Please help me figure out how to help my 6 yo

[extendedforecast]

First of all, my signature is old; my youngest is six now.

I'm asking for help with this one who seems to have trouble retaining information. One is example is numbers. All of my children have learned the numbers in the usual way that most children do. Counting, seeing the symbols for each number, etc. My daughter is capable of counting to one hundred except for those tricky teens. She doesn't have a firm grasp on the order of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, which is common. A few of my older kids struggled briefly with the same thing. What worries me is that she's six years old. We have been counting almost daily since she was four. And as far as recognition, she knows all the number to twenty, except for 6,7,8,9. I understand 6 and 9. Again I recall my older children confusing the two. She repeatedly calls 7 eight, 9 can be any of the four number above to her, 6 is usually seven, and 8 is seven or nine. If I ask her to put the numerals in order, she can do so with out any problems. And if they are in order, she usually has no problem naming them correctly. It's when she sees the numbers independently that she runs into trouble. With letters we have the same issues. I've tried many different approaches and also switching curricula. I've also tried laying off and focusing on reading aloud and doing school less formally. I can continue this, but I also don't want to miss any disabilities either. My son did well with the above approach, so I know it works. He decided one day Last year that he was going to learn to read, so we started back up with the lessons. Come to find out he already knew at least 50 words and all the basic sounds. He learned the rest of the sounds in a matter of a week and was reading at grade level within a month. And he no longer balks at doing phonics, so our lessons are no longer dragged out. So anyway, is this normal or something more?

[SilverMoon]

I don't think it's really that unusual for a six year old. That's still really kindy age. Maybe it's auditory related? Try counting that one problem area as three-teen, four-teen, five-teen for awhile. It makes more sense. Exaggerate the difference between the beginning sounds of thirty and forty as you count and get her to copy. Sticking your tongue out for thirty and really hooking your lip on your teeth for forty. Big emphasis and playful silliness. Some of my kids just really couldn't hear the difference when they were small. They were ready for the math but not reading well enough for the difference to be obvious.

 

For the lower numbers I'd use physical objects to count and represent each number and connect it with writing the number or tracing sandpaper numbers with her finger. Get all the senses working together.

 

 

My six year old just started reading this past month. It was a long trek of slow and steady plodding with some intensive phonics (Spalding card practice daily). His speech was very behind before beginning. In a month's time he's gone from slowly working his way through a phonetically controlled reader to reading nearly any picture book in the house. Just like that. His older sister didn't sound out words until second grade. She couldn't read a picture book independently until third grade. By high school she was best friends with Jane Austen and you would never have been able to tell she was a late bloomer.

[OneStepAtATime]

Agreed, this may just be developmental.  She just may need more time.  On the flip side of that coin, there may be other things at play.  For instance, she may have developmental vision issues.  You might try having her get an eye exam through a developmental optometrist.  They can usually do a regular eye exam for visual acuity issues but also do a preliminary screening for developmental vision issues.  A child can have perfect visual acuity but still have developmental vision issues.  Look on the website below to see if anyone is in your area.  Just keep that info in your back pocket and if things don't improve in the next few months you might give them a call.

 

http://www.covd.org/

[MistyMountain]

My youngest had the hardest time with what you are describing. She finally does have that down but it took quite a bit to learn to count to 20 correctly and learn her numbers and letters. She also tripped up with saying 30 and 40 and the difference in sound between things like 13 and 30 and the the same teens numbers. I am not sure what helped the most. We traced with sand paper and the meet the numbers app worked better then the meet the letter sounds or numbers videos. She did not like the videos but they can work very fast. She did have tracking issues and irregular eye movements when she got checked for a COVD exam recently but I am not sure if that is where it came from. She does have good number sense now and is coming along well in math now.

Edited January 21, 2017 by MistyMountain

[knitgrl]

When my dd was in younger, she had difficulties with recognizing the teens. We played the following game for practice, and she absolutely loved it. I printed out this sheet of flies (they go with a Sunday school lesson about the ten plagues of Egypt). I wrote the numbers she was having difficulty with on each fly, then cut them out and spread them on the floor. Then I gave her a flyswatter and had her swat the fly whose number I called out. She had a ball with it, and eventually got straightened out with recognizing those numbers that were tricky for her.

[StillStanding]

Six is still very young :)

 

To memorize the shape of numbers and letters:

 

Tracing numbers/letters on sandpaper (mentioned above)

 

We actually used a box of sand (just enough to cover the bottom, so you can see the shapes on the bottom)  to trace letters and numbers. We also drew them with chalk on the pavement. Walked/jumped on top of the chalked numbers/letters. Made letters and numbers out of sticks (and other nature items).

 

We made art: used tissue paper and made little paper balls  and then glued them on the shape that needed to be memorized....use small stickers, or other small objects...finger paint dots on the number/letter shape....

 

This is something I had mine do because I did it in Spain as a child: Instead of using a pencil or crayon we we used a fat needle to perforate the shapes of the numbers/letters (they have to pay closer attention ).

