Learning The ABC's (games, girls, playing, daughter)

[drjones96]

My 5 yr old daughter started Kindergarten this year. Up until now we have seen her as a very bright girl....she's very socially mature for her age. In pre-school this past year we noticed she was having some issues recognizing letters. She got to where she could write her name easily enough and she knows those letters when she sees them. But it seems like if it's anything but that and AB&C she is at a complete loss. I have sat down with her and worked with her till I was about ready to crack.

It goes something like this:

Me: "What Letter is this <I draw a 'D'>?"

Her: "Ummmmmm.....I don't know. < >"

Me: "OK....It's a 'D'."

Her: "Oh! It's a 'D'! < >"

....Then I have her write the letter about 10 times and say the letter she's writing while she's writing it...

Me: "OK...Can you think of any words that may start with a 'D'? It makes a 'Da Da Da' sound."

Her: "Uhhhh....uhhh........no. < >"

Me: "How about Dog? Dad? Dip? Darn (as in 'darned I wish you were better at this')?"

Her: "Oh! Ok! Dog! Dad! < >"

Me: "Yeah That's it! < > Now draw a dog and some D's on the same page and say 'D' while you write it."

....so now that we've focused on the 'D' for a while and we've done excersizes and examples etc etc etc....I decide to move on to a couple more letters....with about the same amount of success (being not much at all). THEN i come right back to "D" ....the letter we must have spent 20 minute on in total......AND SHE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE IT, FOLKS!!!

It's not like this is a fluke thing that she doesn't recognize the letter. We work with her all the time and every time it goes just like the above. We've even tried mixing things up and trying something different to see if it helps...like maybe she just learns in a different syle. She doesn't recognize the letters 10 minutes after we just went over it. I'm concerned that she may have a learning disability of some kind....i just don't know what it would be though. With regard to nearly everything else she's just a super kid.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears....or eyes....

[lisdol]

I don't know what it could be but a fun video is the Leap Frog Letter Factory; my kids like watching the Leap Frog videos and I know lots of people who swore by them with their preschoolers learning letters and phonics. It might be a relaxing way for her to learn. If she is tense or stressed when working with you, it could be affecting her learning.

What does her teacher think?

There might be a different way she should be learning based on the problems she is having and the teacher might be able to help.

My daughter mirror wrote in 1st grade so I designed writing paper for her to guide her to start at the correct margin. It did not take very long but had I not given her that tool, it might have taken a lot longer to correct the mirror writing. There might be something you can do to help yours with her letter learning that is not normally done but can help her a lot.

[FarNorthDallas]

I would get her a dyslexia evaluation.

[okpondlady]

Both my girls did this for about 6 months...seems like the older one did it longer than the younger. But they grew out of it.

Good Luck.

[rockinmomma]

Is she a young 5 years old? She just doesn't seem ready for written language recognition. This is what kindergarden teachers are trained for. They immerse the child in language (notice all the labels on everything?) and teach recognition. Instead of doing letters, why not label things in your home? sink chair door table and so on. use upper and lowercase letters. stick to black print because that is the standard for print.

Set up a whiteboard. Put a letter on it. Tell her when she figues out which letter it is she can have a hershey or momma kiss. (leave it up even after she announces what it is and give more kisses with each mention,,, not necessarily every two minutes though) After she learns the letters, tell her when she says a word with the letter she gets a kiss.... change the letter every few days, without telling her.... see if she notices. Make it a game. At her age, just sitting looking at a letter and looking to momma's face for the "right" answer aren't going to do much more than frustrate the both of you.

[wilsonmom3]

my five year old twin boys were/are the exact same way...we would go over something ad nauseum and then 10 min. later it was like it was brand new to them again..very frustrating...but, something has seemed to click recently and it has gotten much better...we do have the aforementioned leap frog letter factory dvd for in the car and also we used preschool prep's meet the letters dvd (it is geared toward younger kids but it is very repetitive and I think that has helped alot). It seems to me that it took a lot longer than it should have of them watching those dvds and us going over the letters at home and them getting exposure to them in preschool for things to sink in, so I am also concerned about a learning disability with them. As I said, I have seen improvement recently but I am trying to prepare myself for them not being the head of the class, so to speak, even though they both seem bright outside of "book learning".

[*Danielle*]

A DVD called The Letter Factory. Your local library might even have it..

Why don't you do one letter a day? All Day?

I know at the Kindergarten my dd goes too...if a student is slacking in one area (ie letter recognition) They will pull them off for 20 mins everyday just to get them where they need to be. Have you talked to her teacher?

