[GoldiTeaches]

...She is progressing with rhyming, beginning sounds, sight words, and even letter SOUNDS, but she has a lot of trouble with the letter NAMES. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I can show her a B, we can work on tracing it, saying the letter, and highlighting it in text. Then practice something else for five minutes and come back to B and she has totally forgotten it.
I have other students that are also way behind on letter naming, but they are also behind across the board. This little girl really tries and her parents are working with her at home too.
Its really frustrating to work with her because she tries so hard! I feel her struggling and I want to help her!!! Any suggestions!

[MaestraM]

The first thought that came to mind is that she needs to be exposed to the letters a lot more.

I also had a kid who had wonderful long-term memory, but he had no short-term memory. He was on a special IEP for that and everything. It took him two years to master kindergarten skills with a lot of repitition.

[mssmith105]

if she has the sounds down, she's in a good place. Honestly, what is more important: knowing that the symbol is called "b" or that she can produce the sound in reading and hopefully writing?

Every year, I seem to have at least 1 or 2 kids that just CAN'T memorize all of those letter names. I just keep pointing out letters throughout the day during other activities. Don't stress too much about it at this point and force her with the same writing and highlighting activities. When you do a shared writing activity say the name of every letter, have the class work on finding target letters in a morning message, etc.

Does she have an alphabet linking chart available? For several of my kids, I have taught them to use it as a tool to figure out letter names. If they are writing and hear the /b/ sound, they look for a picture that starts with /b/, then point and recite the alphabet song with one-to-one matching until they get to the letter. They are then able to tell me that it is a "B." Sometimes, I have to help them find the sound and they work on finding the letter.

They eventually pick it up when they are ready.

[rubyanne]

I have 2 students like that. I realized that they did not know a letter has a name AND a sound. I talked with them about how they have a name, I have a name, their friends have a name, and each letter has a name. Then we talked about a letter name versus a letter sound. I know it sounds simple but they really didn't know this!

I also think it is repetition. I have been using letter fluency sheets and sent home letter flashcards for these students to play memory at home or use as flashcards. This has helped a lot! I have more students that need work on letter sounds. That one is more important for reading. I wouldn't worry too much yet. If this child is not retaining information across the board I would be more worried.

[scitek]

I had a second grade, also a girl that had trouble retaining anything. This made reading very difficult for her, she was reading at level 3, while everyone else was on level 16 or higher . I made time during the school day to provide her with one-to-one tutoring, while the rest of class worked at different stations. I made some booklets for her that included sight words and tested her daily. I timed her on reading passages daily and had her parents do the same every night. It was a lot of work but eventually she was reading close to grade level by March. She did qualify for Special Education, but she managed to pass the 3rd Grade Reading TAKS (state standardized) test without modifications. She is now a fifth grader and I have her for science. She is part of my inclusion group that works with a lot of hands-on activities that are combined with recording written reflections, illustrations, and graphic organizers in notebooks, plus small group interventions using technology. Her scores on the assessments are still below 70, but I believe she will pass the 5th Grade Science TAKS (only modification is small group), because she gives it her all.