Five year old still struggling to recognise numbers.

[Mismae]

Looking for a little advice on how to help our little one with his numbers. His teacher had a quiet word with us yesterday and said she was concerned he might fall behind as the other children are learning 'teens and twenties' but ds still doesn't recognise all the numbers 1-10. It just seems that no matter how often we go over his numbers they don't seem to stay in. For instance last night we concentrated on the number 7. We hunted for it everywhere, played a couple games, he wrote it over and over with his pens, but the as soon as I pointed to it and said so what numbers that? He goes "Ermmm ... 8!?..... 6?....4?".
It's often difficult to get him to work on his numbers, he'll either say "I'm bored" or "I don't want to talk about this".

We feel kinda hopeless and are worried if he falls behind now he'll be behind for all his academic life. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Is he in reception OP?

Yeah, reception. He's only just turned 5.

This is jumping the gun a bit but there is a condition called dyscalculia which is effectively 'number blindness'. It often goes hand in hand with difficulty in sequencing, days of the week, telling the time etc. There are some good resources on the internet to help with a structured approach to teaching sequencing.

Maybe in the first instance have you tried some of the Letts maths books from WHSmith? They have pages of basic number skill games and stickers for each page completed.

It might just be that he is not ready for this yet. I have to say that DS spent all of reception (and most of year 1) writing numbers back to front etc but is fine now. I wouldn't be complacent if you think there is something wrong but a lot of boys just don't care that much at this age. Once they realise other people are doing better than them a lot of them seem to raise their game.

Good luck and try not to worry too much. Just stick with your convictions.

I think it's quite early to worry. One of mine didn't get numbers until more or less the end of reception, fine and on target now in Y2.