Help teaching son letters/numbers

[RMulieri]

OP here again - I just want to thank again everyone for all of the suggestions. They are definitely going to be used. But pls don't think I'm being competitive, bc that's not my nature for my child. Bc he is an only, however, I can only gauge by what others are doing. And it seemed he wasn't quite there. I can see now that I'm worrying for nothing. It's like when I never thought he would talk - now - WOW - he never stops! And his vocab I didn't know a 3 year old could know so many words!

I don' t think anyone here thought you were being competitive..We are just saying that other parents can be..It can make you worry and stress needlessly.Kids do things when they are ready, and not when you want them to.I had a friend brag and brag that her daughter was potty trained at 18 months old..My daughter was closer to 3 1/2 yrs old.I felt sure there was something wrong with my daughter, and my friend wouldn't let me forget it.But it turns out NOTHING was wrong with my daughter.She learned when she was ready.

 

[Magpie]

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/227/

Here is a well written article reprinted by the IAD

http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/modules/articles/displayarticle.jsp?id=20

~delayed speech (not speaking any words by the child's first birthday. Often, they don't start talking until they are two, two-and-a-half, three, or even older.)***Ben had this***

~mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words (ex: aminal for animal, bisghetti for spaghetti, hekalopter for helicopter, hangaberg for hamburger, mazageen for magazine, etc.)***He still does this***

~early stuttering or cluttering

~lots of ear infections***had mild undiagnosed hearing loss for years***

~can't master tying shoes***still can't***

~confusion over left versus right, over versus under, before versus after, and other directionality words and concepts **not a problem***

~late to establish a dominant hand***he is a lefty, but picked within normal range***

~May switch from right hand to left hand while coloring, writing, or doing any other task. Eventually, the child will usually establish a preferred hand, but it may not be until they are 7 or 8. Even then, they may use one hand for writing, but the other hand for sports.***I've never really noticed this***

~inability to correctly complete phonemic awareness task
despite listening to stories that contain lots of rhyming words, such as Dr. Seuss, cannot tell you words that rhyme with cat or seat by the age of four-and-a-half ***he did okay with rhyming***

~difficulty learning the names of the letters or sounds in the alphabet; difficulty writing the alphabet in order***yes***

~Trouble correctly articulating R's and L's as well as M's and N's. They often have "immature" speech. They may still be saying "wed and gween" instead of "red and green" in second or third grade.***had speech therapy for years***


But, he was also very advanced in many areas, and I had many strangers tell me often how precocious he was as well. Things I didn't even realize. He could correctly ride a tricycle the day after he turned 2...most kids don't stat until 3. He has always been excellent at building with blocks and makes fantastic structures. He has a fabulous imagination as well as a fantastic creative streak, etc.

PS BTW, Walt Disney was also dyslexic. As you can see there are many S&S of it in a young child, and it is certainly more than just learning the abcs and 123s, but being a new mom, I was unaware of any of the other signs, and had I know, he would have gotten help much sooner.

Thank you for posting this! From what she's written, it likely doesn't apply in the OPs case, but I can tell you my son was very similar at three and he did end up being diagnosed with an LD when he was older.

FWIW, many of the things I did with my son, by way of therapy, can be done with any child, whether they have an LD or not.

If the OP is interested, here's what I was doing with my child when he was three...

1. I didn't teach the names of the letters, I taught the sounds. I kept the sounds short, and didn't add extra syllables. So "B" was a short, sharp "b" sound, not "buh" or "bee".

2. Letter of the Day! Which could be Letter of the Week, depending on how things were going. (M and N were tough!)

3. I put up a poster of the letter at his eye level and gave him an index card with that letter to keep in his pocket. That way he could remind himself which letter we were working on.

4. We did lots of different crafts focussed around the target letter. Collages, cutting up magazines and cereal boxes, drawing in the dirt, sidewalk chalk, finger paints, etc...

5. We played "Spot the letter!" games when we were out and about. Together we'd look for examples of that letter in our environment. Signs, advertisements, packaging...

6. When he had trouble hearing or pronouncing a sound, I'd show him what to do with his lips and tongue.

Results?

*My son's articulation improved to the point where he could usually be understood by strangers (though he continued to clutter).
*My son learned to read early. And more importantly, at age 13 he actually loves to read, despite being slow as molasses at it. It may take him a month to get through a book, but he'll retain every scrap of information in it. I think this pretty much saved his school career.
*And I identified a subtle hearing issue, that had been missed up to this point.

Don't feel guilty about doing educational things with your kid. It's not always about "pushing". They'll enjoy it, and you will, too.

 

[KristiKat]

Another vote for the Leap Frog dvd's my DD loved them. She has the number one and the letter one.