Normal, or sign of problem?

[Anonymous]

DD is five and a rising kindergartener. Up to now, she's been in a play based environment. It became clear to me today that not only does she not know all her letter sounds, but she also can't tell what sounds a word starts with. For example, she couldnt match pictures that showed animals starting with the same sound. She couldnt do it on her own and she still had difficulty when I repeated the words for her emphasizing the beginning sound. Is this normal given that she's never really had formal instruction, or a sign of a problem?

[Anonymous]

Totally fine. This is exactly what kindergarten is for. She will be immersed in songs and poems that focus on sounds. And she'll have fun with it.

--mom of a 6 and 11 year old and elementary teacher for 21 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally fine. This is exactly what kindergarten is for. She will be immersed in songs and poems that focus on sounds. And she'll have fun with it.

--mom of a 6 and 11 year old and elementary teacher for 21 years.

Thanks! This site makes it feel like many kids enter kindergarten already reading, so I was getting worried.

[Anonymous]

Personal opinion only: this is not necessarily a problem, given the play-based enviornment. Next year, it could indicate a problem. Try two things. First, try some at-home letter/animal combinations and see if it sticks. Second, call a good local public school in your district, ask to speak with a reading specialist, indicate that it's a general pre-enrollment inquiry, and see if the reading specialist is willing to run a brief visual-recognition exercise or make a referral to a testing specialist (note that only your own jurisdiction is likely to offer this). My bet is that this might be perfectly developmentally normal, and this way you get a confirm, but if it isn't, you'll have immediate and low-key diagnosis and correction (visual and auditory memory issues, like dyslexia, are incredibly easy to correct in early childhood, so if there's something, you want to catch it now). Best of luck, but bet you won't need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is five and a rising kindergartener. Up to now, she's been in a play based environment. It became clear to me today that not only does she not know all her letter sounds, but she also can't tell what sounds a word starts with. For example, she couldnt match pictures that showed animals starting with the same sound. She couldnt do it on her own and she still had difficulty when I repeated the words for her emphasizing the beginning sound. Is this normal given that she's never really had formal instruction, or a sign of a problem?

Yep. Our play based preschool has zero formal learning. Other son went to Montessori and knew all phonetic sounds, etc. I am really anxious about how play-based one will adjust.

[Anonymous]

My kids both went to play based schools and started K knowing sounds and reading a little. I don't think this is a play-based school issue. Don't you read books to your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is five and a rising kindergartener. Up to now, she's been in a play based environment. It became clear to me today that not only does she not know all her letter sounds, but she also can't tell what sounds a word starts with. For example, she couldnt match pictures that showed animals starting with the same sound. She couldnt do it on her own and she still had difficulty when I repeated the words for her emphasizing the beginning sound. Is this normal given that she's never really had formal instruction, or a sign of a problem?

Yep. Our play based preschool has zero formal learning. Other son went to Montessori and knew all phonetic sounds, etc. I am really anxious about how play-based one will adjust.

My kid was like this. Came from playbased preschool, not a lot of interest in letters and sounds. I'm a teacher so I knew lots of kids come in at this level, but also that it might be easier for my kind of shy kid to be a little ahead of the game. I ended up buying him a Leapster (I think they have a different name now) and some phonics games. He spent about 3 week absolutely hooked and went into Kindergarten knowing most of his sounds, and how to hear them at the beginning of words.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think it helps to be really clear about what skill kids should have, and what skill kids are currently lacking.

It might not be correct to say your child can't tell what sound a word starts with. It might be that she cannot yet segment (or separate) one sound from another.

Try this:

Teach her to play a game, where you will say the first sound of a word three times. So you say m..m..m.. monkey and p..p..p.. pig, etc. PUt out all the animal pictures and you say the initial sound three times, followed by the word. Have her repeat after you.

Next ask her to do thumbs up if it is right, thumbs down if it is wrong. Touch the picture of the pig and say "m... m...m... mig" Is that right? Hopefully she'll laugh and say "no... it is p.. p.. p.. pig." If not, try other sounds. "f..f..f..fig?" etc.

This is building up to the end result, which is you touch a picture, and she says the sound three times and then the word..... eventually you touch the picture and she just says the first sound.

This is a skill that many K children do have. I wouldn't be concerned but I would try to help her be able to do it. If it is very frustrating, she might just not be neurologically ready to segment initial sound from the rest of the word. If so, work with rhymes etc won't help her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personal opinion only: this is not necessarily a problem, given the play-based enviornment. Next year, it could indicate a problem. Try two things. First, try some at-home letter/animal combinations and see if it sticks. Second, call a good local public school in your district, ask to speak with a reading specialist, indicate that it's a general pre-enrollment inquiry, and see if the reading specialist is willing to run a brief visual-recognition exercise or make a referral to a testing specialist (note that only your own jurisdiction is likely to offer this). My bet is that this might be perfectly developmentally normal, and this way you get a confirm, but if it isn't, you'll have immediate and low-key diagnosis and correction (visual and auditory memory issues, like dyslexia, are incredibly easy to correct in early childhood, so if there's something, you want to catch it now). Best of luck, but bet you won't need it.

