Anonymous
Post 03/21/2025 06:23     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.


Don't compare kids. MCPS ES curriculum is not very good. I would get a reading tutor and ask his private SLP to work on it. My speech disordered kid was reading very early, other kids I know were but many were not. Our SLP did a lot of visual work and we read a lot at home. We used apps and workbooks as well. Handwriting/writing was delayed and we did about 10-20 minutes a day of Kumon workbooks and it really helped (not the class, just the workbooks). And, if he's not in private speech get him in private speech. Phonics never worked for my kid. It was sight reading. We also used the CC for videos and did a lot of reading vidoes.


Do you have a kid using the new curriculum in K? I have heard good things about it. Not to say this parent/child may not need more, just wondering if your assessment that the curriculum is not good is based on the current curriculum or a previous one.


No but even if it’s better it’s not working for op child.


It might be working fine but the expectaions for a kindergartener are too high and unrealistic.
Anonymous
Post 03/21/2025 06:07     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Hi Op, I am sorry for your sons struggles. My son also struggled and we could tell there was an issue by around 4. MCPS of course down played it and we got lots of well meaning suggestions as you are getting here. Play with Clay, Use this book or that book, work on writing, Hold him back. My mom (a ES teacher) told me it was all because he did not watch sesame street as a toddler! We did outside testing at 7 and got a dyslexia diagnosis and a worthless IEP. We ended up doing alot of outside tutoring which gave us control. DS still struggles with writing but has a college degree and supports himself! Good Luck.
Anonymous
Post 03/21/2025 05:06     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Let’s rewind to a time when what you are saying your kid can do, knows all the letters, most letter sounds, can write mom/dad/pets name/ read some worlds WAS ON GRADE LEVEL. I did half day kindergarten in FCPS and we were learning capital and lower case letters all year. The panic that your preschool gave you because he couldn’t read in preschool is absurd and driving your anxiety. My niece couldn’t read until end of 1st and is in advanced classes as a teenager.

My recommendation to you is to work on his hand muscles, which will help with writing. A lot of play doh and putty and PLAY. Take him to playgrounds with monkey bars and let him climb trees. The hand strength and core strength he will develop from this play will help him sit in school and help with handwriting. Keep him off the iPad. Work with actual manipulatives and let it be FUN and not filled with drills and your anxiety. Bathtub letters. Fridge magnet letters. If it doesn’t click by the end of 1st grade then get an orton Gillingham trained tutor. But between now and then, try to lay the foundations for him to be successful.
Anonymous
Post 03/21/2025 04:07     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:Kindergartener struggles with reading and writing. He has IEP, and homeroom teacher and special educator admit that he is falling behind. He attended daycare and then preschool since 6 months old, and there's no other language spoken at home/school except English.

Other than worrying, what could I do to help my son? Any advice? I don't believe he will catch up because I had the same concern since he was 3 years old. Everyone tells me he will be okay, omg. We have paid a few thousands for evaluation(s) for the last few years, other than ADHD diagnosis, we have no clue why he can't read with phonics and why he can't spell. He knows abc, almost all letter sounds, and he recognizes a few words. He can only write his name, mom, dad, his pet name and I love you.

App? Tutoring? Free resources? Any free volunteering help?



I think this needs to be dissected a bit more. When you say he can only write certain names do you mean he has trouble write certain letters or he has trouble recalling how certain names/words are spelled?

Does he understand and grasp the phonics and just isn’t reading or is he not understanding the phonics? You noted that teachers say he’s falling behind, but where exactly? Is he making progress even if slow?

It is true that not all kids grasp reading at the same time. Has he made progress with recognition of all the letters and being able to associate the sound with that letter. (Leap Frog Letter Factory video everyday is good for this).

Once that is mastered you can try working on CVC like CAT. Beware that some kids struggle with the hearing and making the word with the letter sounds very broken apart like C-A-T. Practice dragging it out the sounds without taking a breath in between them (almost like singing). Then shorten the drag.

Reading to your child. Lots of reading so they can hear language. Do phonics book, picture books, longer more advance books. Audiobooks. Other people reading to them so they hear different accent and annunciation. Listening to music and practicing songs is something else that could help. This trains kids to listen, focus, hear

Get hearing and vision checked.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 23:12     Subject: Falling behind at K level
OP, just continue to do what you’re doing and wait until he is developmentally ready. Sounds like a pretty normal place to be for a kindergartener. Focus on progressing his reading and writing this summer (with a tutor, if needed) to avoid the learning loss that typically happens over the summer.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 23:09     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


I’m sorry but telling you to hold your son back because he couldn’t yet read BEFORE starting kindergarten is absurd.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 23:02     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


My young for the grade was an early reader but later talker.

