My 17 month old daughter has print awareness (understands writing represents words), but I’d say that’s about it. She randomly guesses at words. She may know some letters, but not all by a long shot.
Please help!
I am hoping to start with some phonics instruction around 19 months because that’s when my 4 year old returns to preschool and I’ll have more time.
Right now, I’m devoting so much of my time to working with my 4 year old, but she’s still consistently getting:
-Little Reader and Little Math, 2 times a day, 6 days a week
-Little Reader Flap Cards, I have a small stack of ones she has correctly guessed once that we do more frequently, otherwise it’s just the binder, 1 time a day, 6 days a week
-Watch mommy count on abacus (her favorite), 1 time a day, 6 days a week
-Watch Meet the Letters, about 3 times a week
-Be read a letter sounds book, 7 days a week
-Be read a 0-10 counting book, 7 days a week
Other things, more sporadically. LeapFrog Letter Factor, YouTube Videos, other letter/number manipulatives we have
I would really really love for her to know letter sounds before August so we can start some word building.
Any suggestions? I feel like everyone else doing this has been more successful.
Relax, your child is doing amazing, and will do even better if the atmosphere is fun and enjoyable. Stress will delay the right brain. I would not say you are not having success, one never knows what is happening inside that brain and she just hasn’t shown you yet. I think there are lots of people on brillkids that have a variety of delays and slower results, so you really shouldn’t think that other people have had more success than you. It isn’t about comparison, it is enjoying your children and giving them opportunities to be exposed to words and math. It sounds like you are giving your children many opportunities, keep doing that perhaps with some more variety and your child will get it. The magic is within your child and she will show you she can read when she is ready. Guessing at words is very common, and remember that Doman style is to show them many (2000+) words, but for them to only learn some of them, not all of them.
Keep up the impressive schedule - I think you are a wonderful parent.
I taught letter sounds to my 3 year old pretty easily by getting a big poster at the dollar store that has the letters on it and a picture associated with it. Each night i’d go through the letters with him, much like you’d teach the alphabet song. I’d point to it, say the sound, and he’d repeat. He learned the sounds by associating it to the picture, for example Gorilla, we’d say GGGGG and make sounds and actions of a gorilla pounding his chest. We wouldn’t do this for all the pictures, but enough of them that it broke it up and made it fun. Then we’d play fun games like, I’d be doing the letter sounds and then stop and so he would have to do the next one, or I’d say, where’s SSSSS and he’d find it. He loved that finding game. Once he had the letter sounds down we jumped into the Flesche cards and they are working VERY well for him. At the beginning when he forgot a sound, i’d do the action we’d made up for that letter like M was rubbing your tummy and then he remembered it was the mmmmmm sound.
Hang in there. You’re doing a great job!!! Whole word recognition didn’t work so well with my son at age 18-24 months, I’m not sure if it was that he couldn’t communicate to me that he understood, or what. We ended up taking a break from reading for about 8 months or so. We started again 4 months ago and teaching phonics has definitely worked with him since he’s older. I can tell he loves knowing the reason why a word says what it does.
I just wanted to give an update. (for reference, she’s 18 months)
She’s reading!
A very, very little, and all phonetically. She knows almost all of her letter sounds (not q, r, j, or n solidly yet, but the rest she has down pat!). And she’s blending words together with those sounds!
She read “big” today randomly from a cover of a book. :). And she points out all of the letter sounds she sees everywhere.
We are still chugging along with Little Reader, though I have not confirmed she definitely knows any words. But I am just happy to SEE progress somewhere. :). I’m sure soon I’ll see her Little Reader progress too. I’ve already seen her vocabulary explode from Little Reader which is fabulous.
One quick, unrelated, silly anecdote: we’ve done EC with her and she is almost completely potty trained for day and night now (just needs help with clothing etc.). Today she signed “big poop” and walked to the bathroom. lol
