I do foresee difficulty with non-visual learners learning non-sight words. The English language is a crazy mishmash because it is, in essence, a combination of languages, but those languages are phonetic in their written forms.
The 220 sight words make up up to 80% of reading material, at least in primary reading...
"The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found words in books that children read. These words are usually learned in first and second grade; students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules, so they must be learned as sight words."
Dolch Basic Word List from English-Zone.Com
In early elementary school, the 220 sight words will get you a long way. In high school and college, they might not be enough and if a person does not have basic phonic decoding skills, they could well have problems.
Actally it's very hard to find solid undisputed information regarding this, there seems to be huge internet wide debate. We have to break down the reading stages (1-5) and look at them individually. It is certainly necessary to learn how to sound out words using letter blending and later morphology. Later still, when you get to level 4 (ages 14-18) you find an area where dyslexic (providing they have learnt to read in the prior stages) individuals excell.
"Ironically when your child finally reaches the phase where reading involves more complex thinking and analysis, he is ready to shine. Your child's whole-to-part learning style is geared for the demands of dealing with shifting viewpoint and contrasting information. He may still have difficulty with some of the mechanics of reading, but his mind is is well suited to sharing and manipulation of ideas. He will be well prepared to move on to the final, fith stage of reading-college level and beyond. fortunately, if you can sucessfully guide your child past the early stage barriers to this phase, he will be able to excel at understanding and intergrating advanced level material"
That is a quote from "The Parents guide to children with dyslexia"
I couldn't copy every stage as i had to copy type the text and it takes ages with the book propped up by one knee and a hand, and only one hand typing.
I would not want my children taught only or even primarily a sight-based reading system. I want my children to learn the phonetic mechanics of reading, even if it's complicated and at times confusing. I'd be five kinds of pissed if this area of their education was neglected.
But the 220 dolch words are mainly non phonetic, taught as sight words, so they will be doing this weather you like it or not. A hell of a lot of reading is learnt by sounding out words, even if they are not phonetically correct. They are done through sound blending etc. I am not trying to erradicate phonics but it really does need updating since a lot of it is highly ineffictive.
This study was done in 2001 with only 86 students. Have there been broader studies or long-term follow up? I would hope that such would be the case before 90% of students' educations were tinkered with for the benefit children who could simply have their own reading group.
Well unless they were done independantly then no. Research studies are very expensive and when conducted by a company for it's own company people tend to see it as one sided-really we need independant research.
However there are three schools in the us that are using the program as pioneer schools, they are
Elbert Elementary School in Colorado
Northwestern Area School District (South Dakota)
Walsh Elementary School (Colorado)
they all have very very good outcomes from using the program, feel free to read up on them.
My sons are autistic and sometimes they need some special accommodations, but I can't imagine expecting the rest of the student body to have to take time out of their day to do social stories and talk about 'expected' behaviors, etc.
I have an autistic child too (yes i know, i really do have all theese different things going on), attending a school for children with asd
i would not expect a mainstream school to adapt to the learning style that is used within the specialist school as i do not believe it would be beneficial to all. Infact although i know it is the best school for my child i also believe there is a better way for them to learn and i am currently researching this.
interestingly The davis program now offer something for autistic children but i need to look into it in more depth and see if it will suit my child.
Those kids know that "My head is a pig!" is not an appropriate salutation. My son, OTOH, needed a little help figuring that out. I wouldn't want him taken out of advanced math because a couple of the kids in his class were struggling with math, so it's only fair.