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From:	My4Boys (user-160ub6j.cable.mindspring.com)
Subject:	Re: Please help. 4yr old can't identify letters or numbers
Date:	March 31, 2008 at 4:56 am PST

In Reply to: Please help. 4yr old can't identify letters or numbers posted by mom2ang on August 22, 2007 at 12:12 pm:

Hi,

The last 2 posters are right. Boys in general learn to read later than girls. One of the best things you can do, if you aren't already, is to read to him as much as he will let you. Choose his favorite books, even if you have to read them a million times. By this I found that a child will be able to "read" after awhile, b/c they know the text by heart. It will bring a sense of accomplishment and help him start to identify words. As you read to him point to each word, when he has heard the story a few times, let him fill in words you leave out as you point to the word. Talk about the stories with him, ask questions, let him "read very familiar stories to you as he turns the pages, help where needed. Put up magnetic letters on the fridge for him to play with. Make a word for him to find casually tell him the sounds of each letter. There are many fun game-like ideas. For my 2 youngest sons, I took a heavy duty shower cutain and divided it up into fairly large squares onto which I wrote capital letters (one in each rect.) then I would say a letter or sound and they would jump from letter to letter. It works well if you have an active child. Later you can move onto simple words. make it FUN. Many boys don't like to read or can't read well until around age 9-10. My older boys were like that, now they read a lot. There are also great books with many suggestions; Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye, Word Play by Lori Goodman (written for children with learning differences, but the activities are useful for all children. Something else I do with me boys is a
Word of the Day. I write a word they want to know on an index card and its theirs to keep. They can ask me about it,I ask them things about the word, and I point out sound combinations, etc.. You could start out doing this with just a letter on each card and your son can keep them in a box of his own. You can do the same kinds of things with numbers too. Hope this helps.

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