OP, go see a developmental pediatrician. They may have some insights and next steps to support your DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Posters saying their 4yos can't read either are missing the point. They haven't been trying. Posters saying that 4yos in rich-people play-based daycare can't read either are missing the point. Rich-people daycare centers notoriously weed out neurodivergent children. Those children probably could read if someone bothered to teach them.

OP has been trying to teach her kid early literacy skills and it hasnt been clicking, and coupled with a speech delay there is clearly some kind of problem that needs to be evaluated by a specialist.

You are making a lot of assumptions. The OP doesn’t say she’s trying to teach early literacy skills and failing. And I disagree that a non ND four year old can learn to read if someone teaches them. My extremely intelligent DD couldn’t. I do agree that this child should see a developmental ped and be referred for full testing for their IEP so any needed supports are in place for kindergarten.

+1. Also, if OP’s first language is not English and speaks another language at home, that could also be a reason for the lack of vocabulary.
DH and I speak two languages other than English at home and 2 of my 3 kids were not speech delayed, but their vocabulary was/is smaller than their classmates… things are evening out in 4th-5th grade. My youngest also spoke much later than his sisters and has had speech therapy for a year. I don’t believe he is delayed, but several of his classmates speak better than he does at 4-5. My son is also going to K next year and I just started teaching him letters and hired a tutor for phonics. He goes to a play based preschool that is amazing, but does not teach much literacy skills.

Anonymous wrote:Posters saying their 4yos can't read either are missing the point. They haven't been trying. Posters saying that 4yos in rich-people play-based daycare can't read either are missing the point. Rich-people daycare centers notoriously weed out neurodivergent children. Those children probably could read if someone bothered to teach them.

OP has been trying to teach her kid early literacy skills and it hasnt been clicking, and coupled with a speech delay there is clearly some kind of problem that needs to be evaluated by a specialist.

You are making a lot of assumptions. The OP doesn’t say she’s trying to teach early literacy skills and failing. And I disagree that a non ND four year old can learn to read if someone teaches them. My extremely intelligent DD couldn’t. I do agree that this child should see a developmental ped and be referred for full testing for their IEP so any needed supports are in place for kindergarten.

Posters saying their 4yos can't read either are missing the point. They haven't been trying. Posters saying that 4yos in rich-people play-based daycare can't read either are missing the point. Rich-people daycare centers notoriously weed out neurodivergent children. Those children probably could read if someone bothered to teach them.

OP has been trying to teach her kid early literacy skills and it hasnt been clicking, and coupled with a speech delay there is clearly some kind of problem that needs to be evaluated by a specialist.

At that age we had our kid in 3-4 day a week speech therapy. Reading is a separate issue from speech, some kids have issues with both, some just one. You need to increase the help and work with her at home.

My DD who has consistently scored in the 99% in reading iReady in first and beyond didn't know how to read at this point before kindergarten. She put it together somewhat over the summer but that was not the norm.

I sympathize, OP. I have a rising K who has a serious speech issue (it is more than a delay, it's a diagnosed language disorder) and I really worry about reading. But he is actually doing great learning letters with specific instruction from SPED preschool. Your kiddo doesn't sound behind to me.

You mention other parents - are you saying that parents of your child's peers are expressing concern about her readiness for kindergarten? If so, those people need to buzz off - it is absolutely none of their business. I am always pleasantly surprised by how accepting kids are of my DS. Of course some aren't but by and large kids that age are pretty accepting and are way more open to and aware of differences than I remember being at that age. I credit inclusion SPED for a lot of that.

How old is she? I don't think kids care/notice that other kids can or can't read until the end of 2nd grade.

Only children are not usually speech delayed. Quite the opposite actually. It’s often the second or third born that I slower to speak

It sounds like she doesn’t have a sibling, so to help with speech delay, I would say the best thing is to encourage frequent playdates. My DS was speech delayed but what helped the most was when he got his younger brother.

With reading, you can try phonics programs at home.

Has she been diagnosed with anything? Not able to read at 4 is not a problem. A speech delay can be.

It won’t be a problem until third grade. And even then, only the speech delay will be a problem socially - not the reading delay. And the speech delay would need to be pretty significant to matter - as long as she can keep up in the pretend games at recess, she will be fine.

Wait, you are worried about a 4 or 5 year old who is not reading yet?

At our private preschool where most kids come from very wealthy parents, only 1 out of 16 kids in PK can read some words. My son and all of his friends don’t even know lower case letters. They play and learn, but nobody is teaching them reading and math.

Also, most of these kids are heading to private K next year and few will go to public.

My older kids learned to read in K and have very high scores all around.

Not sure why you are worried.

Once a week won’t do it, you need hours and hours per day.

My preK 4 does not read a single word either, thats pretty expected. KNowing letter sounds and letter names is most important at this age.

DD is speech delayed, and she can't read a single word. She can talk in full sentences, but she can't talk fluently and she does not have enough vocabularies to about complex matters. She has been doing great with friendship and learning at her last year of current daycare before she joins K this fall. She is social and chatty. She is doing weekly therapies on her speech and reading, and it is going to take a while for her to catch up. What age would speech delayed & non reading become an issue for kid like that making friendship and academic learning at public school?

She has IEP, and no teacher is concerned too much about her . They are aware of her delays. It has been parents worrying about her socially & academically.