4 year old not recalling letters

[parias1126]

I have posted before about my 4 year old (5 January 2nd). I have introduced letters through Starfall on the iPad, letters to play with in the bathtub, Leap Frog Letter Factory, and writing letters with HWT.

 

DS can not recall a letter, identify it or the sound it makes from one day to the next. If I ask him what sound a certain letter makes, he will just start randomly guessing. If I say, "what letter is this?" after we just learned it 5 minutes before, he can't tell me. I think he can identify 5 letters and their sounds (if that).

 

He loves books. His favorite this week are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Little Red Hen. He will open the book and has them memorized word for word and pretend he is reading it. He can tell me on the road, "Mommy, I see Do Not Enter!" or "Mommy, that says Stop!" I just don't get it! I haven't taught him street signs! How would he know this, but can't identify more ten 4 letters?? He is still learning to sing the Alphabet. He knows most of it, but sometimes needs help when he gets stuck.

 

He doesn't want to do schoolwork so I don't ever push it. He will maybe twice a week pull out HWT, but loses interest after writing one letter. His handwriting is beautiful for 4.

 

I'm so confused. What am I doing wrong? I'm not new at this! He is my 4th I'm homeschooling. I homeschooled one from 3rd who has graduated and starts CC in Jan. my other 2 just learned all of this with Starfall and were ready to learn to read by the age of 5. Am I just worrying for no reason? Is it normal with some children to just take longer to identify letters and remember te sounds they make? I have thought about buying prelevel All About Reading, but that's a lot of money when nothing else has worked and he just isn't interested in "schoolwork".

[MerryAtHope]

Are you teaching letter identification, formation, and sounds at the same time? That may just be more information than he knows what to do with. Some kids can assimilate all of that at once, but he may need things broken down more.

 

The sign recognition reminds me of my son. He may not be paying that much attention to the letters. The shapes and colors on a sign may be what he's "reading" rather than the actual letters, or he could have just memorized them. Some kids also try to read pictures or they try to read the shape of a word rather than understanding that letters stand for sounds. My son noticed shapes and logos from an early age--he went with us to a doctor once when he was 3, saw a business card months later and recognized the logo from that one visit!

 

I actually think AAR Pre-1 would be a good choice especially for him, because it really does break things like this down. The 5 big skills of print awareness, phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension and motivation to read are all covered to help him get ready for learning to read. I know it can seem like a lot of $ when you didn't need that for your other kids. It does come with a 1-year, 100% satisfaction guarantee though, so if you use it and it really doesn't help, you can return it.

 

Anyway, just a thought! Merry :-)

[GingerPoppy]

Four is young, so don't worry yet. :)

 

Here's what I'd do:

Forget about teaching letter names for now. I'd focus on teaching just the sounds. Trying to do both at once is probably confusing, but the sounds are by far the more useful piece of information about a letter. Simply call it by its sound: "This is /ffffff/ and this is /mmmmmm/."

 

Do this while rolling a letter out of playdough. Let him use a pen cap or something similar to make little designs all the way along the letter. This helps reinforce the shape in a tactile way.

 

Make letters out of fabric or paper. Choose around 5 - 7 at a time and spread them around the room. Have him "hop on one foot to the /ssss/" and "tiptoe to the /aaaa/".

 

My favourite purchased game, beloved of all my students, was Discovery Toys' A B Seas game. You actually set it up like a fish pond and use magnetized rods to fish for letter sounds that you have to match to your card. It gives lots of practice and opportunity to name sounds.

 

I also highly, highly recommend the Jolly Phonics program for learning sounds if a kid is struggling. They have a little story and body movement to go with each sound, so it's extremely memorable.

[EmilyGF]

Do you notice an overall problem to connect or is it just letters?

 

If just letters, take 3 months off, and try again later. It'll make you ALL happier. (We did three 3-month breaks before it was easy to teach DS to read. We did a few month-long breaks at the beginning of teaching reading, too. He loves reading now and I enjoyed teaching him.)

 

Emily

[TengoFive]

For 4 year olds, I love the Leap Frog videos. I try to limit screen time in general, but I found them exceptional. I also agree about not worrying about the name of the letter. I've always focused on the sound the letter makes rather than the name of it. My pre-reading focus is to get him to differentiate between the letters, only to recognize that they're different and have different shapes. We do a lot of puzzles and sorting without worrying too much about letter names. Once they have the different shapes recognized I go more into associating them with a sound.

Right now we're doing a few things from the Confessions of a Homeschooler Blog for this with my 4 year old. I love the number cards and color cards. They have the words printed below the number or color and then I let him match his magnetic letters to the card. He is getting really good at recognizing which letter goes where. She has cards you can print out with the letters, but I like our Learning Resources Magnetic foam letters. My only pause in recommending those letters is that I wish I had gotten the plain blue and red, (one color for vowels, the other for consonants) set.

 

I also like her alphabet match-up that uses clothespins. I printed my clothespins with the upper and lowercase letter on the same label. That way he can use it with the lower case or uppercase wheel. When he gets more advanced, I'll make separate ones for upper and lower case.

 

Long story short, I'm recommending focusing on recognizing the different letters without getting bogged down with names for now. It shouldn't take too long before he's ready to learn their names. Certainly if he asks what a letter is called tell him, but don't worry about him knowing them right now.

[Carrie12345]

I have the opposite. My fourth 4yo knows most of his letter sounds, but refuses to write (including tracing, coloring, etc.) He's also resistant to official school time, so I don't push.

 

For now, I'm fine with chalking it up to being 4. In a few more months, I'll reevaluate the situation.

 

I've found 4 to be tough for all of my kids, even the ones who flew through early academics. There's a lot going on in those little heads and bodies!

[3peasinapod]

I could have written your post. After teaching the first 2 to read, DD4 is perplexing. She does the exact same things as your son does, 5 minutes after going over a letter, she forgets. The thing is she can't write either. Her fine motor skills are lacking. She can trace and color in the lines, though, so I'm not worried about that.

 

I'm going to try AAR level pre-1 in about March (when we get a tax refund) and go from there. We have been doing a letter of the week, so we'll continue on with that. If we have to go through all the letters 2 times, so be it. I think they'll both catch on, but they may just be a tiny bit later than we're used to! My oldest DD was reading CVC words at 4-1/2, so DD4 (5 soon!) is making me nervous, but after reading and reading about later readers (which really isn't late) I think we're okay! :001_smile: I hope I helped.

[kwg]

Have you tried kinestetic stuff like make a C out of cotton and glue it to paper....trace it with glue and sand so he can feel it, write it sand and shaving cream......turn your body into the letter.....use chalk outside to make huge letters then walk them/hop them....and just do one letter a week.

 

Or you could just wait a few months and I bet it would be a ton easier!

[Haiku]

Am I just worrying for no reason?

 

Yes. He wouldn't begin Kindergarten for 9 or 10 more months. That's a massive amount of time in a 4 year old's life. Just let him be for a while.

 

Tara