DD aged 5 is learning to read, but cannot write at all

[Minniethemoocher]

My DD has just turned five and is learning to read, but finds it very hard. She is the only child in her class that cannot write their name, which upsets her.

She has homework once a week, which is to join the dots for a letter, she just cannot do it, hasn't got a clue and it is hard to get her to sit down and attempt it.

She cannot form any letters or numbers.

Neither can she count beyond 3 and the class are currently learning to count to 20.

I have been told to wait until July to see if she needs to be referred for assessment.

Do you think that I should push for an assessment now?

Just don't want her to be unhappy at school and I think that sometimes the other children do tease her....

She's learning to read ?! My dd's 6 and a half and learning to read. I really think she's too little for you to be worrying about her development and in July she'll only be 5 and a bit so what on earth kind of assessment will that be ? "Ah yes, this child is 5 and a bit and ... perfectly normal for her kind of age". If you're concerned about her feeling somehow inadequate in her class (though I can't really believ everyone else in her class is reading and writing fluently and counting to 20), maybe you can stress to her all the wonderful things that she CAN do now, that maybe she couldn't do a year ago or a few months ago. That's why she's at school - to learn. From what I've seen in dd's school there's a MASSIVE range of abilities in reception and Y1. Please don't worry about your little one. Good luck

Hi Trumps, thanks for replying!

She is only in reception class, but her school is very academic, it has a very good Ofsted but seems to work the children really hard to achieve these results.

To give a little more info, her teacher suggested that she may be showing some signs of dyslexia, but to wait a couple of months and see how she progresses.

I'm not really worried, I just want her to be happy and not to feel that she is slower or left behind in the class.

She has a lovely personality ( I would say that!) very kind and loving nature, which is more important to me!

i also think at this age a lot depends on their pre-school education

many children who have been in daycare nurseries can read/write/count/been learning french for years before they even start school so it is not a level playing field.

they all catch up with each other by about age 7 so don't worry yet.

she sounds perfectly normal to me by the way.

If she doesn't want to do join the dots I'd leave it for a couple of weeks - pushing her may just make her even more reluctant. I read somewhere that letter formation is quite tricky because the small bones in the hands don't fuse until the age of seven.

She doesn't sound amazingly out of line to me but I'm not a teacher - would be prepared to bet it will all even itself out though. Agree most of the kids who are ahead at the mo have probably been taught at nursery or have parents who have worked on these things with them.

I must admit that I haven't really worked on reading and writing with DD, she has always much preferred play dough and making cakes!

And I have always taken the view that there is plenty of time to learn, just surprised at what the school expects of them all.

Thanks for the reassurance!

Good for her to be progressing with reading.
It?s true that most children can count beyond 3 by this stage of reception, tho certainly plenty start unable to do so. Why not try to include counting in everyday activities ? count up the stairs, count the apples in the bowl, count the forks at dinner time, count how many steps down the road etc etc.

Writing ? sometimes you need to go back to working with gross motor to lead to fine motor. Try using play dough to model things (anything ? not just letters!), painting with water on the garden fence (mine love that), making patterns in sand, or shaving foam (outside!). Then you can progress on to the more tricky fine motor ? and when you do, give her a special sparkly pen to encourage her, or one with a butterfly on the end or similar.

HTH and don?t stress about it ? there is a massive range of ability and achievement at this age and IME it generally levels out a lot by yr 2.

My kids are too young so I can't really give you 'experienced' advice, but can you work on her fine motor skills? Have her to do for example, small decorations on cakes? or cutting/glittering small bits so that she can develop better coordination with small hand movements? This webpage gives lots of tips and games to improve a child's fine motor skills, which can in turn help with writing. Also, your DD will not feel like she's doing 'work' and it may improve her confidence. members.tripod.com/~imaware/fmotor.html

Have you tried putting your hand over hers while she tries to form letters? Make a game of writing her name for example, she holds the pencil with your hand over hers, and you steer her hand to form each letter. Sometimes "feeling" how to move the pencil gives a better understanding than simply watching someone do it. As an incentive, she can colour it after or decorate with stickers.
Or she can write over what you have written by herself if she likes. You could even attempt her dot to dot homework this way.

I actually tried this with an adult basic education student, using a blackboard and chalk and she was amazed at how it felt. She tended to "draw" her letters before as lots of separate lines, rather than in a flowing movement.

I'm sure one day the penny will drop, and she will think,"so that's how it's done!"

Minnie, have you seen this website; parentsintouch.co.uk?
You have to register with them, but they can send you worksheets from preschool to SATS key stage 3. Might give you an idea of what is expected.

Any chance you could volunteer to help in DD's class and give her a bit of one to one attention with her literacy?