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2017 by StillStanding

[extendedforecast]

Thanks everyone. It helps to know that you have had similar experiences and it was eventually retained. I was concerned that we have been doing letters and numbers for almost two years. I'll try your suggestions. Some of them we have done. Hopefully she'll get the hang of it and I have nothing to worry about.

[drjuliadc]

I agree with Meet The Letter sounds and Meet The Numbers videos by Preschool Prep. I'd try the Meet The Numbers app too. They don't have a Meet The Letter Sounds app, only Meet the Letters, which go over the letter names, not sounds.

 

We teach letter sounds, not letter names, so we don't use the Meet The Letters video or apps. We teach letter names after they can read. I think it helps them blend to do it this way. That is also a Montessori way of doing things, but that is not why I did it that way.

 

Preschool Prep materials teach left brain skills (pattern recognition) in a right brain way (using pictures). If a child is having trouble with pattern recognition, it could mean some difficulty with left brain skills so i would recommend doing some "cross the midline" types of exercises too, like cross crawling.

Edited January 24, 2017 by drjuliadc

[EndOfOrdinary]

Can she make the numbers with manipulatives? If you say 3, can she show you three? Not with fingers, but with moveable objects.

 

If she can understand one to one correspondence, then try having her count while using manipulatives. She might be a kinesthetic/visual learner. The above approaches use audio and written visual. Most kids can catch on that way as they are usually strong in one or the other. However, some kids really do not prefer either so they struggle.

 

I have terrible trouble with audio learning. Foriegn language in high school was so very difficult for me because it was predominantly auditory. If this is how people were evaluating my learning, they would honestly think I had a processing issue! Write it down and show me with pen and paper, I am all over it.

[extendedforecast]

I agree with Meet The Letter sounds and Meet The Numbers videos by Preschool Prep. I'd try the Meet The Numbers app too. They don't have a Meet The Letter Sounds app, only Meet the Letters, which go over the letter names, not sounds.

 

We teach letter sounds, not letter names, so we don't use the Meet The Letters video or apps. We teach letter names after they can read. I think it helps them blend to do it this way. That is also a Montessori way of doing things, but that is not why I did it that way.

 

Preschool Prep materials teach left brain skills (pattern recognition) in a right brain way (using pictures). If a child is having trouble with pattern recognition, it could mean some difficulty with left brain skills so i would recommend doing some "cross the midline" types of exercises too, like cross crawling.

 

Great, thanks for the app and video recommendations. I also teach sounds only. We've been using Logic of English lightly. Basically we've been repeating the first twelve lessons. I plan on using it more regularly in the coming months. She really likes the activities and I love seeing her having fun while learning. 

[Pistachio mom]

I agree with the above recommendations to teach using manipulatives as much as possible. Using a base 10 set along with unifix cubes will help in math. Make the number with manipulatives, then make it with felt letter digits or number magnets. Sometimes something tactile can help. I made a portable felt board with a file folder and three colors of stick-on stiff felt from a craft store. One color for the "ones" column, another for the "tens," and a larger black area for the "hundreds."  If the eye exam comes back clean, you will want to check for eye dominance issues and then go through a checklist for processing issues - see Dianne Craft below.

 

If you are concerned about visual processing or audio processing issues, the information on Dianne Craft's website will help you trouble shoot as well as give you ideas to some right brain teaching techniques that will help to improve the situation. Her resources have been very helpful in my family. Also, if you have not already read the Ruth Beechick series called the Three R's - it might be a help in giving you ideas how to use manipulatives in every day life to teach both reading and math related concepts.

 

http://www.diannecraft.org/

https://www.amazon.com/Three-Rs-Ruth-Beechick/dp/0880620749

[Bics]

I could be totally off-base, but has she been counting from a number line mostly? Maybe she isn't actually looking at the correct digit when she is saying that number. That might account for her calling a 7 either 6 or 8...so she knows them in order but not individually. Quick fixes for this: have her write the number as she speaks it-paper and pencil, dry erase board, in a pan of salt--whatever. Or the little magnetic numbers we tend to get on our refrigerators--have her counting as she transfers the appropriate magnet--it would force her to be associating the correct form with the number, if that is a problem.

[Bics]

As for letters, Word Mastery by Florence Akin introduces letters one at a time, and you simply stop forward motion until each page is mastered. My six-year-old resented it this year, but she was having trouble with consistency in sounds, and we did it. I think it helped; I don't know-maybe it was just maturing. I also have her reviewing Webster's Syllabary. Both can be had for the printing from Donpotter.net. Your daughter iis blessed to have a parent looking out for her--good job, Mama!

[mamamoose]

Does she have the same issue with letters? My dad is six as well, and she still mixes up 11, 12 and 13, and writes her 3s and Es backwards from time to time. I'm extra sensitive because I have a dyslexic but I also have a kiddo who is typical who did that until 2nd grade and she's actually gifted in language arts. It's hard at that age but I agree you should be aware there might be more going on. I think a vision test is a good idea to keep in your back pocket. My dyslexic also has a vision development issue we just had diagnosed, as well. Be careful to follow the link for the COVD website and not just check with any eye doctor because vision development issues are frequently missed.