DD turned 5 last week....she's been struggling to retain the letters...so you ask her "Point to the n" and she might say it and she might not.
she's developed more interest in letters and reading lately according to her teacher but the teacher has impressed the need to get her to know all the sounds by Summer,.
She's bright, articulate and her fine motor skills are good so she can actually write quite well.
I have been lazy...I have read to her but not done any "work" with her apart from crafting and reading....partly because I am busy and work...and partly because I found phonics confusing.
Anyway...I began trying to get her to learn a few more letters on sight...and noticed she couldn't retain them for long...you'd show her the letter and then she'd seem to "Get it" but then forget 5 mins later. Some she knows reliably because they are distinctive such as X or Z or i...also the letters in her own name and some other distinctive ones.
However there are some she didn't seem able to retain.
So I changed tactics last week and likened the letters to things...so a t for instance...I said it looked like a tree...with a couple of branches...t for tree. She's retained that just fine ...I made her a V out of Plasticine and said V for van...then "vroomed" it around the table...she retained that and still remembered it at bedtime.
I did the same for n....I said it looked a bit like a sad mouth....and then pulled a sad face and "cried" in a "Nuh, nuh, nuh" way...she remembered that too and still does a week later.
I did others too... Is it bad to do this though? Should I not in case it confuses her? The phonics method of looking at the ants and doing the movement don't help her recognise the letters at all...she knows ALL the signs...so if you say a letter then she does the movement and says the sound but she;s not relating it to the actual image of the letter...
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Bright, articulate 5 year old struggling with phonics...will my tactic help or hinder?
27 replies
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 18/03/2013 22:07
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