3 1/2 yr old can't recognize letters or numbers

[Crayola kiddies]

Is it unusual that a 3 1/2 yr old (girl) cannot recognize any letters except for the letter her name begins with or any numbers? She knows her shapes and colors and can recite the alphabet. My own son is not quite 2 1/2 and he can recognize every letter upper and lower case and he tells me "big m little m". He can recognize the numbers up to 10 and he can verbally count to 18 .... I have 5 kids and they were all able to do this by the time they were 2 1/2..... This is the second 3 1/2 yr old child that has been at my daycare and neither one could identify a letter .... When we do circle time and we do the alphabet and numbers she just sits there content to let the others do all the work. Even if I tell her the letter and then ask her again in one minute she can't remember. She also doesn't seem to understand concepts like before/ after , what comes first/ second/third. I'm just wondering if I'm expecting too much. I know there are other threads regarding kindergarten readiness and I have my own in jk currently. As much as I don't feel it's my "job" to teach her It bothers me that she doesnt know any of this because the younger ones do and I wouldn't want her to be discouraged. Her mother is enrolling her in jk at the end of this month. Any thoughts?

[mom-in-alberta]

I wouldn't worry about it. Kids progress at different paces. Maybe there isn't a lot of emphasis on learning the concepts at home, so she only gets it from you. She is still pretty young, with plenty of time before "school" starts.

[Skysue]

I wouldn't worry about it. Kids progress at different paces. Maybe there isn't a lot of emphasis on learning the concepts at home, so she only gets it from you. She is still pretty young, with plenty of time before "school" starts.

Where do her strengths lie? I'm sure she is more advanced in other areas. Is it really important for her to know her letters anyway? Why are we so focused on raising kids to know everything now? Kids need to be kids whatever happened to playing.

Now we need to teach kids how to play as they are too busy doing math and English! LOL

Seriously though she will catch up. Not all parents even know how to teach their kids.

Suggest a video to her parents “Meet the letters” 20 minutes a day for 3 weeks and she will know all her upper and lower case letters.

Did she come from another daycare or from home?

[sunnydays]

I think your kids are advanced if they knew all their letters at 2 1/2! My 3 1/2 year old doesn't know all of them...maybe about half...but I haven't worked on it extensively with him. They will learn it soon enough once they start school.

[dodge__driver11]

My little guy who is 3 does letters, but not big or little, and he also cant put them in order yet...He is very good at reconizing words...Word World (if you are looking for something different to teach) is a good cartoon for word and letter recognition--I would not worry, as I have a girl the same age who doesnt recognize her name or letters yet.....

[gcj]

I wouldn't worry. I'd work on it in a fun way to help her out, but no pressure...it'll come.

[Crayola kiddies]

Skysue she came from another daycare .... She is an only child .....I'm not overly focused on it I was just making an observation..... I have 5 kids of my own so I know they all progress differently.... I don't spend a lot of time on it mostly when we are looking at books ..... I have the leap frog alphabet magnets on my fridge and that is how my son learned his letters and numbers at 2 yrs old by himself ... And of course we count when we go up/down stairs. I really had no idea he could count until about 2 months ago at the dinner table he counted his pencil crayons .... I was totally floored .... Now we count all the time ..... But I was just wondering !

[Crayola kiddies]

Oh I forgot to answer your question skysue I wasn't sure if it is important that she know her letters for jk .... I wasn't sure what the norm was I just know what my kids know.

[gcj]

My son learned his letter early too by watching Wheel of Fortune while drinking his milk

[Momof4]

Every child is different but just keep repeating all the letters and numbers, shapes and colours, all the basics and they are learning. They just won't let you know on demand sometimes. Repetition is the key. I had a little boy who wouldn't sit still for circle time for me but he just started JK and he knows all of it, but he would not let me know he knew it, little poop!