Help with teaching numbers and letters

My dd will be 4 in late Apr. I was advised to have her evaluated for OT. She is in private speech right now because the district said she doesn't need help based on her scores but daycare pointed out some deficiencies so I'm getting her help for them. Her private OT evaluation was done yesterday and she said she should qualify for the district since she sees things that needs correction. We shall see. She's hyperactive and has issues with pencil grip and such.

Anyway, numerous people have bought it up to be that dd doesn't know her letters and her numbers. She just doesn't seem to care.

She has the craziest memory though so I don't know what the block is for numbers and letters. Example of memory during Easter last year her older cousin told her there was a whale in my aunt's pool. Made up this crazy story. We are in the car last week talking anout swimming and she starts telling me all about the whale in my aunt's pool, she can correctly identify her deceased grandfather who she only met once and tells people he is in the clouds with our cat who we put to sleep months ago. She and dh have a daily bonding half hour where they watch random cartoons. She remembers names of characters from weeks ago.

It drives me crazy she just won't or maybe can't learn letters and numbers. Help me here please. I try to think of fun ways. We have the letters and numbers for the tub, paints, we have the learning bus, we've done worksheets, we read every night but it just doesn't click.

People tell me she will learn but she has a prescreen for preK coming up and I'm worried that her not knowing this will hurt her chances of being accepted.

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

My kids learned it through the iPad. On YouTube kids there are so many song ones-the love kidstv123, hooplakodz, chuchutv. There are a million of them and they make it really fun. Busy Beavers is another one.

Help with teaching numbers and letters

It sounds like the things your daughter remembers are using her episodic memory-- she remembers things that are part of her personal history- doing worksheets and memorizing letter and numbers (facts) require semantic memory--this means she may need a different approach to help her learn- maybe try starting with numbers and letters
That are "important" to her like spelling her name and working with her to recognize the letters- for numbers you can use her Birthday, and those of family members- try to incorporate the teaching into normal daily activities-every child learns at their own pace
So try not to stress this too much--also if there is an activity she really enjoys try to use that activity to do some of the teaching- for example my dd loves music and to teach her to spell her name I made up a little song- she still sings the letters but she can spell her name.

Help with teaching numbers and letters

The leap frog letter factory dvd is really good for learning letters and their sounds.

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

use the app todomath -- you could set it up to suit her needs -- left/right handed, dyslexic font, basic or advanced, etc. the kids love it and they really learn from it!

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

Help with teaching numbers and letters

Dd first learned from doing simple wooden puzzles together. I would also make letters it if play doh and have her name them. Maybe the book chicka chicka boom boom. You could have her draw them in a tray of rainbow sprinkles or colored sand, the leapfrog fridge phonics is fun and now there's a numbers one too. Pinterest has tons of easy ideas, I think you just need to figure out what will draw her interest.

Help with teaching numbers and letters

My kids both learned their letters at 2 using the Endless reader app. It's a fun app. There are a few others too like Endless numbers.

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

My DD is a little older, 5, but I've noticed that with her, if I hang up pictures and posters of things, she learns much more easily.

So she sees the letter B, and a picture of a bee, and she remembers. She has a hard time sitting and basically memorizing, and this approach worked well for us. Worked for learning her phone number too!

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

I was concerned about this with my child too. She could remember everything, but not numbers and letters. Something just "clicked" around September when she was 3-9, and now she can Id, write, and make the sounds of all the letters. FYI, she received ei svc and still gets pt

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

For numbers, I used a wooden puzzle with a number on one side and a number of objects on the other.

We taught sounds, not letters. Like the sound "mmmm" for M instead of "em". That, I started at 3-3.5 with a phonics curriculum (before that, the kids just didn't care... my girl was 3, but the boy was 3.5 before he had the attention span). Both were reading eloquently in time for K.

Pencil grip we did at 5. There are grips they sell that are good, but that's a motor development issue. Both my kids were closer to 5 by the time they got that down.

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters

Re: Help with teaching numbers and letters