She’s 5 1/2 years old, yet only know four of her letters.
When asked to identify a letter, she can’t do it. She can spell her name, but when asked to point a certain letter in her name, she can only do it by spelling it all out. (Say her name is Kathy. She can spell Kathy, but when asked to point to the “h,” she has to spell her name out, K-A-T-H, to get to the “h.” She can’t point to it on her own.)
When shown several colors, she can say that Blue starts with a “bluh” sound, and Yellow starts with a “yuh” sound. Yet, when asked to find the color that starts with a “bluh” or “yuh” sound, she can’t do it.
However, she has her numbers and shapes down cold. When shown a collection of items, she can tell you how many there are, but she can’t spell out the number. (She knows how many three is, but she can’t spell out the word three.)
Could she be dyslexic? I can tell you her younger sister knows her letters, and that her parents are very good parents, so this is not a matter of educational neglect.
This is going to sound strange, but is there any possibility she’s faking, or maybe doen’t want to learn? My daughter refused to read, even small words like ‘was’ or ‘it.’ The only word she would write was her name. It all changed overnight when she went to kindergarden. She was instantly reading on a second grade level. Why? I have no idea.
Here’s the funny thing, I did exactly the same thing when I was little.
I don’t think she’s faking it. She’s currently seeing a speech therapist, and the therapist was the one who picked up on the color/sound thing. She’s been in pre-school, and will sit there, lost, while the other children are reciting the alphabet. It’s like there’s something miswired in her brain, in that she doesn’t make the connection between words and sounds.
I don’t know if this is related, or if it’s just her age, but she will misuse pronouns sometimes…“Her won’t play with me,” instead of “She won’t play with me.”
Perhaps it’s a hearing loss. I assume since she’s working with a speech therapist, there are some other symptoms that her parents have been working on? It would be logical if her hearing has been tested but you may want to check to be sure.
Well, I’m no expert on child development, but five and a half doesn’t sound that old for not knowing your letters. Maybe she’ll pick it up when she’s ready?
She might be autistic, recommend getting some evaluations done asap! My daughter is autistic (high-functioning) and she didn’t talk until she was 3 years.
She has some learning disability to be certain, only a developmental expert can steer the parents in the right direction. Good luck to the parents with that.
I was six before I learned to read and write, and I became an English teacher.
When you hold up a blue crayon, can she tell you what color it is? Can she identify two shapes that are alike – such as two round things? Can she count?
It sounds like some sort of learning disability, perhaps dyslexia or dysgraphia or something similar. Or, it could be that she has a learning modality that’s not being covered in her pre-school classes.
A suggestion: instead of pointing to the letters and saying their names, which uses the visual/auditory modalities, take her to the sand box, write the letters in the sand with a stick, and then hold the stick with her and have her follow your motions, saying the letters of the name as you draw them out. That uses the kinesthetic learning modality and may engage her more effectively.
I’m going to say it’s definitely autism, probably dyslexia, a high probability of Martian Cold Sores, and you might want to have her tested for leprosy, hoof-in-mouth, and consumption, just in case. She probably also has ADHD, but I’m pretty sure that all children are born with that these days.
In other words, hearing about a five year old who hasn’t quite gotten the letters-thing down yet doesn’t trip my worry circuit-breakers anywhere near to the extent that hearing about an older kid would. It’s always a good idea to consult with a more professional opinion–and preferably a second as well–than random message board peanut gallery tyeps, though.
It’s educational neglect not to know your letters before you enter the first grade? You know, a lot of people don’t even start to learn the alphabet before entering first grade, and it doesn’t mean that they are crippled for life. In particular, I didn’t learn the alphabet until I was in first grade. That didn’t prevent me from scoring 719 M/772 V on my SAT, getting into a top-notch college, earning two master’s degrees, and ending up living in an apartment full of books. Would I have learned to read a couple years earlier if my parents had been the kind of modern yuppies who insist on pushing their child to start reading well before kindergarten, instead of the ignorant hicks that I grew up with? Probably so, but I have my doubts that it would have affected me in any long-term sense.
If you feel that this girl is significantly developmentally delayed, you might want to consult a professional. But unless the professional says that they think there’s something truly wrong, calm down. Not everybody learns at the same rate.
My son has autism and displayed similar atributes your duaghter does. Also keep in mind that it is very common for people to mistake their child to have hearing problems when in fact its autism.
Autism is a little more complex than merely not recognizing letters, and involves emotional disturbances as well as learning problems. Whatever the diagnosis is, I would seek a second opinion. My niece was wrongly diagnosed with dyspraxia, when what she had was a simple speech impediment. This should have been easily recognised by the “experts” who tested her, and was finally, correctly, diagnosed by a friend of mine (a speech therapist) who never met the child, by a simple process of elimination. She has now grown out of the speech impediment.
