4 Year Old Child Development

This is completely normal... most Kindergarten teachers will tell you that "letter recognition" and "phonemic awareness" are not really grasped until children are mid-way through Kindergarten and many will not solidify those skills completey until first or second grade.

This is normal. Keep reading to her and just let her enjoy the literary experience!

Not an issue in a 4 year old. Once she gets to Kindergarten, if she struggles then start evaluating. Think about it. This is the first time in her life when it matters how something is postioned in space. A cat is still a cat if you draw it upside down, but a b is a q and a d is a p. This is a difficult process.

Pay attention to how she understands and manipulates sound symbol relationships. If she struggles with whole langague methods to learn to read, start evaluating her and try to get her an alpabet phonics program sooner, rather than later. All children can learn to read with the latter, only most children can learn to read using whole langauge. Be proactive, but wait for the time to be right. This would be an issue related to dyslexia, although, it does not matter what you call the issue, the important thing is, if your child has trouble with sound symbol relationships, or just has trouble learning to read once it is time, ask for an alphebet phonics program or get one for her yourself as soon as you can do it.

You may consider having her visual processing checked if it seems like she is having issues recognizing letters, that is not dyslexia, it is an issue frequently seen by occupational therapists. This can interfere with a childs ablity to learn to read using sight words, when the ablity to understand sound symbol relationships is in tact.

Wait a little while, see what happens in K-1, but don't wait too long or let a school stall you if it really is an issue. Intelegence has nothing to do with this kind of problem, so the sooner you get her help if she needs it, the more she will be likely to meet her high potential.

Good luck, just be vigalent.

M.

My son's kindergarten teacher told us that kids think in pictures until after age 6. And a picture of a tree is a tree whether it is front, back, upside down or right side up. That makes a word the same whether it's written left to right or right to left (if you use that logic).

That wouldn't raise any alarms with me especially if this is an isolated thing and everything else appears on track to you.

Its fine.
My son is the same age and the same way.
Other kids his age are too.

You can practice with her, but don't get stressed... or she will then not enjoy it nor learning.

At this age, the OFTEN get words/symbols/letters backwards or confused or in the wrong order.
It is their development.

My son is bright too. Just because a child is bright, does not mean they will instantly learn things and quickly.
It is a process.
Kids learn via processing.
And they 'see' things differently... within a word, letters are seen as a 'group' and a young child will not necessarily 'see' it as separate letters. Like an adult would nor an older child.

This is something that they usually cover in kindergarten and those kindergarten teachers have very clever tricks for getting kids to increase their phonics awareness. What my daughter's teacher did, to teach her class to sound out 3-letter words, was use her hand and her body to indicate the begining (hand to head, "c"), middle (hand to stomach, "a"), and end (hand to knees, "t") of a word. I think using this positional movement really helped my daughter take the time to sound out the words that she was learning. Maybe it will work with your daughter as well.

Good luck.

the LeapFrog Fridge Magnets have really helped my 4y daughter.

http://www.amazon.com/Leapfrog-Fridge-Phonics-Magnetic-Al...

I just had a class discussion about this, general consensus at the work shop from early childhood experts is if children are 6 yro and still struggling, then worry, until then let them be. Added pressure to learn these skills may make it harder on your child. As a teacher, on the other hand, I know first grade teachers get very upset when children don't know their alphabet yet. It sounds like you have plenty of time. Stress and pressure on your child can make learning not enjoyable and ultimately can cause more harm than good. Leave her be, let her play and enjoy learning; so that she enjoys learning for a lifetime

I think it's completely normal. I agree with Megan C. about the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics. My daughter got those for her 2nd birthday and she played with them all the time and I think it really helped her to learn the letters and the sounds they make. That's awesome that your daughter can count, knows shapes and colors and can do a 50 piece puzzle! My daughter is also 4 1/2 and she knows the alphabet really well and can tell you what letter most words start with by listening to the way it sounds. Numbers are a little harder but she's getting them now too. She's able to count to 20 on her own although she doesn't recognize all of the written numbers. She finally just started being able to do a 24-piece puzzle all by herself so your daughter is clearly ahead of her in that area. My point is that all kids develop differently depending on what they're taught and, most importantly, what they're interrested in. One child's weakness may be another one's strength and vice versa. Small children also tend to have tunnel vision when they're learning something new and aren't able to focus on learning more than one new thing at a time.

I also recommend the Leap Frog DVD's. We started our kids off with "The Talking Letter Factory" DVD at 2 and both of them learned the alphabet and the letter sounds from this DVD. I had read to them, sang the alphabet song, wrote the letters, and nothing clicked until the DVD. Your child may be different, and as the other mom's have said, that is something they'll focus on in kindergarten. The other DVD is "The Talking Words Factory." You can find them at Walmart or Target, or you might be able to find them at your local library. Our daughter is 2 and these are 2 of her favorites. Good luck!

