Dear Christie,
I would like some opinions please. My daughter is 6 years old and has been attending speech therapy for almost a year this winter. She has a phonological disorder where it is hard for her to make sounds from the back of her throat. It is hereditary (from my husbands side of the family) You usually outgrow it. My husband did. Anyway, the real concern I have. The speech therapist gave me the number of a person that works for the school system that I am in. (I homeschool) She was concerned that my daughter is having a difficult time associating the number 3 with the word number three.
When you ask her to write the number 3, she says she does not know how. When she sees the number she can tell you what it is. She thinks I should have her evaluated to see if there are any learning disabilities? I am not sure
what to think. She is very bright and will turn 7 in soon, she is just more complex inclined. Meaning things that are harder for other children come easy to her and things that are easy for other children take more time for her to develop. How would you approach the situation?

Thanks,
B.

Hi B.,
Unless you are seeing significant deficits in her learning (and since she is not even 7 I wouldn't worry too much about deficits, yet) I would just continue to work with her. Remember to teach with lots of review.

There is a need for frequency, intensity and duration for learning to be grasped and stored in long term memory. For frequency you will want to expose her to the information often in a short period of time (10 - 15 minutes). For intensity you will want to make it as fun or exciting as possible. For duration you will want to expose her to the info day after day until it is learned and imbedded into the long term memory.

It is also important to understand the natural learning process. First, a child learns to match exact items "Here is a 3, do you see another 3?" Then, a child learns how to identify when asked by pointing to the correct item "Where is the 3?" Third, a child will learn to tell you what the item is from memory "What is this?" pointing to a 3. Finally, the child gains the ability to create from memory a 3 when asked to draw one (recall). It sounds as though your daughter is in the second or third step of the learning process. I wouldn't consider that behind unless you have been working in this series of teaching the number 3 alone, daily, over an extended period of time (several months). Usually, we work with many numbers at the same time and it takes repetition to learn to recall.

Blessings,
Christie

Dear Christie,
I appreciate it! Out of all the replies thus far. I have felt more comfortable with that one. Everyone else recommends that I go ahead and get her tested just to see. I just do not want her to have a label. I know the effects of self-esteem. My degree is in social work and I have always home schooled. I just have not been as demanding on her, she sometimes cries when people cannot understand her and she has to repeat herself. She gets really frustrated that is why I pushed for the speech therapy. I know she is very smart, she is just more artistic, her loves are music, drama, and dance. I found this great book that has 365 different ideas to reinforce phonics and learning the alphabet. She knows her alphabet but when you ask her to say it for other people, she changes it around to the way that she likes it. She says it sounds better that way. She picks up the writing with no problem. I am not saying that if she has special needs I would not tend to them and learn about them so I could be more effective. Through the classes I have taken, I just do not see it. She loves homeschool, computers and software come at ease with her. So with all of these other strengths that most children do not even have at this age, I would hate to make a bad decision. That is why I sought out advice. My son is in the top 4 to 7 % of the nation and he is working on the 5th grade right now. He learns completely different than her. She will be 7 late in the year. This week we have been working on her numbers 1-4. I posted them up in the house and every time you walk into the room you shout the number. She loves it and has retained that information. I just needed to find a dramatic way to illustrate it and make it fun. She loves it and is learning. Add me to your newsletter and tell me more about your cover school. I have never heard of it before.

Thanks again,
B.