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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

how to teach 2.10 yr old about Capital and lowercase letters

117 replies

LauraGas · 03/04/2009 14:08

DS is 2.10. The last few weeks he has been almost obsessed with letters and knowing what they are and what word begins with them. He can recognise all letters of the alphabet - in captial letters. When we do drawing he mainly just wants me to write words for him. I'm keen to encourage this but am struggling with trying to explain about capital and lowercase letters. Is there a good way to do this so that he understands that the same letter comes in 2 formats? Not sure if there are any good books that anyone could recommend.

Just as an incidental, he can pick out all the letters of his name when asked - it's Joe. But, he insists that the O comes at the end. Can't get to the bottom of why, but think that it's maybe because that's the last sound of his name? Anyone have an experience of this?

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stealthsquiggle · 03/04/2009 17:57

well, we have an alphabet caterpillar so DS knew the letter names by the song.

We answered his questions with 'it says _ and it's called __'.

We read books to him, and told him what words said if he asked.

We didn't get paranoid about it. By 3.5, with no pushing from us, he had learned letter sounds and names - would write lower case letters except for his name which he started with an upper case letter, and never had any issues with phonics at school, and progressed sometime in Y1 from spelling by letter sound to learning spellings by letter name (his choice).

I see no reason to do any different with DD, TBH.

PinkTulips · 03/04/2009 18:00

that's reassuring stealthsquiggle.... was convinced for a few minutes there i was potentially destroying ds1's ability to ever read a single word

TheProvincialLady · 03/04/2009 18:01

I agree with you Acinonyx. You can't win. And I don't like this attitiude that you are 'allowed' to teach them something "if you must." Lots of people have bright toddlers who want to know things, including letters, numbers, colours etc and what are you supposed to say to them - that it is age restricted information?

My mum taught me to read before I went to school, because I saw a lot of reading going on at home and wanted to do it myself. She didn't know about phonics but it is the method they used at school...I coped just fine. I sometimes think that teachers think they are in charge of a child's education and not the child's parents (my DH is a primary teacher BTW and I know that not all teachers are like this). I feel that DH and I are responsible for our DS in every respect, including their education.

PinkTulips · 03/04/2009 18:02

that's reassuring stealthsquiggle.... was convinced for a few minutes there i was potentially destroying ds1's ability to ever read a single word

PinkTulips · 03/04/2009 18:10

see... i know for a fact that i didn't do phonics because i learned to read very late, after everyone else and went straight into reading words (from flashcards ) and simple books.

a year later i was top of the class in reading and remained there.

JuxaLOTmoreChocolate · 03/04/2009 18:24

Don't panic. I taught dd capitals and by the time she went to nursery at 2y4m she could say the alphabet, pick out any letter and make some simple words. The nursery were great, mentioned that 'normally we start them with lower case' but that was it. DD was using lower case letters very quickly and didn't really seem to have a problem with the transition.

I would leave it to him. If he gets interested in lower case letters, just go with it. He doesn't particularly have to understand the usage conventions at his age. Let him enjoy them.

Oh, and he probably likes the look of Joe with O at the end. He'll grow out of it.

MilaMae · 03/04/2009 18:39

Little ed that simply trying to give advice has offended. I genuinely felt as the mother of bright toddlers myself and with the literacy experience I have I could be of some help.

I will just say one last thing which will probably offend further but I feel it's important for others looking for info on phonics to know.

Try not to put an 'uh' on the end of sounds. When saying m it's mmmm like yummy not muh,ffffff not fuh etc. They will find sounding out/spelling much harder and will have to re-learn the sounds if the sounds are taught incorrectly.

MilaMae · 03/04/2009 18:42

Pinktulips go into the school and ask how they do it they'll be only too glad to help.

The Jolly Phonics handbook in ELC has all the actions to help with the correct pronunciation. There is a DVD I think which may help although I've never watched it myself.

Acinonyx · 03/04/2009 19:05

I know this will not go down well with some but IMO the only reason to worry about phonics is that many schools use that system - some more rigidly than others. I agree it can be confusing, but when in Rome...

MilaMae · 03/04/2009 19:15

So how would you teach reading Acinonyx?

examtaxi · 03/04/2009 19:37

I wouldn't worry too much at this age, but IME the best book we ever had was the letterland ABC, and the accompanying series of small books, one for each letter.

Absolutely beautiful illustrations and characters. We just enjoyed them as story books - I never formally "taught" my children to read - but even so, they did all pick it up very quickly, and I am sure the letterland books helped.

examtaxi · 03/04/2009 19:41

The thing is, though, if you have a child who is really keen, you can't stop them.