For my daughter, reading didn't really click for her until after her sixth birthday. She loved it when I read to her, especially picture books; she started drawing when she was two; and like your daughter, loved doing puzzles and anything that involved pictures and colors. She could draw really well and loved to draw. But she didn't read on her own until she was six. My husband and I realized that she is a visual person, like him.

My son starting learning his alphabet when he was 3, and learned how to read when he was 4--and we didn't push him at all. He just picked up reading much more quickly than she did. At first I was a little concerned that she was behind because he was picking it up so quickly (he is two years younger than her), but then I realized that it is because he is the opposite of my daughter. He learned letters and words more quickly, but he couldn't really draw very well. They both have different strengths and weaknesses, so every child is different. Oh, and now that my daughter is 8, she reads like crazy; so don't worry, it is normal and she'll start reading when she's ready.

I'll second Christine G, (worked like a champ for my son) and add that if you're on Netflix, they have most of the Leapfrog DVDs on streaming video.

Yes, very typical. Is she in preschool at all? If not, you can work with her through a free web site that I used with my trio for nearly 3 years. It's called Letter Of The Week. Go to www.letteroftheweek.com and find the section for your child's age. They have weekly lesson plans set up to help learn letter and their sounds. You can tweak it any way you'd like.

The simplest way I did it was to use a bulletin board, or you can use your fridge or tape on the wall, and every Monday we'd start with a letter. First week we did the letter Aa. You can post up flash cards or print off this letter and tape it to the wall. Every day, for 5-15 minutes, discuss the letter Aa and the sound it makes. Mention Aa words like apple, ant, animal, etc. Then have her color an Aa word picture like an apple or an ant and write the word across the top or bottom, underlining the letter Aa. "a" That week you could take a field trip to a place that matches that letter. We went to an apple orchard. You could go to the grocery store and show her how many different types of apples there are and the different colors. You could go visit animals at a zoo or pet store. You could cut up an apple and discuss the different parts like the stem, skin, core, seeds. Believe me, they pick up on things easily and quickly so this would not be beyond her.

Every day review what you've done so far in the week. You can line up all the pictures she colored and take them down the following Monday when you start a new letter. Many moms have made letter books for their children. You can put a page with an Aa picture that they colored and fill it in every week.

The next week do the letter Bb and it's sound. Color boats, bugs, bears, babies, etc. Go to a local marina to see boats. Go see an old barn. Search for bugs outside and examine them and then let them go. Go to a butterfly farm. Discuss how bees make honey. Always talk about the letter Bb and the sound it makes.

She may not remember everything but it'll be in her head when kindergarten starts and she will remember. A light bulb will go off and it'll start making sense. It's also a fun time for the two of to spend together and it can take as little as 5 minutes a day. But keep the letter of the week posted so she can see it during each day.

After the first month you can gather up flash cards and quiz her on the letters she already learned and review.

The best thing is that it's free. There is also a Yahoo group of theirs you can join for suggestions. You can continue this through out the summer and incorporate the letters into outside activities that you do.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

She sounds like a math girl!
Is she is school, and if so what do her teachers say? Yes, she sounds a little behind, but if her strengths are in other areas, it may be that she needs to practice this a little more.

I think (opinion only) that when kids are really good with one thing, they focus on it and forget about other things. Maybe it is just something you need to focus on with her, flash cards with the letters and make the sounds etc. and with practice it'll click better.

I posted about this to another mom recently. I have the Leapfrog DVD series about learning letters...my kids don't watch much TV, and as I posted before, I'm not typically a fan of learning skills through videos, but these 2 DVDs are seriously amazing. The first one is Leapfrog's Letter Factory. The 2nd one is the Word Factory. They are each only about 35 minutes long, so you aren't parking her in front of the tv for a long time. But they have worked wonders for both of my kids. The movies are animated with the Leapfrog frogs starring in them, and they have a factory where letters learn how to make their own sounds. Each letter has its own room and a theme based on words that start with their letter - it's so entertaining!!

My son is 4 (October bday) and he's reading. He still needs some help on various words, but he can sound out almost any word phonetically. He first saw the Letter Factory at age 2 and I am positive that's how he learned his letters and their sounds so well.

My daughter is almost 2 (june bday)...she's also watched the Letter Factory quite a few times now and the other day she brought the "D" from our bath letters to my husband and said "D" - pretty cool!

We also have Leapfrog's fridge magnets and the kids love those too.