Teaching A Child The Alphabet?

Question

Hello,
I am trying to improve my 6 year old sons knowledge about the alphabet, problem is that he has trouble keeping his concentration and gets distracted easily. Also when he finds anything the least bit difficult he gets frustrated and upset. Can someone please help me?

Answer 1

Try the abc song - it works!

Answer 2

My neices were the very same way. My youngest is four and she know the alphabet but doesn't recognize the letters because she finds interest in something else.

Music is the way to a child's heart. I wrote her a little song, and made big letters on a sheets of posterboard and gather household items that cordinate with each letter i.e. an apple of a crayon.

'A is for apples they grow on trees.'
She'll hold the apple.
'B is for the busy buzzing bees.'
She has a bumblebee antennae band from an old halloween costume.
'C is for my crayons, I used today.'
We'll hold up crayons.
'D is for my dollies, that like to play.'
She'll grab her dollbaby.

I line the items up on the kitchen floor and i stand in front of the items facing her on the other side. As I move on she moves on looking at the letter, possibly a picture, and she picks up the object. After a couple of days she could sing the song and pount out which item started with which letter.

It's a really fun activity and not only does it keep their attention but they see how the alphabet is a big art of what they do.

Answer 3

I bought this thing from Mothercare... it is a fridge magnet game, with all the letters of the alphabet, and when you put one of the letter into the toy, and press.... it comes up with a little song... it also plays the alphabet song.

I have a 5 y/o and a 2 y/o, we bought it for the 2 y/o, and he now knows more letters of the alphabet than his brother.....

The only problem is, that all the letters on this toy are in capitals, and my eldest is only just learning about lower case letters, so gets a bit confused...

Try that toy... its by Leapfrog i think.

My eldest has a bit of a concentration problem.... i bought him a gameboy, and it has really helped him to concentrate more...

Both my boys, now know the alphabet song, and can recognise all the letters of the alphabet....

Good Luck...

Answer 4

First he needs to be aware of the sounds of the alphabet, can he hear them in words ie what does cat start with.

If he can hear the sounds ok then you can start practising with letter cards - choose a nice font (sassoon primary / comic sans) and print out the 'little' (lower case) letters ie a not A. Work with about five cards at time. ask him to show you the *** card, which sound does *** start with.

When he is happy with most of the 5 move onto more.

Play games - make it fun - you join in, let him ask you to find them - Dont spend more than 15 mins max.

Dont teach him the 'capital' letters as in the ABC if he is not confident with his 'little' letters.

When he is confident - you can start matching the two sets together - make a pairs game / bingo - easily done either using computer font or writing on to card.

Then you can start puting them into order using the ABC song.

Sorry - its a bit lengthy but it really gets to me when very young children are taught the capital letters before the little ones. Totally confuses them in Nursery and reception

Answer 5

It depends on what his learning style is. I find the easiest and most kid friendly is a set of DVD's from Leapfrog, The Letter Factory and The Talking Word Factory.

They have taught many kids I know the ABC's, letter recognition and letter sounds. The Word Factory starts on sounding out words.

These DVD's work wonders for most kids, but especially for kids that can recite most of the commercials or shows they watch. Try watching it once a day, my kids wanted to see it 2 and 3 times each day. They don't even know they are learning.

They also have a fridge magnet set, it cost about $20.00. It sings the same song that is on the DVD and helps with recognition and letter sound. I put it on the dishwasher and the girls played with it while I made dinner each night.

Good luck


ADDED
There are also puzzles that have the alphabet, we had one that was a train that you did on the floor. It was really big. The girls liked doing it. Also there is a website www.starfall.com Alot of kids like to do that. My daughter isnt fond of it, but she isnt a computer kid, so that might be why.

Answer 6

I hung a rug that had the alphabet on it next to his bed. We practiced a few letters at a time working up to the whole alphabet. Then we sang the abc's while looking at the rug. I heard him singing it even when I wasn't around. It worked out great.
Take some face paint and paint a letter on his cheek. He is the letter "A" today for instance. Just call him that all day and ask him to tell you what letter he is today. And so on. Get him some sidewalk chalk and let him practice writing the letters on the sidewalk.

Answer 7

Someone already mentioned this but I thought I would impress upon you how amazing it is. The Letter Factory (and corresponding Word Factory) by Leap Frog is awesome! The DVD is fun - highly entertaining and educational and a bit addictive (you might find yourself singing, "The W says wuh wuh wuh wuh"). We got the CD as well which has all the same songs and we play it in the car! They have no choice but to learn - and they love it!

Plus we're always playing games like, how many things can we think of that start with a certain letter.

Answer 8

Fun fun fun. We used to have alphabet hunts I would hide 5 or six letters in a room and once they were found they were matched with some on the kitchen table and the sound said each correct answer was worth a star on a chart and every 20 stars made a moon and every 5 moons made a prize. I did this with letters, spellings, and numbers. Both my children loved the game it was short and rewarding.

Answer 9

My son was like that. He was easily distracted and at 6 years old didn't know all his letters. I started working with him every night for just 5 - 10 minutes, rewarding him with hugs (he loved hugs) for every correct response. Then it hit me, it might not be his fault. He could pick out a letter (say a "B") from 3 given letters, I'd turn the paper over and write a "B" and he could not tell me what the letter was, even though he just picked it out! When he wrote his name, it was mirror image. Beautiful letters but all backwards. I took him to the Speech and Language Dpt at our local college and had him tested. His results indicated that he had severe processing issues as well as dyslexia! We went through 3 solid years, including summers, of speech therapy. There were word lists that we went over and over until he got it. When he learned to read, we would highlight the words he had problems with, write them as a list, and we'd practice those then reread the same book until he could read it all, then we'd get another book and do the same thing over and over. I read to him every night, and when he got older we took turns reading. I continued to read with him through the seventh grade (gradually fading myself). He has to read to himself verbally to understand the material, so I taught him how to whisper the words and just made his teachers aware of the techniques he uses. His hands also got tired when he had to write, so the speech pathologist offerred the suggestion of using these foamy pencil grips. There were other suggestions we took. I am happy to say that now he is in high school, reading his own books and holding his grades at an A/B level in Honors classes! Please make sure your child does not have a learning disability before pushing him into something that, maybe he just can't do. Sometimes kids need extra help.

Answer 10

Try using some alphabet cards then use a reward chart have little goals set for him so for example if he can say/write A TO E give him a star on his chart etc do this until he does all the alphabet then reward him with a little treat at the end.

Answer 11

The little boy I use to nanny for learned the alphabet when he was two. He did this mainly by watching "The Letter Factory" by Leap Frog. It's a fun video and it makes kids want to pay attention and sing along. I enjoyed it myself, even watching it a couple times a day. You can find it pretty cheap at Amazon.com. Here's the website: http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Frog-Letter-Factory/dp/B0000INU6S

Children need something to relate to or hands on fun when it comes to learning. They can't just sit there and be forced to learn, it's just not going to happen. Leap Frog has tons of learning tools that might be good to look into.