How Long Does it Take to Learn ABCs

[hugsathome]

My kindergartener is really struggling to remember any of the letters or the sounds. 

 

Can you tell me how long it took your child to learn the alphabet?  

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

(Said gently)- All of my kids could recognize all of the letters by age 3.  My current two year old can even do all of the letter sounds (long, short, and broad vowel sounds, for example) because I let her use an app called "Doodling Dragons". 

 

If your child is really struggling, you might try something like Zoo Phonics, where each letter is associated with a large motor skill movement, a sound, and an animal. 

 

You didn't give much information, so take or leave the following:

- Start out by presenting only two letter that look very different- m and a for example.  Once your child can identify these two, add another letter that doesn't look similar, like a t.  Keep adding letters, but wait until mastery before adding another, and keep similar looking letters (b,d  g,p,q c,e,o) spaced well apart. 

 

Hope that helps!

[OK Family]

It took my daughter a long time. The only thing that helped was watching YouTube videos of the alphabet. She had a favorite one that she would watch over and over.

[lovinmyboys]

I think there is a wide range of time that is considered normal for learning them. My kids really liked the leapfrog letter factory video. Also, I get out our letter magnets while making dinner and call out a name or sound and let the child take the right one off (start with just one letter and work up to more on the fridge at a time).

[Arcadia]

My boys learnt the letters and sounds from LeapFrog Alphabet Pal® Caterpillar which my younger received as a newborn present from friends.

 

They also wrote the letters using sticks in the sand at the park's playground. We also have the Munchkin 36 Bath Letters and Numbers which my kids love.

 

My BIL's kids learn from the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set because his son needs to hands on to help remember.

 

Can your child read or spell his/her first name? (I can't see signatures on my phone). My kids learn to write their first names before being able to write the entire alphabet.

 

Do a letter a week and see how it goes. Some kids like Starfall and some like Reading Eggs if you want to try computer games.

[beishan]

At age of 3, it took me months trying to teach my son ABC and it only took two weeks for Leap Frog Letter factory DVD, After watching it daily for two weeks, he was 100% secured on his ABC as well as all letter sounds.

[JustEm]

I highly recommend Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.  My dd learned all the letter sounds within 2 weeks with it.  she already recognized the letters though.

[Renai]

If a child is not ready, it will take longer than for a child that is ready. Anytime between the ages of 4-6 is developmentally normal. There are plenty of kindergarteners just learning their letters this year. How long have you been working on them?

[Desert Strawberry]

It varies so much. 

 

For my oldest, it took 4 solid years. 

 

My youngest learned them before he was three. 

 

The other two were 5 and 4. 

 

I didn't really do anything differently, except that my oldest worked much harder and longer than the others.

 

 

[My3girls]

2 of mine had it down before they were 3 by just singing the song and foam letters in the tub. My middle dd was a little older and needed the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD.

[MistyMountain]

It varied with mine. My oldest got it around 4 from Meet the Phonics. My ds learned it the fastest. He had them by 3. My youngest is 4 and hasn't learned yet. I used the videos I used with my oldest but it isn't working yet. She often isn't even looking and maybe that is part of it. I need to figure something out for her so we can do other stuff.

[ElizabethB]

You need the leapfrog letter factory DVD, there is a reason it has over 1,500 reviews and still averages 5 stars.

 

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Letter-Factory-Ginny-Westcott/dp/B001TKUXUC/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411076734&sr=1-1&keywords=leapfrog+letter+factory

 

I work from books for the rest of phonics but outsource saying a says ah 1,000 times to the cute little talking frog.

[Ausmumof3]

I spent ages with my first. Then he had an alphabet learning DVD and just picked it up. I'm not a fan of digital learning most of the time but for the alphabet it really seems to work.

[tomandlorih]

Yup.. Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.. Works.Like.A.Charm!  
They have others too and even my DD10 still loves them all! 
Oh, and the magnetic letters didn't work for us because the kids just kept sliding them off onto the floor!  blurg.
We did have one of those foam letter puzzles for the floor and they liked for us to say a letter and they would repeat it and run and jump on the one they thought it was.
I loved Dr.Seuss's ABC book so I read that to my kids a lot too.  
As to how long it took them.. I can't really remember.  Are you talking lower case also?  Because that took longer.  Uppercase went pretty quick.. but lowercase was tricky.  My 5yr old still mixes up b and d although he is not dyslexic that i can tell.  

And when I was a kid..most kids learned their letters in Kindergarten so your dc is doing fine.  The Letter Factory is awesome! 

[Guest jonioesque]

The only thing that helped was watching YouTube videos of the alphabet. She had a favorite one that she would watch over and over. 

[fairfarmhand]

I can't remember how old my 2 youngest were when they mastered the ABCs.

