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At a glance
Knowing the relationship between letters and their sounds helps kids decode words.
Some words are tricky and don’t follow the rules of phonics.
Words that kids learn to recognize at a glance are called sight words. Some are decodable but many are not.
Early readers must know how to tackle and instantly recognize two types of words to read fluently. One is decodable words; the other is non-decodable words. For kids with reading issues, including , learning to read both types of words can be a challenge.
This chart can help you know the difference between decodable words and non-decodable words, and what can help your child learn both.
| Decodable words | Non-decodable words |
|---|
| What they are | Words that kids can sound out using the rules of phonics. Examples include: pot, flute, and snail. | Words that can’t be sounded out and that don’t follow the rules of phonics. They need to be memorized so they’re instantly recognizable. These are sometimes called sight words, or star words. Examples include: right, enough, and sign. (Note: Some decodable words are also taught as sight words. These words are used so frequently that kids need to recognize them instantly.) |
| Skills required | Kids need to have phonemic awareness(part of a broader skill called phonological awareness). This skill allows students to rapidly map sounds to letters and blend sounds to read words. Kids also rely on working memory to help them keep in mind the sounds at the beginning of a word as they decode the rest of the word. | Kids need good memory skills to store words in their long-term phonological memory. That allows them to quickly retrieve words when they see them. Kids turn a word into a sight word by mapping unexpected (non-phonetic) sequences of letters to their sounds. Kids need fast-enough processing speed to read words automatically and fluently. |
| How these words are taught | For kids with reading challenges such as dyslexia, teachers typically use multisensory structured language education (MSLE). That includes multisensory techniques to help kids connect letters to sounds. One such teaching approach is Orton–Gillingham. A few reading programs are based on this approach. There are also other reading programs that are mainly used in general education. In the early grades, these programs focus on decoding skills. | Teachers introduce groups of words to students, based on grade level. Students may take these words home and work on memorizing them. Kids learn best when working and practicing with small groups of words on a regular basis until the words are instantly recognizable. It can help if students practice reading these words in meaningful sentences. It can also help to find the irregular part of the word and highlight it to make it easier to remember. For example, in the word said, the irregular part of the word is ai. |
| What kids need to know | There are rules that can help them sound out words. | Some common words don’t follow rules and can’t be sounded out. These words need to be memorized. Words with similar meaning or similar spellings can be learned in groups. For example, these ight words: right, night, flight. |
| How you can help | There are multisensory techniques and tools parents can use to teach phonics. There are also strategies for building phonological awareness at different ages. | There are strategies for teaching non-decodable words to struggling readers. Parents can review lists of sight words, including non-decodable words, with their child. They can talk about the letter patterns in irregular sight words that don’t follow the rules. |
If your child is struggling with reading and you’re concerned the cause might be dyslexia, there are steps you can take. Your child might be eligible for services and supports at school that can help.
Also, hear an expert explain why learning to read is harder than learning to speak. And learn about how different learning and thinking differences make it hard to read.
Key takeaways
Learning to read involves both decoding and recognizing sight words at a glance.
High-frequency words can be decodable or non-decodable.
Struggling readers may benefit from multisensory reading instruction.
FAQs
Decodable words follow the rules of phonics. They are spelled the way they sound. Examples include jam and nest. Once a child knows how to break words apart into their letter sounds and blend those sounds together, she can begin to “decode” one-syllable words like splash.
What are non-decodable words? ›
Non-decodable words. What they are. Words that kids can sound out using the rules of phonics. Examples include: pot, flute, and snail. Words that can't be sounded out and that don't follow the rules of phonics.
What is the difference between decodable words and sight words? ›
Decodable Words: Words that follow a regular phonics pattern (one of the six syllable types) and can be blended or 'sounded out'. Sight Words: Any word (regular or irregular) that an individual has orthographically mapped.
How to know if a word is decodable? ›
What are Decodable Words? Words that can be decoded, on the other hand, do follow conventional phonics rules. These words contain spelling patterns that commonly occur in words. Some decodable words occasionally contain one irregular spelling pattern, at most.
What are decodable and non-decodable words? ›
'decodable' words. These can be sounded out. 'non-decodable' words. These cannot be sounded out, they do not follow regular spelling rules.
What is decodable words examples? ›
Sight Words, Decodable Words, & High Frequency Words
| Type of Word | Examples |
|---|
| Decodable Words | run, spin, make, sport, she, team, spoil, fly, bubble, harvest |
| Sight Words | said, your, was, could, sure, done, who, what, laugh, again |
| High Frequency Words | the, is, two, boy, work, for, over, mother, see, very |
Oct 7, 2021
There are too many exceptions to make teaching phonics skills worthwhile. Only about 50% of English words are fully decodable, but an additional 37% of words are mostly decodable with the exception of one sound. That means only 13% of English words need to be memorized.
What are Decodable and non Decodable terms in healthcare? ›
Decodable medical terms have roots, prefixes, and/or suffixes that can be combined to produce a specific meaning. An example of this is 'neurology' where 'neuro-' means nerve and '-logy' means study of. Non-decodable terms, on the other hand, are terms that cannot be broken down into simpler components.
Why are Decodable words important? ›
The purpose of decodable readers is to develop phonological decoding skills, and this is the focus of the text construction. As children master more of the alphabetic code and progress through a series of decodable books, the vocabulary and story structure. become more sophisticated.
What is a Decodable word? ›
Definition. Words that sound the way they are spelled or can be sounded out because they have letter-sound relationships already learned.
Sight words are words that are not decodable (cannot be sounded out) for one of two reasons: They do not follow regular phonics rules. The phonics rule has not been taught yet.
Why teach with decodable text? ›
Decodable texts allow students to practice the letter-sound relationships they are learning in phonicsReading instruction that focuses on the alphabetic principle — the systematic, predictable relationship between spoken sounds (phonemes) and written letters (graphemes) — to allow readers to identify or “decode” words. ...
When to stop using decodable texts? ›
This period is usually 2-3 months. Once a child can quickly and easily blend c-v-c words with all short vowels, I believe they no longer need decodables. I would also add that these words should also include c-c-v-c words that contain consonant blends or digraphs (e.g. ship, plan).
What percentage of words are not Decodable? ›
How many times have you heard the words, “English doesn't make sense?” We've all seen the Facebook memes and laughed at the absurdity of English. In reality, however, 50% of English can be decoded through sound-symbol correspondence alone. By adding in simple rules, up to 97% of English is decodable.
What makes a text decodable? ›
Decodable text is the type of text that focuses on the phonetic code and presents words to students that follow the concepts that they have been taught.
What does the term Decodable mean? ›
Able to be read using a certain set of reading knowledge. Decodable books are sold in packs, with more letter combinations appearing in each successive book.
What do decodable words mean? ›
Definition. Words that sound the way they are spelled or can be sounded out because they have letter-sound relationships already learned.
What do you mean by Decodable? ›
All books and text are 'decodable' in the sense that they can be read, but only if the reader has sufficient reading ability for the complexity of the text. For beginning readers, the only books that are truly decodable are those that contain the alphabetic code they have learned.
What is considered a decodable text? ›
Decodable text is the type of text that focuses on the phonetic code and presents words to students that follow the concepts that they have been taught. In this way, students are encouraged to attend to the code and use their phonics knowledge to decode words.
