4 year old not recognising letters/words

[lyssie29]

Hi my dd is 4 at the end of this month. I realise there are many children this age who can't read etc but I'm showing her a phonics book and I picked a word "baby" then I said to her point to the word "baby" and she did but then when I read it in the story I pointed to the word and said do you know what this word is. She said I don't know. So I told her to point to the word "baby" and she pointed to that word which was correct. I read the sentence and pointed to the same word again and asked her what the word was and again she said I don't know. Is this normal?

Yes. She's too young. And that's not the way most state schools teach reading now in any case (although it is the way we were taught).

Totally agree. She's 3. The best way to prepare her for school is to teach her to wipe her bum and wash her hands, eat with a knife and fork and put her coat and shoes on. Please leave the rest to the teachers, she'll be in school a long time, these days now are for enjoyment and learning about the general world.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do things that will help her development, but these can be things like sharing books (my DD liked the Funnybones books st this age]]. Take her for walks and talk about numbers on doors, types of leaves or colours of cars, or just do things like baking at home helps with things like reading, measuring and co-operation.

There are some good activities for 4 year old here

She won't have a clue what you're trying to do - and she doesn't need to read at this age.

What does she enjoy doing? Do that with her, and if she shows an interest in letters then encourage her. But start with single letter recongition, not a 4-letter word!

For school she needs to be able to put in her coat, take it off, go to the loo herself, wash her hands, get changed into PE kit, and be able to open her lunch bag and eat lunch. Practical skills are far more important!

Ok thanks everyone I'll just read it to her for now. I was reading something the other day and a woman was going on about how she's a nursery teacher for 20 years or something and she didn't know any 3 year olds who didn't know all letters/numbers by sight and basic words in books. Had me thinking I should be trying to teach her more 🙄 I don't know any other kids my daughters age so I wasn't sure what she "should" know at this age.

Ah, but kids will only know these things if they are taught the ! They don't learn them by osmosis. And I only there are loads more important things to teach your Dd now - and school will teach your Dd to read in a different way, anyway.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk/2007/nov/22/earlyyearseducation.schools

This is interesting op. Honestly, don't worry about her 'learning' she's very little still.

Aw bless, she's only little. Ignore the (daft) article, it's wrong! I'm a primary teacher, just read to your DD, count things for fun, talk about words/numbers she sees out and about etc. There's no gain from trying to teach them to read early. Put your finger under the words as you read, this way she'll learn to track left to right, might even want to do it herself/pick up some sight words in her own time.