Mine was huge talker and the main reason it seemed fine to send him on time. Huge mistake since had un-discovered ADHD. Despite being towards bottom of class for reading was on level. This meant school would not entertain holding him back. Otherwise we certainly would have.


How would it help? It wouldn't. Your child will be older than his peers, still getting a year older and not reading. Its easier for you to hold back. Child needed intensive tutoring and working with you at home. If OP has her child in private speech, a good speech pathologist will do visual work to tie in with the speech therapy and they can work on the reading skills as well. Ours worked on reading comp too. Holding back is a problem as then schools will still not help saying he is on grade level as you are changing the grade level expectations and that will hurt, not help.

Holding back will not fix things. You get him tutoring and work with him at home and get the adhd treated. Your situation is not op

It definitely would have helped. Was just trying to point out that kids are different. Calm down
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 20:31     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


My young for the grade was an early reader but later talker.

Mine was huge talker and the main reason it seemed fine to send him on time. Huge mistake since had un-discovered ADHD. Despite being towards bottom of class for reading was on level. This meant school would not entertain holding him back. Otherwise we certainly would have.


Holding back will not fix things. You get him tutoring and work with him at home and get the adhd treated. Your situation is not op

It definitely would have helped. Was just trying to point out that kids are different. Calm down
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 20:26     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.


Don't compare kids. MCPS ES curriculum is not very good. I would get a reading tutor and ask his private SLP to work on it. My speech disordered kid was reading very early, other kids I know were but many were not. Our SLP did a lot of visual work and we read a lot at home. We used apps and workbooks as well. Handwriting/writing was delayed and we did about 10-20 minutes a day of Kumon workbooks and it really helped (not the class, just the workbooks). And, if he's not in private speech get him in private speech. Phonics never worked for my kid. It was sight reading. We also used the CC for videos and did a lot of reading vidoes.


Do you have a kid using the new curriculum in K? I have heard good things about it. Not to say this parent/child may not need more, just wondering if your assessment that the curriculum is not good is based on the current curriculum or a previous one.


No but even if it’s better it’s not working for op child.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 20:25     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


My young for the grade was an early reader but later talker.

Mine was huge talker and the main reason it seemed fine to send him on time. Huge mistake since had un-discovered ADHD. Despite being towards bottom of class for reading was on level. This meant school would not entertain holding him back. Otherwise we certainly would have.


Holding back will not fix things. You get him tutoring and work with him at home and get the adhd treated. Your situation is not op
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 20:21     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.


Don't compare kids. MCPS ES curriculum is not very good. I would get a reading tutor and ask his private SLP to work on it. My speech disordered kid was reading very early, other kids I know were but many were not. Our SLP did a lot of visual work and we read a lot at home. We used apps and workbooks as well. Handwriting/writing was delayed and we did about 10-20 minutes a day of Kumon workbooks and it really helped (not the class, just the workbooks). And, if he's not in private speech get him in private speech. Phonics never worked for my kid. It was sight reading. We also used the CC for videos and did a lot of reading vidoes.


Do you have a kid using the new curriculum in K? I have heard good things about it. Not to say this parent/child may not need more, just wondering if your assessment that the curriculum is not good is based on the current curriculum or a previous one.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 18:53     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:Kindergartener struggles with reading and writing. He has IEP, and homeroom teacher and special educator admit that he is falling behind. He attended daycare and then preschool since 6 months old, and there's no other language spoken at home/school except English.

Other than worrying, what could I do to help my son? Any advice? I don't believe he will catch up because I had the same concern since he was 3 years old. Everyone tells me he will be okay, omg. We have paid a few thousands for evaluation(s) for the last few years, other than ADHD diagnosis, we have no clue why he can't read with phonics and why he can't spell. He knows abc, almost all letter sounds, and he recognizes a few words. He can only write his name, mom, dad, his pet name and I love you.

App? Tutoring? Free resources? Any free volunteering help?


Work to get him comfortable with writing. I had a son like this and reading did not click until he could write. The link between hand and brain was important.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 17:33     Subject: Re:Falling behind at K level
What tests show he is falling behind. I would ask for tests and scores. Also, other than speech, is he receiving intervention? If do, how often and with whom? I’m a kindergarten teacher and it takes years of low scores to get tested for an IEP. I assume your child has one for speech only. Has he ever been given a FSIQ test? If so what were the sub scores? I work with kids who struggle and almost all of them have low working memory. By the time they blend three sounds together, they’ve forgotten the first one.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 17:15     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


My young for the grade was an early reader but later talker.

Mine was huge talker and the main reason it seemed fine to send him on time. Huge mistake since had un-discovered ADHD. Despite being towards bottom of class for reading was on level. This meant school would not entertain holding him back. Otherwise we certainly would have.
Anonymous
Post 03/20/2025 16:24     Subject: Falling behind at K level
Anonymous wrote:I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.


My young for the grade was an early reader but later talker.