Hello, ladies.

I just got back from getting ds from preschool and I inquired as to how D did this week. She said he does ok. Her main concern is that he can't trace letters or numbers well, or even his name. All the other kids in his class can trace, have good penmanship and can write their own names, even copy stuff off the board. It made it sound like my son was waaaaaay behind.

So my question to you. How many of your preschoolers have good penmanship, can write their own name, and can copy off the board?

And if anyone can, where can I find the "standards" for preschool? I tried the looking at the CA state standards, but they start at kindergarten. I would be so greatly appreciative.

Thank you.

By Kaye on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 04:36 pm:

I think they sure ask a lot of our babies these days.

However that being said...look up fine motor skills for 4 year olds. All of those activites are fine motor, or motor planning related.

It is hard to hear a teacher say anything less than positive about your child, and sometimes they are jsut mean. But sometimes they really do recognize an issue and just don't word it very well.

that being said, my oldest could write her name at age 3 and was definetly ahead of the curve. My middle kid struggled to write in prek, but did manage to get his name on paper. My youngest has always struggled with fine motor skills, still does and he did not write his name in prek.

By Crystal915 on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 04:42 pm:

My kids started writing their names this year, in Kindy. They had traced in pre-school, but they went to a pre-school only 6 hours a week, and it was child-led activities, so it wasn't pushed hard. I would work with him at home, and not worry about it if he doesn't get it. Boys can have slower fine motor skills, it happens! Do they evaluate the kids in his pre-school? My kids had an evaluation after 6 months, and it ranks various skills/abilities as how they compared to the average. There were some things each child had struggled with, and other things they were ahead of the curve.

By Melanie on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 06:32 pm:

My daughter was behind in fine motor skills in preschool. However, she could jump rope, hula hoop, cross the monkey bars, dribble a soccer ball, ride a two-wheeler, etc. Her large motor skills far exceeded those of her peers. That is not uncommon at all for one set of skills to be advanced when the other is lacking. Does this sound at all like your son?

I didn't panic about Peyton's fine motor skills. I gave her opportunities to practice them. I actually enrolled her in an art class, which she just loved, to help her along. She is now in first grade and doing just fine.

By Reds9298 on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 09:24 pm:

Natalie CANNOT write her name or letters at all at this point, and she turned 3 in June. How old is your son? She can actually draw a pretty good person, and 'x' and 'o', but otherwise we haven't worked on it too much because I feel at age 3 that it's not developmentally appropriate. NEXT year in pre-K, I expect more of that practice-wise and we'll practice more at home as this year goes on but it's not a concern for me.

As a former K teacher, MANY children come to K with writing issues and it's to be expected. Keep in mind that EVERYTHING your child does with regard to fine motor is helping to develop those writing skills...lacing, buttons, small blocks, unifix cubes, small pegboards, etc. It's not always about tracing on a paper. Again, I'm not sure the age of your son or the age level of the class (some people call preschool "pre-k" and they are very different here) but if *Natalie's* preschool teacher had them tracing letters on a page she would probably change schools because that's not developmentally appropriate for that age group. Yes, if it's available for a child to practice on if they so choose and the teacher notices how advanced they are with regard to fine motor, great, but not to be "expected".

Check the state standards on your state's website. We currently don't have standards in Indiana yet for 3's-4's I don't THINK. They are su pposed to be coming soon but I haven't checked it in several months.

By Amecmom on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 10:47 pm:

Sounds like they are asking things that are not age appropriate.
Ame

By Tink on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 11:10 pm:

My first thought was that boys often don't develop fine motor skills as early as girls. If you are concerned about it, focus on some fine motor skill activities but I wouldn't worry too much about it. He may just not be as interested in those activities at this age. My ds's fine motor skills have improved greatly in the last year and I attribute his success to his interest in building things with legos. Those are so small that he had to focus on improving his fine motor skills.

By Enchens on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 11:26 pm:

Thank you ladies.

My son is 4, he's never been in school before. We do things at home, but I don't push him. I've learned (the hard way) that he's gonna do things when he's good and ready, so I'm not particularly concerned with the fact that he can't trace without a few squiggles.

My concern is the teacher. This is the second time she's brought this issue up and he's only attended school seven days. (He goes MWF for a half day and he missed this last M because he was sick.)

My son does play with Duplo blocks which are similar to legos. He can hold a crayon and a marker and draw some shapes and a person (as much as a four year old can, lol). We glue small shapes on paper and have him create his own scene, we have a magnadoodle that he sometimes "writes" on. He can make the first letter of his name. He does puzzles (up to 70 pieces), asked for me to buy him Jr. Boggle, loves playdough, likes to help me bake, can ride a bike and a scooter, loves sports. And you should hear his vocabulary. I mean, I can go on and on. He just can't draw a straight line or trace without squiggles.

I guess I just wish the teacher saw all of this and stopped worrying so much. I constantly remind her that he's never been in school before.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 11:33 am:

I agree with your concern about the teacher. It sounds plain and simple like she's not familiar with what is age appropriate, or she's just anal. It sounds like you are doing great activities to develop fine motor without him knowing it, LOL! LOTS of kids have never been in school before at 4, that really shouldn't be an issue IMO. You shouldn't HAVE to reminding her of this because that's fine that he's not writing his name. The majority of my kids came into K not writing their names, or only a small part, and they were 5 and 6.

You can see that pushing him gets you nowhere and he sounds like he's doing just fine.

By Mommmie on Sunday, October 7, 2007 - 09:35 pm:

When my son was 3 I was told the same thing by the teacher. She said I was in trouble when he hit kindergarten. He didn't "take" to any of the pre-reading activities they did like trace or color letters or attempt to copy their names. I was mad at the time, but she turned out to be exactly right. He had a horrible time in kindergarten and I switched his schools after 2 months and it was better (which gave me false hope). Then he had a horrible time in 1st and 2nd grade. Turns out he's dyslexic. He attends a private school for dyslexic kids now and he should have been there at age 3, but it's hard to tell the kids who have issues from others who are just developing later.

By Enchens on Sunday, October 7, 2007 - 09:50 pm:

Well, guess what I discovered in church today? My ds D can write his letters. He was writing random letters in all caps. And he was able to write them with both hands. It just makes me wonder a bit. I guess he just can't trace, or maybe he can't write the lower case letters. I don't know. His letters this morning looked pretty good in all caps. I'm not worried.

By Emily7 on Monday, October 8, 2007 - 12:13 am:

That is how my ds was taught to write his name in preschool was in all capital letters. Is he left or right handed? I wonder if he just doesn't appreciate the way she teaches & won't do it for her.
Can he write the letters well with either hand? Is he right or left handed & maybe she is encouraging him to use the opposite hand?

By Reds9298 on Monday, October 8, 2007 - 09:16 am:

All caps is standard for the first teaching of letters, name writing, etc. We did lower case letters in K and it was the "hard" part of letter learning for the kids.Learning 2 at once is fine for some kids, but not the standard, and really shouldn't be.

You're right not to be worried about your son!!! More worry for the teacher.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Monday, October 8, 2007 - 09:28 am:

Emily could be right, about the forcing/encouraging him to use the wrong hand. My sister is a strong left and she couldn't write or tie her shoes to save her life until we figured out she was left handed. I guess DH had similar issues. He however ended up being ambidextrous. His parents and siblings are all right handed and he was forced to use his right hand in learning how to do things at home, because they mimic the people that teach them but when it came to writing he just couldn't do it. He luckly had a teacher in first that noticed the issue and also suggested he needed glasses (which he turned out to need them badly) and he took off like a rocket after that.

Only suggesting this because there could be further issues than just inability.