 

We used Starfall.com

[ElizabethB]

I like the frog better, but you can start watching the letter people videos now:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EYp2mBD2720

[Guest]

I did letter of the week with my older kids for kindy, but it was more a method of organizing than getting it done and over with, i.e., we'd read picture books about Astronomy and the American Revolution while munching apples and snuggling stuffed alligators because it was "A" week, but we still had to go over the sound, name, and shape of the letter when it showed up in Bob Books or Peggy Kaye's Games for Reading in first grade.

 

My little "Caboose baby" was already reading before kindy, the little stinker, and not knowing the names of the letters hasn't slowed him down one bit. It's been easier just to focus on the sounds they make while he gains fluency.

 

Singing the names of the letters to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is a dog and pony trick that is kind of expected in our culture but doesn't really have anything to do with reading. A musical/performing arts type kid might enjoy singing the song at around 2 or 3 as long as mistakes are considered "cute" and not "lazy" or "stupid".

 

 

[AimeeM]

My middle son could recognize his letters by about 3. He couldn't give me their sounds, though, until he spent some time with the Letter Factory dvd recommended above. Seriously - that dvd is AMAZING.

The same video has my barely 2 year old enthralled. This particular child has a rather serious speech problem, but the video has him saying several letter sounds with recognition, lol.

[MeaganS]

IPad apps, the frog, and Super Why taught all three of mine their letters before their 3rd birthdays with almost no effort from me.

[Mommy_of_4]

My oldest was 18 months when he knew the letters and sounds. My 2nd oldest is almost 6 and still can't recite the abcs but she does know all the sounds. My third child is 3 and knows a couple letters.

[Sameera]

Hi,

 

It took my (preschool) children, about a month to learn the alphabet using these Alphabet Colouring Sheets (pdf)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElizabethB]

You might also find some of the resources from this thread helpful:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/528830-the-phonetic-reader-vintage-anything-modern-thats-like-it/

[Mimm]

My brother could not learn the alphabet till he was six. He simply could not learn at five, my mother was baffled and very stressed. She backed off, have him time, and he caught up in no time. He enjoys reading to this day.

[Priscila]

As others have said, there's a wide range of normal.

 

My oldest child knew the whole alphabet and was writing some letters before she turned 2, and sometime around age 2.5 she knew the sounds. Reading to her, almost daily Super WHY! and Sesame Street episodes, ... tbh, I don't really know how that happened.

 

My next child is currently 3, and every time I've tried to teach her something it just seems to go over her head as she confidently parrots everything I did not just say. For example, I'll say, "this is the letter A," and she'll say with a giant confident grin, "no, it's not, mom, that's a D. Hahahha!" I don't think she'll be doing 1st grade work when she's 5. But then again, I have already experienced this phenomenon with this child concerning numbers 1-10, and she now knows them. So, she went from appearing to understand and grasp nothing, to knowing them. It's as if she was hearing what I was saying all along, and only months or a year later it all finally clicked. She's different from my first child.

[JessReplanted]

At age of 3, it took me months trying to teach my son ABC and it only took two weeks for Leap Frog Letter factory DVD, After watching it daily for two weeks, he was 100% secured on his ABC as well as all letter sounds.

 

This movie is magic.

 

(The other Leap Frog movies seem OK, but this particular movie is magic.)

[Dramorellis]

My 8 year old knew his alphabet and most letter sounds by 3 and was reading and writing by 4. Despite being around her brother all day and me doing all the same things, my current 4 year old would not be able to tell me the names of all of the letters. If you pointed to a letter she could probably say the sound but would not be able to tell you the name for about half of them. It's so variable. She has seen the Leap Factory DVDs lots of times but she is just not motivated in any way to commit it to memory. It's just not important to her at this point and I think that is okay.

[Targhee]

It takes as long as it takes. Maybe you need to try something new, or back off for a little while. Not every child develops the same milestones at the same time, but they've years ahead of them to even out with the "norm."

 

One thing to consider is learning styles - both yours and your students. We tend to teach to our preferred learning style because it makes sense to us. What is your Ker's learning style - are the parts-to-whole or while-to-parts? Are they logical or abstract? Sequential or random? What's they're Multiple Intelligence strength(s)? What is their preferred modality - oral, auditory, written, visual, demonstrative, kinesthetic? There's so many facets to learning style, and time spent in figuring them out is well spent, paying dividends in student understanding, engagement, and avoiding walls and clashes.

[Renai]

 

 

My next child is currently 3, and every time I've tried to teach her something it just seems to go over her head as she confidently parrots everything I did not just say. For example, I'll say, "this is the letter A," and she'll say with a giant confident grin, "no, it's not, mom, that's a D. Hahahha!"

This is my 3yo. It's hilarious, actually. She is interested in the letter Y, however, as it's the first letter in her name. Baby steps, baby steps...

[IsabelC]

My kids all learned the sounds using Letterlanders. It was fun and pretty effortless, maybe took a week or two. Letterland does a ton of products and you can do a full phonics program with them, but for the first sound of each letter, all you need is the basic pack of cards (First Phonics Flashcards). I didn't bother teaching the letter names; I was going to get to it later but the kids picked them up on their own anyway.