Too ask if this is normal for a 4 year old?

[Georgieex]

Hello :)

My daughter is 4 (5 in june) currently attends school and is in reception. I'm worried about her learning..mainly reading and writing ect..

she writes things that 'make sense' too herself but no one eles.. she does struggle with her sounds and putting them together sometimes.

Her school have given them homework books - they have too write words and pictures about the picture the teacher has glued in.. with no help apprently..

Im worrying as shes writing letters that are everywhere, jumbled and no sense too me but I ask her 'what does this say' she'll reply with 'firemen crew' ? Ive attached photos?

The school have set my anxiety off as they told me shes getting extra support as 'shes not where they want her too be at her age' but shes only 4.. are they expecting too much from her or?

If you lived in Scotland (or almost any other country in the west) she wouldn’t be in school yet and so this wouldn’t even be on your radar.

I’m not a teacher, I can’t really say if the school’s expectations are unfair/unrealistic, it just makes me a bit sad that a 4 year old is being given extra support for, and you’re being made to feel anxious about, something that most children globally aren’t expected to do at her age.

Her writing looks entirely normal for that age. I wouldn't worry if I were you.

I volunteer in a reception class and at least half the class write like your daughter. I don’t think there’s any need for you to worry.

Flipping heck, completely normal!

When DD started reception she wouldn't even hold a pen properly. She's now yr 1 and has improved loads but only because she wants to and there isn't too much pressure on her to do it too much.

Here in Switzerland she would be in kindergarten colouring in and cutting out at this age to develop fine motor skills, alongside learning the social skills they need to start school. They don’t learn to read and write until 6.

If she lived in Scandinavia she wouldn’t go to school for another 3 years. By that time their brains are ready for reading, and by Christmas all the new September intake can read.
But that aside, in primary schools they’re are many many “ booster groups” , spend a morning volunteering in her class and you’ll see that groups of kids are almost continually going with a T A to have extra teaching in literacy and. numeracy .

My daughter is also 4 but younger and still in nursery. She does this as well, writes streams of letters that make sense only to her. I think it’s just their way of practising letters and writing, nothing to worry about! She’s just started to work out how to sound out words now and loves writing.

Her writing looks very similar to many in my reception class. She is mark making, showing an interest in writing and seeing herself as a writer. I would be looking at her pencil grip and linking letter formation to the sounds she is learning if she were in my class. That's she appropriate I feel.

Fair to say that OP's isn't showing any signs of, y'know, precociousness, a particular talent for writing or whatever, but at 4 it's just too early to say any more than that. She may well grow up to be average, below average, above average, well above average, any of the above, it's just too early to tell.

That looks almost exactly like my ds's writing, he's in reception too and his teacher says he's pretty much where he should be.

Perfectly normal. My four year old is the same.

My just 5 year old writes quite clearly, in that we can read his words although he often spells them phonetically.

Up until Christmas however, he wrote similar to your daughter, it was like pages of mirror writing. He would tell me it meant x y and z, but all I could see were random letters, with no spaces. He seemed to turn a corner with it January and now, as I said, he writes clearly, and in sentences that a readable, though not particularly tidy etc. His school didn’t express any concern to me about it!

I work with that age range. I have a DC wji has just turned 4 and a DC who has just turned 6. My 6yo’s handwriting is much better, which it should be because if the age difference. My 4yo is far far worse than your DD. He can just about form an A.
The fact your DD can understand what she had written is amazing!! Her writing is actually fine. As long as you see progression over the next few months then I wouldn’t worry at all. There are so many activities to emcourage your DD handwriting progression. All which don’t actually require writing.

I am seething at the marking - ‘Remember full stops’. If they UNDERSTAND full stops, they can use them. No amount of ‘remembering’ is going to help. She is not writing sentences (normal) so is not ready for full stops! Second picture looks like she’s having a go at putting them at the end of each line. Because she’s not ready to understand yet!
Don’t worry. But ask questions of the teacher...

I can’t even blame spell check for that. Can I blame it on my broken screen?

Wow- I'm in Scotland and my wee boy is in p1 (he will be 6 next month) and it's only now he's beginning to read, write and put sounds together etc I can't believe that's expected of a 4 year old! I actually work in a nursery and your DDs work in those pictures looks exactly like the stuff any child her age would produce!

I can make out ‘is a bd’ presumably bird? on the top line of the first one (before I saw the ugly duckling thing in the other corner)

And f I (fire) and nee naw in the second one.

She’s obviously thinking about what she wants to write and getting some of the sounds she knows down!

OP - this is a bit odd to be honest - I have two children at at 4 neither of them could write at all. We start children incredibly young in the Uk - but even so, 4 year olds are not usually exepcted to know what full stops are.

In year one my son learnt finger spacing etc - I still think that was too young.

www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Early_Years_Outcomes.pdf

This shows what EYFS teachers tend to be looking for. I’d say she’d probably be one of my LA writers but certainly well on the way, and showing lots of the right skills! From those examples there it’s a bit tricky now to tell without being there as she wrote it, but are bits which jump out such as simple words like ‘it’ ‘is’ and use of initial sounds (I see f for fire) and maybe even a capital I to give the i_e sound of fire. It’s possible she’s sounding things out a little incorrect e.g coo for crew and therefore spelling it as it matches her spoken sounds. There could also be not quite right letter formation added to the mix.

As a teacher I’d be happy she was writing! Even if it’s nonsense to an adult, exploring letters and play writing is a vital step. She is a summer born which should be taken into consideration.

Oh, and she can tell you what she wanted to write. You’d be surprised at the number of children who, when asked to read their writing to you, have no idea what it’s supposed to say.

Those samples are perfect. She is using a range of letters to convey meaning, she knows what they mean and there are some actual words within her letter strings, which shows awareness of words. There will always be kids who are writing sentences at this point, but at this stage I would not be concerned about her writing level at all.

Dd is also 4 (almost 5) and in reception. They also told her to draw things... eg a circle (she drew a line) a cross (she drew a line) and then a square (she drew something resembling a sheep).... I think it’s just normal

i'm afraid i don't know that many reception children, so can't really comment on the content, but we do get asked to make DD write in pencil, on the odd occasion she has selected a felt pen instead - it can be much harder to read (felt pen) from what I've seen.

I'd say it's perfectly fine! When my middle DS was in reception (summer baby), his writing wasn't anywhere as neat or legible. And as PPs have said I wouldn't have expected it to be, either... at 4, they still need to develop those fine motor skills, and in other countries they wouldn't even be in formal education yet.

Completely normal. Right now it's fabulous that she's showing an interest in writing. Once she gets to school it'll improve rapidly.