Kindergarten Student Not Recognizing Letters and Numbers.

I like Leap Frog's "Letter Factory" too. My 5-year-old was trying to teach his 3-year-old sister to sound out words and I told him she needed to know her letter sounds first. She grabbed my sleeve to get my attention and then proceeded to go through the entire alphabet telling me the sounds each letter makes. (She only missed two.) A week later, she announced she was ready to learn to read. 10 months later, she has gone through both the Kindergarten level and first-grade level of "Hooked on Phonics." Which brings me to my other point -- "Hooked on Phonics" is GREAT for teaching reading skills. The Kindergarten level is as basic as you need it to be -- you can start with teaching your child letters or letter sounds or how to put them together to make words. You can repeat lessons until your child has the concept down and is ready to move on. Good luck!

R., my daughter is having the same problem. She knows all the sounds of the letters, but cannot recognize the letters. Have you gotten any help? I appreciate all the recommendations for read with them, and practice flash cards, I have done all of that, and it isn't helping.
Thanks...

I am sure there are many suggestions, but somethings that I know my daughter's prek does, that we do or that I know that others have done include - focus on one letter at a time, having an adult write the letter and letting the child cover it with tracing paper and writing over top of the letter (you could have her repeat the letter as she copies it), point out letters all around her though not necessarily quizzing her at first, make letters with her out of different items to give them different dimensions and textures (sandpaper, material, wood, pasta, playdough, etc.), use alphabet books and have her trace the letter on the page before reading the page and again before turning the page, create dot-to-dot letters for her to connect the dots, use the LeapFrog (or similar product) magnetic letters and player where the child puts a letter in the open space, correctly oriented and the device identifies the letter and the sound through a song - and I am sure there are others. I am sure the reading specialist and tutor have considered the idea of some form of dyslexia - I new one little on who evidently saw letters in 3-D, and at an angle so it may not just be writing them backward. I personally am a firm believer in trying to keep the activities fun and entertaining so as to keep her engaged and excited about looking at letters and not making her feel that she is failing (not by any means suggesting that you are doing this, you are probably doing all you can to support and encourage her or you wouldn't have posted this question). I am sure there are many other suggestions and I hope you get some good ones. Good luck.

Sounds like something is wrong and she needs to be thoroughly tested. I am so surprised the teacher hasn't said anything. Please don't get yourself frustrated because it is rubbing off on her. Poor little girl. She may have a real issue, this is not something she wants to do.

This suggestion is certainly not the only letter activity besides flashcards that she could be doing, but it's a good one. Get a copy of Leap Frog's "The Letter Factory" dvd. It wouldn't hurt her to watch it once a day. It teaches letter recognition and letter sounds. My just turned two year old had seen it about 25 times over a 6 month period when one day while stopped at a redlight she said, "Mama, D says /d/!" I looked back at her and she was pointing to a big D on a sign. I quizzed her on the other letters and sounds and she knew nearly all the letters of the alphabet. I was amazed at how much she had picked up from that dvd.

Try cutting the letters and numbers out of sandpaper so she can trace them with her finger and glue it onto a bigger sheet with the typical picture of something that starts with that letter.
Worked for my daughter when she was having trouble getting a letter backwards.
Good Luck.

Hopefully, this will help. My childcare provider used Leapfrog's "letter factory" to teach my 4year old all the alpherbets and how they sound. My now 3 year old, who was 2 then can also say & recognize all his numbers, alpherbets & even sound them all. I'm now teaching my now 5 year old how to read by blending the letters to form words & she is doing great. The book i'm using is "teach your child how to read in 100 easy lessons" which was suggested by another mom on this site. So, these are working for me & Hopefully they will work for you too. Good luck, all will be well.