Reading/Letter Confusion

[weezypops]

My son is going into year two and has always been a good reader - he could read pretty well before starting school and just seemed to pick it up easily. I think a lot of it was because he has a really good memory so would just remember every word he learnt, then once he started school he learnt to 'decode' harder words.

My daughter is starting school in September and doesn't really read yet. On one hand I'm not worried as I know most kids can't read when they start school but it's hard not to notice that she isn't doing what he could. She seems to struggle a bit with remembering the letters, gets b, p and d confused, w and m, f and e etc. and that seems to be her main stumbling block. When she's helped to work out the letters she doesn't know she has no trouble sounding out words, and in fact seems well ahead of where Felix was at this stage - she really seems to get phonics etc. I just don't know how to get her past this letter issue as she really seems to find it hard to remember which is which.

Any advice?

[Tasha38]

Hello, the first hint to keep in mind is that all children are different so try not to worry. If she's having trouble remembering key letters, there's quite a lot you can do physically to support her. Tracing letters in wet sand o shaving foam, creating them out of play dough etc - these kinaesthetic activities are great. You can also play bingo with the key letters and a couple that she's secure with.
I hope this helps,

Natasha

[weezypops]

Thanks, we'll give that a go. I would say she knows about 75% of the letters - she just seems to get stuck on the ones that look a bit like each other!

[Delthomas]

also you can play a game where you choose two of the letters, print off pictures with the words written underneath eg dog, bed, etc and then draw two circles. Label one circle `b` and one `d` and get her to put the correct picture in the correct circle. Do this several times.

[weezypops]

Ooh I think she'd like that - she does enjoy a quiz!