4 yr old can't write his name. Normal or not?

[ShadowLine]

DS1 is only just 4 years old and starts reception in September.

He can recognise his name, sound out the letters in his name, but he can't write his name. He also tends to hold his pencil in his first, and often guides it with both hands when tracing over letters.

I was talking to a friend earlier today, and they said that their DC could write their name without help when they were DS1s age.

Is it normal for a just turned 4 yr old to be able to write their name? I'm a bit worried now that DS1 is behind where he should be.

And thanks everyone for all the reassurance

As a four year old in 1988, I remember my entire class of kindergarteners making fun of me for...being the one person in class who COULD write their name (though I did it in block printed letters, and they had all learned one or two cursive letters, leading to ridicule since I was 'doing it wrong' as I'd come from another preschool). It was considered rare at that time for a five year old with a six-letter name to be able to write it down, so I think your son is fine.

You don't have to expect a Reception child to do ANYTHING, other than follow instructions, cope with toilet, make an attempt at changing for PE, eat most of lunch, share with peers, and not throw sand around.

As a retired TA threads like this make me want to SCREAM!

As a retired Teacher I agree completely with Ferguson - those are the things to focus on.

I completely get what glamorousgrandmother says about bad habits. My DD can do a fair amount for a reception starter (nearly 5), but I can see that she has a lot of bad habits to unlearn and her stubborn "I know how to do it" attitude will make it a battle. Her letter formation is all over the shop, she mixes capitals and lowercase and her pen grip is wrong. She went to an excellent nursery which didn't attempt to teach her to write and they have a great relationship with the school. I didn't teach her it either as I am keen for her to learn at school. But she has picked it up haphazardly herself. I think she would have made an easier pupil if she had started school last year when she couldn't write at all.

My youngest grandson is starting school this time. He has learned to write his name using Nelson type print but they have moved to a new area and this school uses pre-cursive so he will have to start again - it can happen to anybody.

He has real difficulty with managing the top half of his clothes. Pants and trousers are fine, and he's generally been coping fine with using the toilets at nursery independently.

But he can't do buttons yet, and the school uniform is buttoned shirts. He's only just starting to get to grips with putting T-shirts on alone, and even then I have to talk him through it several times before he succeeds.

DD2 starts school in September and will be 5 a month later. She knows the letters in her name, and will trace them over dots, but I have never seen her write without dots to guide her.

DS started school 1 month after his 4th birthday. Even in year 1 his teacher commented that he had no interest in writing. In year 3 we got the same comments. Having just finished year 6, he achieved a level 4 in writing, level 5 in everything else except maths where he got level 6.

Don't worry.

Shadowline - can you teach him to undo just the top couple of buttons and then take the shirt off like a t shirt. This makes it so much easier on PE days.

If that's too difficult, could you afford to have a shirt that he just wears on PE days. Sew up the button holes, sew the buttons on top and then put Velcro in the opening of the shirt so he just has to stick the two sides together. It would buy you some more time to continue working on buttons at home.

DD1 could make a decent attempt at writing her (3 letter) name before starting reception. DD2 (about to start reception) is really completely uninterested in writing, and will just about trace over the letters of her (4 letter) name, if I do a "dot to dot" of the letters. Very wobbily. And often reluctantly. Her friend, same age, can write her 10 letter name with proper recognisable letters, not even tracing over!

Just shows the variation expected at 4yrs.

DS2, who is 5 and a half, still writes very reluctantly and not well! He has recently shown an interest in writing his Christmas list (!) but he still swaps hands and doesn't form letters correctly. However, I can see that he is a bright child, not struggling to keep up with his cohort so I am not very worried. He has improved a lot in Foundation and I am sure he will continue to improve in Year 1. If it had been my DS1, a summer born, I'd have been very worried, but it wouldn't have helped him learn any faster, it might have slowed him down. DS2 isn't alone in his cohort by any means, there is a group of boys who have extra help with handwriting.

He can't manage taking off T-shirts himself yet. We've been trying but no success yet. He gets horribly tangled and frustrated with them.

And the school uniform list explicitly forbids Velcro on the shirts. Otherwise that would be a brilliant idea, Littlefish

shadow PE in Reception is mostly practising getting undressed and dressed again, with about 5 mins of running around in between.

That's true - 25 minutes getting changed, 5 minutes PE, 25 minutes getting dressed again. As long as everyone goes home in their own clothes that counts as success.