My kindergartner is struggling

[Kackiof4]

My kindergartner cannot recognize all letters of alphabet and letter sounds. Her teacher said they covered this the first weeks of school and they are done working on the alphabet. They have spelling tests each week and are expected to write sentences with these words each night. We are overwhelmed! Is this how it is in all kindergartens? We need to be building a foundation for her education and they are leaving my girl behind. Any ideas?

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Look at your state standards for Kindergarten.  Is she expected to recognize all letters of the alphabet and letter sounds by the end of the year?  If so, and if she hasn't mastered this yet and they refuse to go over it again in class for everyone, they need to provide some type of help/intervention for your daughter so that they meet the state standard with her.  If the teacher is no help, go to the principal.  If they try to blame it on your daughter, then ask for a 504 and/or special education evaluation to either confirm this or rule it out.  Do you think she might have dyslexic tendencies?  If so, ask for a dyslexia screener.  Some states have laws requiring this if the parent requests one; some do it for all - find out if your state requires this and if so, ask for a copy of her dyslexia screening results.  Your pediatrician might also be able to do a screener.

I would also advise speaking with your state department of education to see if they have any recommendations.  Finally, speak with other parents.  Are other Kindergarteners struggling?  Did they have any experiences with their older children and thus may be able to provide some advice?  Maybe most of the Kindergarteners learned these skills in pre-school?  But even so, the school still has a responsibility to make sure all its students are meeting state standards and if it is taking your daughter longer because she didn't learn these skills in pre-school, they need to help her before she falls too far behind.

[JSD24]

Many curriculum for kindergarten cover the letters & their sound at a pace of 3 letters a week so the whole alphabet gets covered in the first 2 months of school.  This allows students to start decoding/reading (writing too)  by this time of year.  (In comparison, my oldest did a letter a week where it took the whole year to get through every letter.)  Children who didn't attend preschool are also at a huge disadvantage with how things work in K.

The simplest, best dyslexia screener a parent can do is work on rhyming words.  Can you name a word that rhymes with cat?  Bat, flat, sat, mat, fat, splat, gnat, vat - there are so many.  I remember talking to a parent whose child's name was Michael.  He thought there were loads of words that rhyme with his name.  Dyslexia runs in their family and he's being watched very closely.  Nemours also has a screener that parents can do with their child:  https://www.readingbrightstart.org/  Reading nursery rhymes with your child can have a remedial effect.

Also, dyslexia can be diagnosed at age 5.  The issue is a student needs to be 2 years behind before they qualify for an IEP.  Your child isn't 2 years behind and if you work with them to help them have access to school and better self-esteem, it might take years for them to be sufficiently behind to qualify for an IEP where they get the intervention that will help dyslexia.  IMO, the system is broken when it comes to child find and SDI in reading as the school calls it.  (School psychologists aren't allowed to diagnose dyslexia as this is outside of what their practice allows.)  Connecticut Longitudinal Study showed that 20% of students have dyslexia yet 16% of students have IEPs and not all of the 16% are for dyslexia.

Might be simpler to do a homeschool remedial program for dyslexia with your child.  Toe by Toe and Horton Literacy Primer are the 2 I'm aware of.  Many states are implementing reading screeners but screeners aren't as accurate as evals.  Not all schools have special ed teachers who are trained to remediate dyslexia where an IEP is going to catch students up to where they should be.  (Not looking to be all gloom & doom.  We just don't teach reading well but that is changing.  It's going to take time to get this to be a system that really works.)  You'll definitely need to stay on top of this to make sure your child doesn't fall farther behind.