work to figure out. If reading is presented to this kind of child as an unstructured ‘guessing game,’ he’s not going to get it. And then later, when he realizes that being good at this game informs everything else he does, the anxiety sets in.

2) The 'cues' go away as reading materials become more difficult.

When the words become harder and the pictures in books go away, children don’t have the tools to ‘guess’ anymore. They can be challenged to read words they’ve never seen before. Even a strong reader (a smart guesser!) can start to display signs of trouble by fourth grade. And by then, it’s much more challenging to do something about it.

3) All readers become phonetic readers—eventually.

​If you are reading this page, you are reading phonetically, even if you learned to read using a sight-reading method. Many people's brains ultimately begin to see the patterns in words, and use those patterns to decipher words they don't know. Why not give children the code early on? Even more tragic, what about those children who aren't able to figure it out? (Many don't.) 

Phonics is a wonderful foundation. It’s the building block of the English language. Your child must be familiar with those building blocks to effectively tackle new words. So what about phonics vs. sight reading? If you are teaching your child to read at home using phonics and your child is learning to memorize whole words at school, you will find that your child will use his or her phonics skills, regardless of how the words are presented. 

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