This morning I showed my son the word car and he tugged at his ear.
I showed him both cards at the same time and tried to point out that the first part (I didn’t say “letter”) looked a little different from each other. Has anyone else had this problem? Did I correct him in the right way? Any suggestions if he demonstrates confusion again? (He doesn’t always show comprehension of the words he knows - he’s 15months)
Thanks.
Hi Kizudo,
Perhaps you could put aside “car” for sometime and make sure he knows “ear” well. You can add on “car” after sometime, so that he will figure out that it is a different word. Just my 2 cents.
Questers.
I wouldn’t worry too much. When a child is young, and starting to recognize words by their shape, they quickly recognize the shape of the word without looking at every letter. The c and the e look very similar, especially with certain fonts. My son has confused them for a few months now. He has been able to read “ear” for some time, and he always thinks “car” is “ear”. I just correct him by saying something like, “this word is car, it starts with c. Can you say car?” I also point to the “c” and tell him what sound it makes.
cat/eat is another potentially confusingly-similar pair.
This is good to know as we are just starting our program. This must be what those proponents of the “phonics only” approach are talking about when they say the kids are just guessing or memorizing. Do they stop making these type of mistakes when they learn their alphabets?
That’s weird b/c he always gets those right.
They stop making these mistakes when they have had enough exposure to words and letters that they know they are different (whether they have been formally taught the alphabet or not).