4 year old cannot recognize any letter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. He can recognize shape and color, and he can recognize his names out of some name lists. He can repeat back all the words or sounds that I say. He can talk, and he can recognize pictures and tell me what they are. He cannot rhyme any word, cannot tell what is the beginning sound of 'snake", and he has problem recognize any letters (uppercase or lowercase) PLUS numbers.

He has been screened for hearing test and his daycare is for K readiness. Developmental pediatrician is not concerned for now, but I am more sitting around for problem to come. He can sing abc songs and number songs. He can tell me "a" is for apple, "b" is for bus etc because he memorized them all. He is exposed to a foreign language a month ago, and it is interesting that he memorize a new kid song in that language.

How & where can a kid that young to screen for dyslexia? Who is performing the test? Speech therapist or reading tutor or what? But he can't read anything yet.

Hi OP,

Since he has trouble recognizing letters, how he is able to recognize his name? Can you ask him how he can tell it is his? I’m wondering what he sees when he sees a bunch of letters together. Is he looking at the first letter? The length of the name? A specific letter that looks like a shape, like an o?

My son is dyslexic -
I can not explain his brain but my assumption was he saw his name as a shape as opposed to 4 distinct letters and was there for able to know it was his name.

OP here. I don't know. He needs to look at them & think about it before he could tell me that's his name. It maybe as PP say that he sees his name as a shape/picture instead of distinct letters. He may recognize his first letter of his name. The daycare has cubby with his name on it, and his seat has his name written on it. So, that may help him to recognize or remember that is his name.

It is interesting that he can tell a cartoon cat, a stuff animal cat, a real cat or a photo cat is called "cat", and he can tell that strawberry yogurt, strawberry gummy, strawberry fruit, picture of strawberry as a "strawberry". Distinct letters and numbers do not seem to have any meanings to him even though he can sing abc or number songs by memorization. He can count his finger from 1-10 one by one, or he can count ball 1-10 one by one, but he just cannot recognize any numbers when it is written on a piece of paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. He can recognize shape and color, and he can recognize his names out of some name lists. He can repeat back all the words or sounds that I say. He can talk, and he can recognize pictures and tell me what they are. He cannot rhyme any word, cannot tell what is the beginning sound of 'snake", and he has problem recognize any letters (uppercase or lowercase) PLUS numbers.

He has been screened for hearing test and his daycare is for K readiness. Developmental pediatrician is not concerned for now, but I am more sitting around for problem to come. He can sing abc songs and number songs. He can tell me "a" is for apple, "b" is for bus etc because he memorized them all. He is exposed to a foreign language a month ago, and it is interesting that he memorize a new kid song in that language.

How & where can a kid that young to screen for dyslexia? Who is performing the test? Speech therapist or reading tutor or what? But he can't read anything yet.

I'm the director of a preschool. I think you need to take him to be evaluated for dyslexia.
Here is an interesting article to read (it is posted by a "learn at home group' so take their marketing at the end with a grain of salt, but the point of the article is interesting https://athome.readinghorizons.com/blog/7-signs-most-doctors-miss-that-reveal-your-young-child-has-dyslexia

https://dyslexiaida.org/testing-and-evaluation/

In most cases, testing for dyslexia is done by a licensed educational psychologist. NOT your pediatrician, so I would push forward even though your pediatrician is in wait and see mode. Look, if he doesn't have dyslexia and he's just going to get it all but slower, great! You can relax. But if he DOES have dyslexia, the earlier you start interventions the better, since it's about training his brain to read. Dyslexics use only one side of their brain to read, while the rest of us use both sides. So we need to teach a child to read very differently if they have dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

My daughter, who is now 14, has dyslexia and dysgraphia. Very early on in preschool, I noticed she had issues recognizing letters and numbers and writing them. She also could tell me individual sounds ("what does an "S" sound like?" "sssss"), but could not blend two sounds together to phonetically sound out words.

We got her neuropsych evaluation at Children's Hospital the summer before she started first grade, but I wish I listened to my intuition and not the school and teachers and got her evaluated sooner. The have a long waiting list so I would go ahead and call now to get on the list. It was almost entirely covered by insurance. If things improve, you can always cancel. http://childrensnational.org/departments/neuropsychology-outpatient-evaluation-program.

The reason I wish I got her seen sooner is that her self confidence really suffered when she would look around the classroom and see what other kids could do that she could not. If she understood why she was struggling (in age appropriate terms), I think that would have gone a long way in helping her.

[Anonymous]

I agree, have him evaluated as the others suggest. If there is something wrong, the earlier the better.

This thread caught my eye because by the end of PK4 my son could recognize maybe 2 or 3 letters (very young 4 - made the cutoff by 11 days). No other signs of delays. He had done private PK 2 and 3. We read constantly at home and practiced letters every day. Teachers and Dr. didn't see anything wrong, so we just waited. By the end of K he knew all the sounds, but still did not recognize many letters. You could ask "what sound does n make" and he could tell you, but could not recognize the letter. By the end of 1st he knew the letters, but by that point he was fairly behind and needed repeat 1st grade. It was the right choice because of how young he was, etc. By the end of 2nd he was an amazing reader. He is in 4th now and scores in 99%ile for decoding. I can't keep a book out of his hands. He just needed time.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'm an outlier but I wouldn't be so concerned if he can recognize shapes. Letters are basically shapes. He may just have not spent as much time with individual letters at this point.

Maybe choose one letter (like the first letter of his name) and spend some time on it for a couple of weeks and see if he starts to get it.

[Anonymous]

I think he is dyslexic. My 2 year old can recognize a letter or two. I am not saying that to brag and I do not think my kid is a genius but I am emphasizing that his behavior is not normal for a 2 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he is dyslexic. My 2 year old can recognize a letter or two. I am not saying that to brag and I do not think my kid is a genius but I am emphasizing that his behavior is not normal for a 2 year old.

I mean a 4 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah, I love these reading panic threads. I didn’t learn to read until I was 7 or 8 (second grade). According to my mother, I wasn’t interested and they didn’t push it. Fast forward 10 years, got perfect scores on the reading and writing sections of the SAT with no prep. Always in advanced reading classes. Early literacy just doesn’t matter. Other countries don’t stress about this the way we do.

OP is not concerned that their child cannot read. They are concerned that the child cannot recognize letters after a couple of years of frequent exposure. Most 4 year olds with exposure to letters can recognize some by that age. Maybe they are just not interested, or maybe they are experiencing a challenge that can be addressed early. While it is stressful as a parent to worry about these issues, early intervention is better in the long term.

Anybody think it’s ironic that the guy who is bragging about his ability to read wasn’t able to actually read the question posted?

Par for the course on dcum.

[Anonymous]

OP, are your child’s teachers concerned? You or they can request a CPSE full educational/psychological evaluation.

[Anonymous]

It's not just dyslexia, call child find out your local public school and have your child evaluated. Memory is at play here and language skills could be as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree- he needs a dyslexia evaluation which you would start with your pediatrician for.

Can he rhyme if you prompt him like "car, bar, far, can you think of another rhyming word?"

Can he memorize rote sequences such as days of the week or the alphabet?

These are not definitive symptoms of dyslexia, but do have correlation especially in the younger kids.

But warning that my DD couldn’t do that at 4 and maybe still can’t at 5.5 but she can read and doesn’t have dyslexia, so don’t panic if he can’t do those things.