Just turned 6 year old can't write basic numbers like 2, 3, 5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound like some kind of delay? He just started kindergarten and for his homework he has to write the numbers 1-10 and his 2 looks like an S and he couldn't do a 3 or 5 either. He can identify the numbers and can write letters (not great handwriting though) so it didn't occur to me there could be something going on. His class art is also very poor compared to the other kids. What do you think?

Sound like a boy who isn't into visual aesthetic. Have you looked at girls: writing and boys' writing in your 30+ years on this earth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is transitional K?

A way for privates to soak parents for another year of tuition. They'll say a kid isn't ready for K, but there's a TK program The kid could do, and then move to K next year. The reality is a school may have 40 K seats, but TK has 30 seats. Those 30 TKers move to K, so really there's only 10 K seats available. So parents will accept a TK seat to get their kid into the school. Basically, the school forces redshirting on the majority of their families.

People paying for private education aren't looking for ways to avoid school.
They can apply to college from 11the grade if they think their kid doesn't need 13 years of school.

This is among the dumbest things I've read on this site recently.

If you want to pay extra for your kid to spend a year in "transitional K" so he can start kindergarten at 6 still not knowing how to write the letters 1-10 then knock yourself out. It is however a waste of money because look -- the year of transitional K didn't actually prepare OP's kid for K as well as most PK4 programs do.

OP is being swindled.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious what OP thinks is not a "basic" number to write. Bleem? Threeve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound like some kind of delay? He just started kindergarten and for his homework he has to write the numbers 1-10 and his 2 looks like an S and he couldn't do a 3 or 5 either. He can identify the numbers and can write letters (not great handwriting though) so it didn't occur to me there could be something going on. His class art is also very poor compared to the other kids. What do you think?

Sound like a boy who isn't into visual aesthetic. Have you looked at girls: writing and boys' writing in your 30+ years on this earth?

People like you are the reason my 46 year old DH has the handwriting of a serial killer. His parents and teachers decided his poor handwriting was fine because he was a boy and "boys aren't into the visual aesthetic" and as a result he feels self-conscious writing feedback directly on architectural plans he reviews and instead types them up so that people won't know how bad his handwriting is. He probably needed physical therapy for fine motor skills as a kid but didn't get it whereas a girl would have gotten it because "girls have pretty handwriting."

A perfect example of how sexism actually hurts both women and men.

[Anonymous]

It can be a lot of things. Nobody on this board can say this is normal or not based on what you shared. It could be dysgraphia or another delay vs just needing practice. Only an expert who has spent time with him (his teacher) or an OT can say for sure. DD was evaluated at age 4 by the county for speech and, as part of that eval, they did an assessment of fine motor. The evaluator came back and said she was more worried about the inability to write letters and numbers than speech but also asked if DD had attended a play based preschool. She had. We had done lots of cutting, pasting, coloring, play dough but no real pencil work. The evaluator felt this likely explained it. We did consult an OT to be on the safe side and had her evaluated. It turned out that it was lack of exposure/practice but the OT found another issues that needed addressing so we decided to try Handwriting Without Tears while seeing her. Within a short time frame she could form her letters and numbers correctly. Based on this experience, we opted our son into a HWT enrichment program at his preschool. He arrived in K with illegible handwriting anyway. He struggled terribly. It turned out he did have dysgraphia and a muscle weakness. His K teacher flagged it. No amount of tracing letters or numbers in K would fix it so we turned to the OT who saw him for the next 5 years. Dysgraphia also affected his ability to organize ideas in writing. Based on my experiences as a SN parent, I think it never hurts to have an expert eval.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dysgraphia

It’s probably this.
But you can also help him improve this through tracing repeatedly so it becomes rote.
Tracing gets boring though.
So you can also have him use play-doh to shape the number on top of flash cards with a 2, 3, and 5 on them, or draw it with his finger on rice.
Or use watercolors to trace…

[Anonymous]

There is way too much shaming of OP for what kind of education she chose for her child prior to K. It doesn't matter if your kid wrote in cursive at age 3 because you sent him to a brutally academically demanding preschool boarding school in the Swiss Alps.

OP's kid CAN write most things, just not beautifully. 6 is a good age to buckle down and work on consistency. He will eventually be able to write legibly enough, and if he develops an interest in penmanship, he will be self-motivated to improve. But many people in life do not place a high value on penmanship beyond readability, and that's ok too. People with more than one child can see the differences in their own children, despite the same genes and same amount of enforced practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is way too much shaming of OP for what kind of education she chose for her child prior to K. It doesn't matter if your kid wrote in cursive at age 3 because you sent him to a brutally academically demanding preschool boarding school in the Swiss Alps.

OP's kid CAN write most things, just not beautifully. 6 is a good age to buckle down and work on consistency. He will eventually be able to write legibly enough, and if he develops an interest in penmanship, he will be self-motivated to improve. But many people in life do not place a high value on penmanship beyond readability, and that's ok too. People with more than one child can see the differences in their own children, despite the same genes and same amount of enforced practice.

+1 to the bolded.

[Anonymous]

Preschool teacher here. This is entirely normal for a 6 year old boy.

[Anonymous]

print out some fun handwriting sheets. I used to give those to my kids over the summer. Also sketchbooks, musical instruments, stencil sheets...anything that encourages hand/eye coordination.

I loved crayola calligraphy markers when I was that age...the big fat ones in rainbow and pastels.

[Anonymous]

Relax! It’s K. Pleanty of kids reverse. It’s developmentally ok. Review/ teaching proper formation is what K is for ! Now if it persists beyond beginning of first, that’s when to worry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound like some kind of delay? He just started kindergarten and for his homework he has to write the numbers 1-10 and his 2 looks like an S and he couldn't do a 3 or 5 either. He can identify the numbers and can write letters (not great handwriting though) so it didn't occur to me there could be something going on. His class art is also very poor compared to the other kids. What do you think?

Boys reverse letters and numbers until third grade and it’s normal.

I don’t know if it’s just boys but it’s not unusual. You’re right. Ignore the people who let you know that their kids had no problems with writing numbers. Good for them.

[Anonymous]

It’s not dysgraphia. It’s kindergarten! He will learn that this year. My gifted first grader and many of her classmates still did some numbers backwards sometimes last year. We will see what this year brings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this sound like some kind of delay? He just started kindergarten and for his homework he has to write the numbers 1-10 and his 2 looks like an S and he couldn't do a 3 or 5 either. He can identify the numbers and can write letters (not great handwriting though) so it didn't occur to me there could be something going on. His class art is also very poor compared to the other kids. What do you think?

Sound like a boy who isn't into visual aesthetic. Have you looked at girls: writing and boys' writing in your 30+ years on this earth?

People like you are the reason my 46 year old DH has the handwriting of a serial killer. His parents and teachers decided his poor handwriting was fine because he was a boy and "boys aren't into the visual aesthetic" and as a result he feels self-conscious writing feedback directly on architectural plans he reviews and instead types them up so that people won't know how bad his handwriting is. He probably needed physical therapy for fine motor skills as a kid but didn't get it whereas a girl would have gotten it because "girls have pretty handwriting."

A perfect example of how sexism actually hurts both women and men.

My husbands handwriting is terrible because he's actually a lefty but the nuns made him write with his right hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is transitional K?

We moved to California and it’s what the public schools offer here. I didn’t red shirt him, he was a week too old to start kindergarten last year so he did tk. That was his only option.