You can't do that w/o a formal evaluation. You have to contact Infants and Toddlers or PEP - depending on age - for an initial assessment that is fairly comprehensive. And based on results, they'll determine if the child needs services. If you go this route, and if they detect problems, keep in mind that it may lead to an IEP.

But you can't just contact the county and request that a reading specialist conduct an assessment.

You can go the private route, which costs quite a bit. Or, if you know a reading teacher who works on the side, s/he can test a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personal opinion only: this is not necessarily a problem, given the play-based enviornment. Next year, it could indicate a problem. Try two things. First, try some at-home letter/animal combinations and see if it sticks. Second, call a good local public school in your district, ask to speak with a reading specialist, indicate that it's a general pre-enrollment inquiry, and see if the reading specialist is willing to run a brief visual-recognition exercise or make a referral to a testing specialist (note that only your own jurisdiction is likely to offer this). My bet is that this might be perfectly developmentally normal, and this way you get a confirm, but if it isn't, you'll have immediate and low-key diagnosis and correction (visual and auditory memory issues, like dyslexia, are incredibly easy to correct in early childhood, so if there's something, you want to catch it now). Best of luck, but bet you won't need it.

You can't do that w/o a formal evaluation. You have to contact Infants and Toddlers or PEP - depending on age - for an initial assessment that is fairly comprehensive. And based on results, they'll determine if the child needs services. If you go this route, and if they detect problems, keep in mind that it may lead to an IEP.

But you can't just contact the county and request that a reading specialist conduct an assessment.

You can go the private route, which costs quite a bit. Or, if you know a reading teacher who works on the side, s/he can test a child.

I agree. Two of my three kids have learning disabilities and I highly doubt many testers would evaluate a child this young who also has had little/no exposure to this kind of learning. Matching pictures with sounds isn't a developmental benchmark for kids that young. The fact that OP's DD doesn't do it isn't indicative of anything at this point. Also, visual/auditory memory issues are not incredibly easy to correct. They get better with practice, repetition and specialized instruction. And, dyslexia, it's not even worth bringing up in this context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is five and a rising kindergartener. Up to now, she's been in a play based environment. It became clear to me today that not only does she not know all her letter sounds, but she also can't tell what sounds a word starts with. For example, she couldnt match pictures that showed animals starting with the same sound. She couldnt do it on her own and she still had difficulty when I repeated the words for her emphasizing the beginning sound. Is this normal given that she's never really had formal instruction, or a sign of a problem?

The only problem that I see is that you have just realized this. If you stay this disconnected to your child's education, she may fall behind. View this as a wake up call and get involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is five and a rising kindergartener. Up to now, she's been in a play based environment. It became clear to me today that not only does she not know all her letter sounds, but she also can't tell what sounds a word starts with. For example, she couldnt match pictures that showed animals starting with the same sound. She couldnt do it on her own and she still had difficulty when I repeated the words for her emphasizing the beginning sound. Is this normal given that she's never really had formal instruction, or a sign of a problem?

The only problem that I see is that you have just realized this. If you stay this disconnected to your child's education, she may fall behind. View this as a wake up call and get involved.

Oh puh-lease. Play is education at this age. You need some perspective.

[Anonymous]

Actually this is exactly how I felt too. If you want to choose play all day for the preschool years, that's fine and I'm sure worthwhile, but you shouldn't be surprised then that your rising kindergartener doesn't know his or her letter names and sounds. How could they if you or the preschool teacher didn't teach them? Yes, I do hear that some young children just absorb language and read without any help at an early age, but I don't think they are the norm. i think the PP was just saying that this should have been expected.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP that very few children are able to do specific academic tasks w/ no instruction. Why don't you work with her on her letter sounds and then go from there? I work in an elementary school and depending on the school population at your school, she may be "behind" in terms of pre-reading skills. She would be at my school. Forget the pictures for a while and work on sounds. You can start teaching her letter sounds yourself. There are a million ways to do this. Use Google for ideas. Google "phonemic awareness" for help. Most children need explicit instruction and repetition before expecting mastery. You can start at home with exposure and continue working with her throughout kindergarten for the repetition she may need.

[Anonymous]

We have a rising Kindergartner. He can't read at all. While he knows all of his letters, he only knows about 50% of the sounds. And he would probably only get about 50% of matching the animals with their sounds too. He was accepted to a top private school and I was told he was right where he should be as far as recognizing his letters/sounds. And yes, we read lots of books every single night.