Ds was reading at 4, and would have been very upset if he had not been allowed to do so. He had no trouble sorting out capitals and lower case letters once it was explained to him.

wickerman · 03/04/2009 19:43

haven't read whole thread but 2.10 seems AWFLLY young to be worrying about this. Can't he just enjoy letters, and stories, and stuff? (hippyish emoticon)

smallorange · 03/04/2009 19:43

I was just wondering whether you could go through a picture book and get him to tell you the story. DD2 2.4 loves doing this and will now sit alone 'reading', by looking at the pictures and reciting the story from memory.

If she asks what a word or letter is I tell her, if she disagrees, I just let it go.

Also could he start making up his own stories? Dd2 also loves doing this and finds it quite stimulating. All the hard work learning to read can come later IMHO.

By the way, I didn't know the thing about capitals. When DD1 (4.5) writes her name I always encourage her to start it with a capital letter - is this wrong?

MilaMae · 03/04/2009 20:07

Smallorange a capital on a name is fine.

The problem I've had is when parents have taught their dc to write the entire alphabet in higher case or both. When they've been trying to write they've then then just mixed upper and lower throughout. I've even had y2 children still writing a mixture of both upper and lower.

Like you I only taught (or rather pre-school did)my dtwin's names with an upper case. As others have said it was never a problem with my lot,they asked once I explained,it never cropped up again.

TheProvincialLady · 03/04/2009 20:31

Sorry Milamae, I didn't mean to seem narky with you. I thought what you sad was very sensible..it's just a personal bugbear of mine. Will now dismount my high horse.

hotcrosspurepurple · 03/04/2009 20:46

MilaMae
At last, someone who speaks sense!!

MmeLindt · 03/04/2009 20:57

My DD went through a phase of wanting to read at about 3yo. It has come and gone since then but we did not push it as we lived in Germany and they don't go to school until they are 6yo there. German children learn capital letters first, then small case, then joined up writing..

We moved to Switzerland and she started school here last Autumn. I am unsure of how things are done in Britain, at what age they introduce capitals, but DD is learning both capital and small case, and doing joined up writing too.

She is coping very well with it and does not mix up the big and little letters.

I bought the Jolly Phonics books, but tbh never used them. We answered questions as they cropped up but did not push her.

angrypixie · 03/04/2009 21:03

I taught my dc the letter name & sound before school because they were ready (I am also a primary literacy consultant).

We used the animal analogy;
My name is pig I say 'oink'

My name is b (bee) I say buh.

They were happy with that. I steered clear of upper case and taught them only lower case. I decided that relearning that your name begins with a capital was easier than relearning all the other letters.

I was also anal about choosing toys that pronounced the sounds correctly, gave correct representation of the sound (eg no ice creams to illustrate 'i') and showed lower case letters.

But I am sad

francagoestohollywood · 03/04/2009 21:15

In Italy primary school starts at six yr of age and capital letters, small case and joined up writing are taught at the same time.
Most of the children get to primary knowing capital letters, as they do them at nursery school.

My children never expressed any curiosity for letters at such a young age. I'm MN black sheep.

Acinonyx · 03/04/2009 22:46

I think a mixture of phonics and whole words is a sensible approach, personally. Ideally, different children probably do better with different systems but of course that is unrealistic in a class setting.

The problem with what they learn first is only whether it clashes with how it is taught in school - it's not a universal problem of itself. If parents are not to actively teach preschoolers then inevitably they will learn as they like and by whatever system suits them - whether that tallies with school or not.

Our whole factory style education system just crushes any sense of individual children learning at their own pace and following their own natural interests. It's totally sad. I couldn't homeschool though - I'd go bonkers.

PinkTulips · 04/04/2009 11:44

acinonyx.... i know what you mean, much as i love the concept of teaching my kids my way and at their pace i don't think i have the personality for homeschooling. not to mention if we ever want to own our own home i simply have to go back to work in the next year or so so financially it's not an option either.

christywhisty · 04/04/2009 12:22

It takes a native italian child 6 months to learn to read and write, to takes an english child 18 months to get to the same position because of the complexities of the language.

Word recognition does work for some children but for a significant number it doesn't especially dyslexics.
My husbands school life was ruined because they refused to teach him any other way than Look and Say back in the 60's

Acinonyx · 04/04/2009 12:30

It's the complexity of English that makes phonics so confusing compared to a language like Italian which has very sensible and regular spellings. It does seem that different children have different learning styles and it's a shame that this cannot be realistically catered for in a large class setting.

PinkTulips - I would be so grumpy and fed up homeschooling I think it would be worse than the worst school experience! I just have waves of panic about school starting then I get a grip and think about it as an extended social club and try not to dwell on other aspects.

MrsWeasley · 04/04/2009 12:36

I would just use the language correctly and he will pick it up. When he wants you to write something down try to include some lower case j's (jar of jam etc) but when he writes his name include the Special J . Dont worry too much as he gets older he will understand.

When my DC's were learning to read we used to lable things around the house, this may help him to see the letters in use!

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