Do you have a child with big differences in their ability to understand abstract concepts and their performan

[MistyMountain]

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[NASDAQ]

Many children are able to comprehend and understand relatively complex things and not read yet. Reading is not, primarily, an idea to be understood. It's a body of over-learned knowledge to be applied in a certain way.

 

Four-year-olds are irregular performers. Children are hard to test before about third grade. The younger they are, the less predictable they are.

[Rivka]

Most 4-year-olds are not developmentally ready to learn to read - even very bright ones, and it sounds like you've got a bright one there. The ability to learn to read is an unfolding process involving brain maturation, not just raw intelligence. It sounds like your son is telling you that he's not ready. Keep on reading to him and exposing him to ideas at whatever high level he seems to enjoy, but don't expect his reading to be at the same level.

 

Instead of trying to push forward with reading lessons meant for older children, try focusing on pre-reading phonological skills for now: rhyming words, breaking words apart into sounds, thinking of words that have a particular beginning or ending sound, making sound substitutions ("what do you get if you take the word man and change the /m/ sound to a /p/?"). Those phonological abilities are hugely important for learning to read in the future. If he struggles to learn those skills at an age-appropriate level by the age of 5 or 6, and doesn't seem to be able to "hear" the different sounds in a word at all, then you might want to look further into whether there is a problem with reading. But at 4.5, a discrepancy between understanding and vocabulary, on one hand, and reading ability on the other, is not a sign of a problem. It's just normal.

 

My 8-year-old is very bright. At 4.5 I really thought she should be ready to learn how to read. She wasn't. At 5, she started sounding out words and being able to decode, slowly and with a fair amount of difficulty, books like "Go Dog Go." By 6 she was easily reading at a 5th-grade level. She needed to reach a particular point of cognitive maturation before she was ready to really read - regardless of intelligence and vocabulary. Once she hit that point, she took off.

 

After that experience, I wasn't even going to try to teach my 4.5-year-old to read until he was 5.5 and in kindergarten. Putting in early, intense effort didn't seem worth it. It took a couple of months of him constantly playing with the sounds of words, coming up with rhymes, pointing out that I said two words that both started with the same letter, figuring out that a long word had his friend's name hidden in it, etc., etc., etc., before I finally decided to drag out the phonics book. Now he's progressing quickly, with no frustration. He's ready. His sister wasn't, at his age.

 

Everything else you mention - spaciness, focusing only on what he cares about, slow to get ready, dreamy, distractible, not drawing or writing, sounds like ordinary 4-year-old immaturity. I wouldn't be concerned about it at all. Smart doesn't mean mature.

[duckens]

Rivka says:

Instead of trying to push forward with reading lessons meant for older children, try focusing on pre-reading phonological skills for now: rhyming words, breaking words apart into sounds, thinking of words that have a particular beginning or ending sound, making sound substitutions ("what do you get if you take the word man and change the /m/ sound to a /p/?").

:iagree:

 

Have you discovered Starfall.com yet? Let him play on there. It's not uncommon for kids to teach themselves to learn on Starfall.

 

If he need help with mouse skills, Reader Rabbit Babies and Toddlers worked for both of my kids.

 

PBS has a lot of online games. Also look for PBS Island.

[PeterPan]

Just jumping in here late with a couple comments. One, sometimes when they tell you it's an "articulation delay" it's actually APRAXIA, which is motor control, and not a developmental delay at all. The best therapy is PROMPT btw. Anyways, what you're describing is a lot like my boy who does have verbal apraxia. No he's not anywhere near reading. You're spoiled because your first was a girl. Add 6 months to everything and start doing things kinesthetically. He may also need to work through Earobics or another program to make sure he's hearing sounds correctly.

 

Why would you send him to school? That's a fabulous way to end up with a dc who can't read when they're SN. I don't know, I'm Tiger Mom on some issues, and that's one of them. My ds has a fall birthday, so we're using the later date to give him flex. He turns 5 this fall but we're calling him rising K4. He's JUST NOW hearing rhyming. I've been doing phonograms with him and some basic ungluing of words, clapping syllables, etc., but nothing really sticks. He's just not ready. So time, proper methods, patience. It will all come. My dd was just shy of 6 when she started reading, and she's got an extremely high reading level now (like off the charts, age 30+ on the WJIII a couple years ago). As you say, when they start isn't really signifying their IQ either. Anyways, that late 6, 7, 8 age range is pretty common for boys with SN.

 

I've been through this enough to know I can do what I can do but there won't be progress till he's developmentally ready. Reading falls in that category. Speech on the other hand, because it's a motor control issue in our house, we could make a difference with therapeutically. And how he hears sounds responds to the Earobics software also. So I'm half and half: do what you can, but be very patient.

[MistyMountain]

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