Ok- maybe this doesn't exactly belong here, but what the hey.

My son will be 4 in June.  He's reading a writing small words.
Right now, he writes some of his letters upside down, backwards,
whatever.  Is this a sign of dyslexia or is it normal for his age?

What kinds of techniques are there for teaching "sounding out" to
kids this age?  He knows the words because he's asked me to spell
them so many times that he's memorized them.  But he *doesn't*
know what each letter sounds like, or how to sound out words.

Any suggestions?

6 responses total.

Get a copy of Dr. Seuss'es Alphatbet book. It started out:
"Big A, Little A, what begins with A? Aunt Allies Alligator! A! A! A!
(If you think I've nearly memorized that book, you are right....)

Dr. Seuss would be really good, because he was really big on workd
sounds.  It helped me.

There's another great picture-alphabet book for kids by Gyo Fujikawa.
We had this one when our kids were small and it was their favorite.
It has great artwork for each letter of the alphabet.

I made alphabet cards, one at a time, and hung them on the refrigerator.
Then we played a find the sound game...This is A...let's find things that
begin with the letter A!  Sometimes we would have an A lunch, eating all
things that began with the letter A.  It is normal for a 4 year old to
not even have the small motor skills to hold a pencil correctly...so if
your child is holding it and beginning to write, it would be normal for 
him/her to not do the letters correctly.  My grandson is in first grade,
he still gets his j s b d and other letters backwards...
The teachers I know, all believe in memorization of all the "standard"
words like "the, and, if, is, them, he, she, cat, dog, orange, red, 
cow, dog, table, chair, truck, car, shirt, shoe, and etc."  Their 
opinion is that if a child learns these simple words by rote, the blending
of sounds and the ability to sound things out is easier to do when they 
are learning the alphabet.  It also helps to play the labeling game...
take the time to write the word for "chair" and several other items in 
the house...then go around and put them on the items.  Later, when they
become familiar, you take them and mix them up...divide into 2 piles...
one for child, one for you...and race to put them on the proper item...
this can be an extremely fun game, especially if the reward is a 
"tickle-hug" for every word placed correctly.  This was always our
favorite game...works well with the letters of the alphabet too!

This response has been erased.

Letter reversals are *absolutely normal* at age 4, even up to 6 or 7 they
aren't that wierd.  As someone pointed out, we teach wee little one's
that a cup is a cup, upside down and backwards.  Then we teach them that
bdpq, are different just because they are upside down and backwards.  Hmmmm.

I don't like to have kids learn abstract symbols too early; focus on the 
number *concepts*, not the numerals, the letter *sounds* and word meanings,
not the symbols.  Then I go with key-word vocabulary; high-incentive 
words like "Truck" or "ice-cream", environmental words such as McDonalds or
road signs, and family names.  Timothy is 6 and not yet reading independately,
but has all the pre-reading skills in place so that I figure he'll get it
when he's ready.  
Why not drop into "smalls"?  THere may already be an item or this discussion.

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