Advice On This DCB?

[daycarediva]

He's 2.5. INCREDIBLY well spoken, has been here a year and change. Speaking full sentences at 2. He says things like "This tyrannosaurus rex looks similar to the dinosaur in this book. Miss ___, what is the name of this dinosaur?"

He is wonderfully well behaved and a dream little man. I just adore him.

I run a play based program, but we do have academic centers. Of the two children his age, both of whom have been enrolled around the same amount of time, he is the farthest 'behind' academically.

He doesn't know colors. It isn't from failure to speak to him, point out the colors, ask him to match colors, find colors, etc. He can identify ONE color with accuracy. The rest? nope, he just guesses.

We continually have colors in our environment. Eg. hearts this month we are doing multiple colors, color word wall, color heart matching (letters, numbers, too)

We also have abc mouse and I assign SO MANY color activities to his lessons.

He also cannot recognize ANY letters, even in his own name (despite seeing his name in print ALL OVER our room, we sing a name song for each child every single day and he cannot sing any of those songs, either)

He cannot rote count to 3. 1, 7, 11, 13... it will be different every time.

I do NOT push academics, he has great social skills, self help skills, he's potty trained, can follow a routine, shares well, SO MANY AWESOME SKILLS... but both Mom and I are increasingly concerned with his lack of 'learning'.

The other 2.5 yos, one knows all letters, rote counts past 10, recognizes some numbers, can write the first letter of her first name. The other knows most letters, can rote count to 20 and can recognize his name in print.

[kidcrazednluvingit]

He sounds a lot like my son. It's such a mystery to me. He is 3 now and very smart, but fails to meet marks in assessments (letter recognition, color recognition, etc.). I have wondered about him being possibly colorblind but being that development varies so much at this stage I have held back on rushing to developmental concerns or learning disability yet. I am waiting to have him evaluated by our local district this spring. Is there a local resource you can refer mom to to have him formally evaluated? A "Help be Grow" or ECFE program maybe?

[daycarediva]

He doesn't come close to qualifying. She asked the pediatrician when he went for a follow up for an ear infection and he basically laughed at her (This was after dcb said "Are you getting your otoscope to check my ear?" ) and told her to tell him the colors of things. We have both been doing this for over a year, duh!

He is starting to get frustrated, "I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE MATCH IS ABCMOUSE!" was said today ::

[Mom2Two]

From what I was taught, I'd take all of them off abc mouse or whatever until they are four. Apparently many ECEs feel that learning that has a right/wrong answer discourages learning from exploration, where it's better for them to feel free to make mistakes as they try new ideas.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a 2.5 yo. Dd was in EI and a sped Pre-K due to being way behind due to her medical history. She didn't start reading CVC words until a year ago. But now she's almost at grade level and loves to read (she'll be seven in a few months).

Numbers are different for her though--she really does have a learning problem there.

Here, when the kiddos are six, they can get a full assessment from the school district with the IQ test etc, which I found really helpful for DD. There are five areas in the IQ test, each with two sub-areas. The five areas are: Verbal comprehension (dd is average for her age), visual/spatial relation (avg again); processing speed (weak); reasoning (weak at the abstract part); and working memory (total disaster--the kid is basically Dory, ).

And another random thought...I was bothered at the end of her 4 yo sped pre-K that my daughter couldn't write her name, and that the teachers hadn't emphasized letter writing. I think I upset her teacher that this bothered me (it's on the common core). When I took a K-readiness class from our CCR&R, which was taught by one of our daycare licensing admins, who also happens to be on the pre-k common core committee for our state, he said that his feelings are that if children can even just recognize their names in print before the enter kindergarten, they are doing just fine.

I know my remarks seem a bit disorganized here, but what I would say is that in my experience (1) it's hard to tell where a child is going to land in their learning abilities at such a young age; (2) cognitive ability is different than academic learning; and (3) worrying about the academics could backfire: cognitive ability will be better helped by open-ended activities rather than color matching.

[daycarediva]

From what I was taught, I'd take all of them off abc mouse or whatever until they are four. Apparently many ECEs feel that learning that has a right/wrong answer discourages learning from exploration, where it's better for them to feel free to make mistakes as they try new ideas.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a 2.5 yo. Dd was in EI and a sped Pre-K due to being way behind due to her medical history. She didn't start reading CVC words until a year ago. But now she's almost at grade level and loves to read (she'll be seven in a few months).

Numbers are different for her though--she really does have a learning problem there.

