spelling backwards

[yoko]

my ds(4)is a very bright little boy,however,he seems very behind when it comes to letterwork,ie,recognising letters etc,he can spell a few words his name,mummy and daddy,however,he spells them backwrds,also he has no control witha pencil and cannot even write his name.i wouldn't worry except all his friends can and his peers at playschool.at what age did your children start to spell and write?thankyou.

I used to often write letters back to front when I was a pre-school child. My capital 'E's used to have more than one bar across the centre! Also, when I started school, being a left-hander, I used to start writing from the top right hand of the page! I wouldn't worry too much until he starts school. They will no doubt sort it out.

As you can cee, I amm realy goodd at writting now. No harrm dun! Sorry, only joking, not making fun of your problem

I think 4 is incredibly young to expect a child to be able to control a pencil and write correctly. As with everything children do, some are able to achieve these skills at 4, while some take much longer.

When my two older children, now in their 20's were that age, schools discouraged parents/playgroups from teaching writing as the schools felt it was their job and preferred to do it 'properly'. With my youngest child (6) the opposite is true, children are now encouraged to start school at least able to write their name. So, you see, ideas change all the time, and 20 years ago your little one would have been in the vast majority of children!

Mirror writing is very common at this age, I think three out of my four did it at some stage, with my L-handed 15 yr old still doing it occasionally, which confuses her teachers a bit, lol!

I don't think you need worry at all. If your ds has difficulty in holding a pencil, you can buy special three sided ones from Early Learning and also rubber grips to put onto ordinary pencils to make it easier to hold. HTH.

There are plenty of other things you can do with a pencil other than write - and most of them much more interesting at 4! Seriously, he is very young for you to be worrying about this. I'm impressed that he can write anything at all, let alone spell. If you want to encourage his writing for later, let him draw and mess about on paper as much as he wants now - drawing especially. Don't put him off by letting him see that you are worried - there's no need to be

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Yoko - he's very young - don't worry. In our old county they didn't encourage children to write at all until they were 5, preferring to teach them to form letters 'properly' at that stage.

Try and encourage gently to hold a pencil properly, whenever he is drawing or scribbling. This will help his control. Also if you read to him lots, and follow the words with your finger, he will get the idea that words follow left to right across the page.

My youngest is only 3.5 and can write his name - the nursery teacher was surprised as many of the 4 yr-olds can't. But I pointed out that he has got a very easy name to write - short, lots of straight up and down letters, and no curvy ones! If your child is called, say, Samuel, then it's going to be much more of a struggle.