HELP!!! My daughter is 3 and barely knows her alphabet.....?

Question

she is actually almost 4 and I have been trying to teach her the alphabet and how to count for like ever, she gets plenty of attention and love and it isn't that we aren't teaching her anything it just seems like she can't grasp it, does anyone know how I can teach her better or maybe a web site that can help me, even an online alphabet game that might hold her attention better than boring old mom?

Answer 1

Perfectly normal. You're pushing. There's plenty of kids in kindergarten who get it for the first time. Relax.

Answer 2

My child turned 4 in march. We are still working on his alphabet. She might not grasp all of it. There are a lot of letters to learn. I'm not sure if you mean singing it or knowing the letters. But here is what I do. We sing the abc song slowly. I also made a board and I have the letter of the week. We review the other letters and the new letter for the week. Same thing with counting. Don't overwhelm her. Then she will get frustrated over it and will take longer to learn. Right now try not to worry about it she is 3.

Answer 3

At this age you should be more concerned with other skills such as socializing well with other children, gross motor skills(running and catching a ball), fine motor skills (cutting in a staight line and holding a crayon correctly), and playing. If you push too hard too soon your child will get burnt out on learning and just tune you out when you bring out the flash cards. I know it may sound wierd but most children at this age don't learn from flashcards or singing the alphabet. If you really feel the need to teach these concepts at such a young age try hands on concepts like foam shapes introduced two per week let the child cover the shapes in shaving cream to get familiar with it and while coloring the letter sing a song like "If this letter is an A clap your hands" just make it up along the way with other tunes.

Answer 4

try the alphabet game when you are out driving around with her. spot an A on a sign and tell her to try to do the same. since she is 3, have her point to the letter when she sees it. give her a big hug and kiss every time she gets one right. if she doesn;t, don't worry too much about it. she will be fine. Have you ever thought of testing her for ADD? maybe she just has a short attention span? if so, you have to make these lessons as fun and as different as possible. always have her learning in a fun and unrepetetive way. good luck

Answer 5

First, chill out! Her inability to learn may be from the stress that if she doesn't get it right her mom will be upset! Do games,songs, and fun stuff and it doesn't have to cost too much,. One way is to cut pics& basic shaped abc's from magazines and glue to construction paper,let her help make them. Ask her which is a girl,dog,a, o, sun, etc. She will love it because she will know most of the pics which will build confidence and make learning the abc's more fun and relaxing. Also to help her reading get a good start make a new paper with pics, words, and the abc's. She will learn that letters put together makes a word, without you trying to explain it, the repetition will do it. She will also be aware of the differences of a word,pic, and a letter.Go over the first paper(you can make several different pages, with multiples of the letters she is having the most trouble with as needed, repetition will conquer those hard ones!) for wks before starting the new one and then use both. After 4-6 wks, make new ones and add numbers. Don't push her. Only work with her about 20-30 min total (including activities from below) at a time because she won't have a long attention spam yet, it will come with age and as you have fun. Read to her before doing the mag. papers and point to the words as you read so she understands the correalation of abc's to reading her fav books.Talk about the books and what happened to help her with comprehension. Before reading a new book, show her the front pic and ask what she thinks it will be about. Read the title, talk about the pics all the way through and then read it to her. She will learn to understand the content better.You can work once in the am and afternoon with the same pages,word,letter, so she will have a better understanding and long term memory of each.She can watch sesame st, baby einstein,pbs kids,etc, or use some of the computer programs for her age at other times.Make sure you play/cook/housechores together and have fun with her most of the time and not just have your time together as strict learning time or she will dread to see it coming and not enjoy school because of these past experiences.You can have color sheets (aboutfamilycrafts.com or pbskid.com) with the particular letter of the day and cut out words or just point to them in her books or a mag. and say the sound with each letter. Let her write1 or 2 letters a day and then repeat those for a week or more before changing.She will be learning to read which is more important than just the sight of the abc's. Learning in this way she will learn the sound of the letter also, which can confuse a child who has just learned the letter because they are not always the same sound,which is more important in reading than just knowing the abc's.Repetition is the key,even if you get bored with the same stuff--keep it up! My best friend is a reading specialist and she taught me this when I was tutoring some of my students who were way below their reading level. It really works and I have used it as a Reading Buddy volunteer and with my grandkids. Skip the work and just read to her if she is ill or having a terrible day but never skip it all-she will have a job one day and needs to learn now to stick with it! Have fun together and remember that reading is FUN!

Answer 6

Don't worry. I teach Kindergarten and had quite a few students come to me without knowing their alphabet (they could sing the song, but with no visual recognition of the grapheme). I would definitely read to her everyday. Let her interest grow naturally. Especially expose her to books on topics which interest her. If you want to teach more explicitly at this stage, I would recommend the use of songs. Leapfrog has alphabet magnets called "Fridge Phonics" which play a little tune about the letter and sound it makes. My favorite though is the Alphafriends series from Houghton-Mifflin. We use this at school, but I am not sure if it is available for public purchase. You can find the songs online, I'm sure though. Good Luck!

Answer 7

Get her the Fridge Phonics Magnetic set by Leap Frog. It sticks to the fridge and has all the letters to the alphabet, you change the letters and push on it. It sings some little songs that are pretty catchy to help them remember. Or just go to the link below and browse the many products they have to help teach the alphabet.

Answer 8

Don't force or push her but don't give up either. Make it fun. Just go around singing the Abc's and counting in the car or at home, and eventally she'll probably join in. I know you'll probably get tired of this but it helped my niece learn hers. My sister in law went around like a crazy person saying her Abc's to her self all day long. Also If you push her on a swing or something say a different number or letter with ever push, and it might help her, We do this with our almost 3 year old and she can say her ABC's now and count to 11. Just keep trying she'll get it.

Answer 9

There are educational videos that may help to keep her attention. Don't stress too much, that will only make it worse for you. You could try interacting with magnet alphabet letters and find any game that will show each letter one by one. It's just a matter of what she's ready for.

Answer 10

Don't worry about it. Your child will be learning these things in kindergarten. You wouldn't learn German before you took a German class right? A lot of parents worry about this. They feel their child should know the curriculum before they enter kindergarten to give them a "one up." These children usually end up bored. Social and emotional readiness are more important than academic readiness.

She should learn a few letter sounds and numbers. You want her to have the basic knowledge that this symbol represents this sound (number). Play "I spy" with her. "I spy something that starts with the letter "mmmmm." You can have a flash card with the symbol for her to recognize. Play some counting games with her. Count how many cars go by, count the dolls, or count out how many forks you will need for dinner. Keep it fun. If she feels you are trying to teach her, she may resist.

These are some basic skills that you daughter should have before starting school: hold a pencil in an orthodox way, recognize her name, write her name (upper case first letter followed by lower case), know 8 basic colors, cut with scissors, dress herself, take care of bathroom needs. Here is a link to some more readiness skills http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?ei=u...

Here's a fun educational site
http://www.enchantedlearning.com

Relax and good luck!

Answer 11

i have a cousin that struggled with similar issues. one important key though is does she talk well? if she has problems speaking too, then you might want to see a doctor. if not, then does your child have any special interest in shows such as elmo or barney? if she does, then let her and even encourage her to watch the shows, and buy some books that enforce learning the alphabet and numbers. i know that sounds like it wouldnt work, but i know plenty of children who it's helped tremendously. it's a lot more fun to learn things when your interested in who and what's teaching you.