Here, when the kiddos are six, they can get a full assessment from the school district with the IQ test etc, which I found really helpful for DD. There are five areas in the IQ test, each with two sub-areas. The five areas are: Verbal comprehension (dd is average for her age), visual/spatial relation (avg again); processing speed (weak); reasoning (weak at the abstract part); and working memory (total disaster--the kid is basically Dory, ).

And another random thought...I was bothered at the end of her 4 yo sped pre-K that my daughter couldn't write her name, and that the teachers hadn't emphasized letter writing. I think I upset her teacher that this bothered me (it's on the common core). When I took a K-readiness class from our CCR&R, which was taught by one of our daycare licensing admins, who also happens to be on the pre-k common core committee for our state, he said that his feelings are that if children can even just recognize their names in print before the enter kindergarten, they are doing just fine.

I know my remarks seem a bit disorganized here, but what I would say is that in my experience (1) it's hard to tell where a child is going to land in their learning abilities at such a young age; (2) cognitive ability is different than academic learning; and (3) worrying about the academics could backfire: cognitive ability will be better helped by open-ended activities rather than color matching.

I do not disagree with you.

Abc mouse is something optional for the kids, they 'sign up' and it's ALWAYS dcb's first choice.

Every other center is free exploration, he spend much of his time organizing animals in a zoo of his own design(sorting, comparing and classifying!)

I have just never seen the combination of amazing verbal ability, love of reading, and not progressing in any other area (colors, shapes..)

All of my kids are assigned a color, and even before they know the name of their color, they recognize it as 'their' color. Not dcb, he still drinks out of the wrong cup. We have to put a straw in his so he knows it's his.

Dcm has considered having his eyesight tested. Our school district does NOTHING but a pre entry test (which is VERY comprehensive, and they decided to place in sped with services or reg ed, depending on how they do).

Despite dcb being HIGHLY intelligent, if this continues he won't pass the entry into reg ed.

[Sumshine]

I do not disagree with you.

Abc mouse is something optional for the kids, they 'sign up' and it's ALWAYS dcb's first choice.

Every other center is free exploration, he spend much of his time organizing animals in a zoo of his own design(sorting, comparing and classifying!)

I have just never seen the combination of amazing verbal ability, love of reading, and not progressing in any other area (colors, shapes..)

All of my kids are assigned a color, and even before they know the name of their color, they recognize it as 'their' color. Not dcb, he still drinks out of the wrong cup. We have to put a straw in his so he knows it's his.

Dcm has considered having his eyesight tested. Our school district does NOTHING but a pre entry test (which is VERY comprehensive, and they decided to place in sped with services or reg ed, depending on how they do).

Despite dcb being HIGHLY intelligent, if this continues he won't pass the entry into reg ed.

Hmmm maybe there is something more going on especially if he can't tell it's "his color" and he's drinking out of wrong cups. Maybe he truly is color blind or something? But that doesn't explain his lack of letters, numbers, etc. Maybe he just isn't "into" it and will grow into wanting to learn sooner than later.

I have never seen this combination of skills/lack of skills either. My son has always been ahead on academic type things and knows everything when it comes to the preschool curriculum that I provide. I'm at a loss as to what my next steps for him will be as he knows all his numbers, shapes, understands patterns, can trace letters, shapes, and numbers, and can even identify P is for Pig without being prompted and do some light addition and subtraction! But as far as self help skills like wanting to dress, undress, put shoes on, use the potty... he REFUSES. Drives me nuts! He cries and begs me to just pee in his diaper and says "How about you just do it" if I ask him to get undressed for a bath or put his shoes on to leave!

[Ariana]

My first thought is that he is 2.5 and he will eventually get it. I had this issue with my own girls and by the time they were 3.5 it had corrected itself for colours. My 4 year old still has issues with recognizing letters but my eldest was the same way. She eventually got it. It is just something I don't worry about at all. Both my kids were also talking in full sentences at 2 and both are great players with great imaginations. To be honest I did not do much academics with them because I didn't want them to be bored in school.

I think it is perfectly normal at this age. Maybe the fact that he is talking so well makes the expectation greater for him?

[daycare]

It sounds like he's mastering speech and vocabulary right now. As long as he is working towards mastering something, I wouldn't worry. I have kids just like yours that can carry on a cover station like an adult at age 3.5 but doesn't recognize a number or letter if it hit them on the head.

[Scout]

Could he be color blind?