Learning Disability? - Mount Laurel,NJ

Have you noticed any issue with langague or speech, or is any other area of congative development a concern? The colors and shapes may be considered an issue at this point, but letters and numbers will not attract the attenion of a school district until he is well into kindergarten and they can verify that he has had appropriate instruction. Generally, a learning disablity cannot be identified until the child does not learn something that is expected, and those for schools anyway, will be in specific areas like reading, writen expression, or math calcualtion. No school will even evaluate a preschooler for a learning disablity. They will evaluate if you suspect a speech or language delay (and this could be a word retreival issue, if he also has trouble with things like identifying objects or other langague oddities that you have never assoicated with this, or an articulation issue.) He could also have a cognative delay, but most schools will only want to evaluate if this is effecting his adaptive behavior (meaning, life skills, like toileting, eating, self care.) They may evaluate if you think it is attention related, which is technically (in a school situation) not considered a learning disablity, though it does effect learning.

If you are just worried, you might check your insurance benefits and see if you have coverage for speech and langague evaluations. Many policies cover evaluations even if therapy is not a covered benefit. The speech therapist will screen for IQ, and can tell you if he has issues with langague that could be causing this. Especially if you are not seeing other developmental things that make you wonder, like nothing socially or behaviorally, then I would see if this kind of evaluation does not give you some answers, or ease your mind.

Once he gets to kindergarten, he will be screened, and if he does not know what he needs to know, you will be contacted about what to do then too, or you should be. I would stay vigilent and make sure that he does not slip through anyones fingers if he continues to have issues.

M.

Martha R. gave you a great answer.
The short answer is it COULD be a learning disability, but it isn't necessarily...kids learn at different rates. Trust your instincts. There are laws about testing/evaluating public school students, and IF you get to a point when you are pretty certain there is a problem, do the research. There are learning disability checklists you can find online, and lots of other info.
Also, Public schools have packets about parent rights, related to the Disabilities Act, I think. The packet won't tell you what the school is required to do, but ask for one anyway. It's a start.
My personal experience: One of my boys (who also had a speech issue) had trouble remembering the names of things. He had cognitive testing at 4 and scored very low. Later, the school's overlooked this and declined to test him further (except speech) saying he would grow out of it and they don't test that young, etc.
Well, he was 8 years old before we finally got him tested again (we had to threaten to sue) and by that time he hated school, because he still didn't know his letters or numbers, etc and couldn't do any of the work at all and felt stupid.
He's actually really smart, and has been doing great since he got into Special Ed. classes. =)
Anyway, don't freak out that he isn't learning as early as his brother. Just keep an eye on him for anything else unusual, and if you think you need to get pushy about testing, do it.

I would have him evaluated by the school district. ABCS and 123s not as much of a concern as shapes and colors. Good luck.

Hi, J.:

Each child learns differently. Some learn by hearing and have good memories; some learn by doing and don't have good memories.

Teaching styles are different as well. Some teach by looking at the whole picture, some teach by looking at the parts that make a whole picture.

Maybe your teaching style and his learning style are not compatiable.

It is not you, it is the style of teaching and learning.
Good luck. D.

It's probably of little interest to him as he sounds like the creative type. I would suggest putting posters in his room of his ABCs, shapes, and colors and go over it every night before bed. You can get them at a school supply store. My 4 yo son also enjoys watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and they discuss shapes, colors, counting, etc. He already knows them, but it helps reinforce what he has learned. Maybe that will be of more interest to him. Hope this helps!

You might want to try a video with music that teaches those things... The music will help him remember.. All kids are different, so try not to compare him to the first. (although I know it's difficult) ;)

I'm sure he'll get them in no time! Good luck!