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A Meta-Analysis and Review of Sight Word Research and Its Implications for Teaching Functional Reading to Individuals with Moderate and Severe Disabilities 

Summary View | Full Abstract

The ability to read sight words provides a foundation for students with moderate to severe disabilities to develop daily living and job skills. Sight word skills are used in tasks such as cooking, using public transportation, reading signs in the school and community, identifying warning labels, and going grocery shopping. As the number of students with moderate to severe disabilities included in general education classrooms has increased, sight words have been increasingly used to teach functional academic skills along with daily living skills. This study investigated both the overall effectiveness of sight word training for students with moderate to severe disabilities as well as the most effective methods for teaching sight words.

1. What is the overall effectiveness of sight word research, and what is its specific impact on individuals with moderate and severe disabilities?
2. Have new instructional methods emerged since prior reviews on sight words?

The data suggest that the interventions used to teach sight words to students with disabilities, especially those with moderate mental retardation, were highly effective.

Several limitations of this study (redundancy of student participants, lack of independent samples, focus on published literature), suggest the results should be viewed with caution.

These data suggest that the interventions used to teach sight words to students with disabilities, especially students with moderate mental retardation, are highly effective. Effective methods uncovered in this work for teaching sight words include:

• Giving students feedback after they read a word set and allowing them to repeat word sets after error correction.
• Allowing students to choose between several effective methods for learning sight words (e.g., time delay, task demonstration, feedback). This approach increases student motivation for the task.
• Providing generalization activities for students. For example, students who have learned from flashcards benefit from the opportunity to practice their sight words where the words are typically found, whether it is on household items, signs in the community, or in their school books.
  
  

Future Research: Only about 10% of the studies in this meta-analysis tested students’ comprehension of the sight words. Thus, even when students correctly identified a sight word, it was not clear if they knew what the word meant. Students, for example, might correctly read the word "poison" on a warning label but not know that this word means they should not drink the product. The authors suggest that further research examining students’ comprehension of sight words is an essential next step in sight-word research.