Dear Ruth,

My four-and-a-half year old daughter seems to be having trouble with her alphabet. I’m teaching her how to identify the letter "E". She guesses at it, gets it wrong, and cannot seem to remember it. After days of work, she finally learns a letter. Her teacher says that she is the only child in the class that will not do her alphabet in school.

One of her teachers says that if she isolates her she seems to learn better. The other teacher says that she is just not ready yet and that she will mature within the next year. How can I be sure she does not have a learning disability?

V.K

Dear V.K.,

A four-and-a-half year old child deserves time to grow into the alphabet. Take it gradually so that both of you can relax! Instead of drilling one letter at a time, I suggest you play matching games such as 'memory' with three or four letters--but you name the letters for her as you play. When you sense that she is ready, you can ask her to point to the letter you name. When this is easy, you can finally ask her to name the letters herself.

At the same time, you can work on listening and her awareness of the sounds of speech. Play with rhyming words. Clap out syllables together. Teach her to point to each printed word as a sentence is read. Give her a sound that is 'stretchable' such as 's-s-s-s,' 'sh-h-h-h' or 'm-m-m-m', and ask her to listen for words that begin with that sound. (Later you can move on to the briefer sounds, like 'b' or 'k.') Help her to get the idea of blending sounds to make words: "Time to eat! Come to the ta---ble." (Later you can break it into individual sounds: 't-ay-b-ll') These skills are even more important than identifying alphabet letters for now.

Be sure to read the ‘Reading Treehouse Floor: Phonological Awareness’ section at this web site.

Best Wishes,
Ruth Alice Jurey, M.S.
Speech/Language Pathologist