Preschoolers Reading Level

Is anyone else in the same situation as me? My twins still has another year left for preschool for next year because of their age cut off. My son was IN for EI because he was not talking/speech issue. When he aged out at 3, we took him for screening test to get in a special program. Unfortunately he did not make it but the school says his reading level was in advanced. We just kind of took it.....oh okay. They are both currently in preschool right now. We had our teacher/conference meeting with their preschool. The teacher says his reading level is very advanced and he can read just about anything out of a book. He does knows all of his shapes, and numbers up to 100. I plan to get him into another screening test when he is in 1st or 2nd grade depending on the school district and to see if he continues to excel.

The other BIG problem we have is now is his social aspect is not so great but he does play parallel with other classmates. He also continues to have problem with 'communicating effort'. We just can't tell yet whether if is his personality (the quiet one) or just waiting for him to outgrow and start talking nonstop like his twin sister. They both just turned 4 recently, my twin daughter is typical normal preschoolers can't fully read and other areas like her brother does.

Any advice for me?

 

A couple of quesetions and things to think about.

Are they in the same class? If so, have you considered splitting?

In terms of the advanced reading and behind on social skills, our Ped always says that they tend to grown leaps and bounds in one area to the deteriment of another. Typically, it evens out over time. I would foster the reading, but work on social. The kids I have seen that end up in higher grade reading classes often have trouble due to lack of maturity, which can have a negative effect on the overall experience. Do you do 1-on-1 playdates with kids in his class? This helped my child with situational anxiety tremendously.

Best of luck!~

 

Yes, they are in the same class and plan to split them up next year. They both have different personality and starting to want to have their own friends as well. Yes, I read that social/maturity is a lack for my son right now. The teacher says she will work with him on his social skills.

Also, I failed to tell you that I do watch another set of twins' boys 2 days a week. They are 6 months older and talk really well like my daughter does. Justin tends to mumble here and there at times. So, his sister play with them better. We have been invited to many birthday parties this year and noticed he tends to play with the older kids (follows around) with them.

For their birthday we brought the new Leapfrog Explorer and we decided to see what are the area they are good at....to our amazed Justin excels just about every thing and showing his skills at 3rd grade level.

My husband and I do a lot of one to one with him when we play and then we do a lot of family game of 4 as they are both into board games as well. So, we are doing everything we can with gaining his social. We plan to sign them up for soccer and t-ball for next Spring. He was in t-ball over the summer and did improved the 'listening' issue but his attention is short span at times.

I am hoping with the continue of school and with Spring activities will improved his social aspect. Thanks for the replied!

 

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. You are aware of each of your kids' strong points and their weaknesses and you're doing what you can with that.

My daughter reads well above grade level. She's in first grade and is reading full version of the "Little House on the Prairie" series right now. She's almost through the 4th one of them. But she's not as good at the social thing either. She's also picked up that she's advanced in that and hesitates at school because of it. She won't go get higher level books at the school library because she doesn't want to be too different from her class. She does have trouble making friends, but it seems to be getting better. Her teacher is aware of things, and we just do what we can. Her teacher might suggest a way for her to play with someone else standing by themselves at recess and I keep tabs on what she's really reading and share that with her teacher.

When she was little, we role-played how to make friends. Even just the idea of walking up to someone and saying "hi, can I play with you?". That was a struggle for her. We'd act out how that conversation might go. Then, at the park, she'd show me someone she thought she would like to play with and we'd go over what to say and what they might say. Then, she'd go try by herself with that person.

We also still work with Sarah on talking where people can understand her. Around people she's comfortable with, she's great. Around anyone else, she mumbles and looks at her feet. We worked on "talk to their nose, not their toes." We'll still say "nose, not toes" as a reminder when we catch her mumbling at the floor. It helps.

Hope some of this helps.

Marissa

 

Marissa,

That is fantastic for your girl to be super smart! It breaks my heart when I see a child standing alone, I know Justin tends to go off on his own but doesn't really play with others. Rianna would say, Come and follow me (with her other friends, she such a approacher person). Justin tends to watch and see what 'they' are going to do and then tries to join if the other boys start running around. One day, I caught a boy at the playground telling Justin we don't want to play with you. I, then told the boy that everyone who come to the playground get to play with everyone else. I said how would you feel if someone told you that I don't want to play with YOU? I told him to go play nicely with all of the kids. So, with that he did, thankfully!