[springfieldva]

Another vote for The Letter Factory. I played it a few times for my kids and couldn't believe what a difference it made.

[mm_mary73]

Originally Posted by drjones96

My 5 yr old daughter started Kindergarten this year. Up until now we have seen her as a very bright girl....she's very socially mature for her age. In pre-school this past year we noticed she was having some issues recognizing letters. She got to where she could write her name easily enough and she knows those letters when she sees them. But it seems like if it's anything but that and AB&C she is at a complete loss. I have sat down with her and worked with her till I was about ready to crack.

It goes something like this:

Me: "What Letter is this <I draw a 'D'>?"

Her: "Ummmmmm.....I don't know. < >"

Me: "OK....It's a 'D'."

Her: "Oh! It's a 'D'! < >"

....Then I have her write the letter about 10 times and say the letter she's writing while she's writing it...

Me: "OK...Can you think of any words that may start with a 'D'? It makes a 'Da Da Da' sound."

Her: "Uhhhh....uhhh........no. < >"

Me: "How about Dog? Dad? Dip? Darn (as in 'darned I wish you were better at this')?"

Her: "Oh! Ok! Dog! Dad! < >"

Me: "Yeah That's it! < > Now draw a dog and some D's on the same page and say 'D' while you write it."

....so now that we've focused on the 'D' for a while and we've done excersizes and examples etc etc etc....I decide to move on to a couple more letters....with about the same amount of success (being not much at all). THEN i come right back to "D" ....the letter we must have spent 20 minute on in total......AND SHE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE IT, FOLKS!!!
It's not like this is a fluke thing that she doesn't recognize the letter. We work with her all the time and every time it goes just like the above. We've even tried mixing things up and trying something different to see if it helps...like maybe she just learns in a different syle. She doesn't recognize the letters 10 minutes after we just went over it. I'm concerned that she may have a learning disability of some kind....i just don't know what it would be though. With regard to nearly everything else she's just a super kid.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears....or eyes....

Her sight is fine - sees close up without trouble? Have you talked to her teacher and is s/he concerned? Maybe you're making her nervous: "..."We work with her all the time and every time it goes just like the above... " My suggestion is talk to her teacher and unless the teacher tells you it's a problem, don't make it into one.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by drjones96

My 5 yr old daughter started Kindergarten this year. Up until now we have seen her as a very bright girl....she's very socially mature for her age. In pre-school this past year we noticed she was having some issues recognizing letters. She got to where she could write her name easily enough and she knows those letters when she sees them. But it seems like if it's anything but that and AB&C she is at a complete loss. I have sat down with her and worked with her till I was about ready to crack.

It goes something like this:

Me: "What Letter is this <I draw a 'D'>?"

Her: "Ummmmmm.....I don't know. < >"

Me: "OK....It's a 'D'."

Her: "Oh! It's a 'D'! < >"

....Then I have her write the letter about 10 times and say the letter she's writing while she's writing it...

Me: "OK...Can you think of any words that may start with a 'D'? It makes a 'Da Da Da' sound."

Her: "Uhhhh....uhhh........no. < >"

Me: "How about Dog? Dad? Dip? Darn (as in 'darned I wish you were better at this')?"

Her: "Oh! Ok! Dog! Dad! < >"

Me: "Yeah That's it! < > Now draw a dog and some D's on the same page and say 'D' while you write it."

....so now that we've focused on the 'D' for a while and we've done excersizes and examples etc etc etc....I decide to move on to a couple more letters....with about the same amount of success (being not much at all). THEN i come right back to "D" ....the letter we must have spent 20 minute on in total......AND SHE DOESN'T RECOGNIZE IT, FOLKS!!!

It's not like this is a fluke thing that she doesn't recognize the letter. We work with her all the time and every time it goes just like the above. We've even tried mixing things up and trying something different to see if it helps...like maybe she just learns in a different syle. She doesn't recognize the letters 10 minutes after we just went over it. I'm concerned that she may have a learning disability of some kind....i just don't know what it would be though. With regard to nearly everything else she's just a super kid.

Any suggestions? I'm all ears....or eyes....

Maybe it's to much work and not enough play. Play letter games. Get letter toys. My kids used to have all sorts of fun letter toys and learned the letters from playing with the toys. She also may be a slow learner.

The other thing you need to recognize is that slow learners are not bad kids. As a high school teacher I can tell you that some of my slower kids are my favorite kids. They are just SUPER KIDS. Being a slower learner (not all slow learners are learning disabled) does not make them bad kids. Please accept your daughter as she is.

OK-lecture over. I would try playing letter games with her as opposed to "working" with her. She is a little girl and little kids learn more through play than structured lessons.