DS 4 Does Not Recognize All Letters and Numbers

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that the teacher isn't necessarily concerned about the letters/numbers, but rather his rate of learning and seeming difficulty remember what he has already learned.

[Anonymous]

I think it is very irresponsible of people to tell you that "your kid is fine." We have absolutely no clue, OP. Of everyone who is part of this conversation you and the teacher are the only ones in a position to know anything.

Is the teacher a worrier? Does she frequently send people for evaluations? At our Montessori it was the total opposite. I was sure something was going on with my oldest and they insisted that he was totally fine... sure enough, in the long run we have learned he has ADHD and some LDs.

Anyway, we all have our own stories and they may differ from yours and not be relevant. Why not check with an expert? You don't have to rush... you can make an appointment and pay close attention in the meantime.

I realize that the teacher may be off-the-mark--though, again, in my experience and that of all of my friends, it has been in their slowness to recognize something needing intervention--but I would never disregard the opinion of a teacher so quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is very irresponsible of people to tell you that "your kid is fine." We have absolutely no clue, OP. Of everyone who is part of this conversation you and the teacher are the only ones in a position to know anything.

Is the teacher a worrier? Does she frequently send people for evaluations? At our Montessori it was the total opposite. I was sure something was going on with my oldest and they insisted that he was totally fine... sure enough, in the long run we have learned he has ADHD and some LDs.

Anyway, we all have our own stories and they may differ from yours and not be relevant. Why not check with an expert? You don't have to rush... you can make an appointment and pay close attention in the meantime.

I realize that the teacher may be off-the-mark--though, again, in my experience and that of all of my friends, it has been in their slowness to recognize something needing intervention--but I would never disregard the opinion of a teacher so quickly.

I think it is really irresponsible for people to tell you your kid needs an evaluation based on 1 teacher. No one else has raised any concerns. My experience and that of all my friends is that the opinion of a single preschool teacher (likely uncredentialed) in a single environment doesn't carry much weight.

See how that works?

[Anonymous]

Did you know that when examining young children don't use eye charts with letters? They use eye charts with pictures. Do you know why? It's because young children do not reliably know their letters and numbers!

[ThomK]

This is a great and informative thread. We blogged recently about "what kids see when they can't see the board" - http://treehouseeyes.com/the-myopia-blog/parents-on-vr-what-kids-see-when-they-cant-see-the-board. It's an interesting experiment to show parents what it's like when their kids have a hard time seeing the board - for a host of reasons.

Thanks for letting me post - and if OP or any other parent has questions about what you can finally do instead of just getting glasses, please fee free to message me or visit our site http://treehouseeyes.com/ for more info. Btw - we are in Bethesda and Tysons if that's close to you.

Enjoy,

Thom
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you know that when examining young children don't use eye charts with letters? They use eye charts with pictures. Do you know why? It's because young children do not reliably know their letters and numbers!

Not true. Ours did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the ONLY reason the preschool teacher recommends evaluation. THIS IS NUTS.

Totally nuts.

Yes, that he doesn't focus when she works with him and doesn't recognize his letters and numbers - that something isn't clicking. And that they may go over something, go back to it, and he gets it wrong even though he got it right the first time.

She said he does great socially, follows instructions, is eager to learn, etc.

This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. I know kids like this who had zero interest in letters and numbers at that age and now, in 4th grade, they are in the highest reading group and all is fine. Your son's teacher is seriously strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's four. Not recognizing letters and numbers is not something I would get an evaluation for. I would also reconsider my choice of preschool if this is such a focus.

+1

My son didn't know them at that age, either. In fact, when he started kindergarten, he didn't differentiate between letters and numbers. (He had been in Waldorf preschool.) He did fine through school and is a highly successful college student now.