Anyhow, I think we need to improve our communication issue like you said, teach Justin how to say Hi, Can I play with you? I know in our household we tell them It is my turn to play with the toys, please give it back to me, please do not push me, and etc. along in those manner.

Thanks for your insight!

 

We did this too. We had to role play A LOT for one of my DDs. She still parallel played at early 4 and did not know how to initiate play with other kid. She has some mild sensory issues as well and was on an IEP from age 3- 5. We also wrote social books that she could read as well ( titled-- M goes to school. M goes to bed.) simple format books with her featured and then told out what to do. Her academic skills were really advanced...her social and gross motor skills delayed. It was an unusual mix, but with good PreK teachers--she thrived and made so MUCH social growth from age 4-5.

Both my DDs were reading before age 4 (they are almost exactly a year older than your two). We did nothing to encourage and/or discourage it. One DD did not realize that her friends could not read (same DD mentioned above with social problems), but socially she was not aware of much! Other DD did realize and simply adapted herself to the classroom---she read to the teacher in her own reading group and read at home, but also joined in with the preschool activities.

Same here---- my two are in Preschool this year (again). They are both reading and writing (though could careless about math)- we let them learn at their own pace and dont do anything special at this point (or then). We let them lead us, since I figure in the next K-12 years they will have so much of their education dictated for them---it is nice that they can explore whatever they want now (currently it is dinosaurs, Lion King, and writing 'cook books'). They enjoy and need the social aspect of school right now (red shirting is common here too) and fit right in. If we had stayed in our former state they would be in K right now, where they would have fit in as well since the late cut off date lead to a lot of young 5s in K. Here - not so much.

Next year will be interesting (K)......

 

My jessy is a math wiz but nit really at a determent to anything else. I wanted to add that just because they can read above reading level does not mean they should as some books have issues they aren't prepared for.

 

Jon was in special ed preschool for speech at 3 1/2, dismissed before K, because he was compensating so well. I did have them test him when they dismissed him, and he topped out both the math and reading, and he wasn't even 5 yet. That said, he was obviously reading high at a young age. In K, his teacher had him come in early once a week so she could instruct him on his grade level, since no one else in the class was even close. Marcus went to K not even reading. Now, in third grade, Marcus reads on a solid 5th grade level, and Jon at 4th (although I think his scores are depressed due to the speech delay, and the test they used requires all answers to be verbal), but for all intents and purposes, he isn't going to be instructed at a much higher level anyway due to content issues of the higher level reading books, so I don't push it.


My point is that since the academic stuff is so easy for him, it allows the teacher to concentrate on the social, which is what we did with Jon, and he is still a work in progress!

I do agree that splitting helps! It was great for my boys when Marc was way behind his brother, now they wouldn't have as much of a problem being together as they would have in the earlier grades.

 

Thank you for sharing your story. We are a deaf parents to our hearing twins. I am still struggling with Justin at home because I had HOPE he would improve his conversation as back and forth like his sister, like the kids I watch on a weekly basis, and just hoping he would come around. I just can't understand why if he read so well and not being able to talk it out loud. I meant, I want both of it but more than anything I would love him to just make some little conversation without having to ask him. He rarely ask for anything and almost like I have to say, Justin, look at me and answer my question, What do you want to do today? Rianna on the other hand would just come up and say I want to go to the playground or play with my friend, Bella. With him, it is zero and a lot of mumbles from time to time.

 

Has anyone looked into Hyperlexia at all? LINK IS HERE
or
I know that is one thing they looked at for DD1 since she had such trouble socially and was reading really early, but her communication skills were too well developed (although she did have trouble w/ Wh questions and eye contact). She still does MUCH better with written language than verbal instruction, we often write her lists of things to do or 'routine/rules'.

Or expressive language disorder? LINK HERE

 

KC,

Thanks for the link. The school district finally called to bring Justin in for his screening test next week 11/19th. I am betting he won't qualify because he excels every thing else. And probably going to tell me that he'll start engaging with conversation at his own pace. If he doesn't we will just have to wait until he come out of his shell and start talking about anything with us. That the only problem I have right now but he come along with some leaps & bounds at times.

I'll keep you post if there anything else to share with...