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My son will be 6 end of next month. He is generally doing good with regards to his development. He has started reading and loves math.

There are a couple of things I've noticed he has difficulty with-

  • I asked him for 3 words that rhyme with the word "car" (and many more similar questions, like rhyming words for "frog" etc.) . He takes a very long time to come up with appropriate words and sometimes gives up.. Given his clear and fluent speech and his developing reading skills + his reasonable vocabulary, I would've thought this was very easy for him. Is this normal for a kid his age?

  • I asked him "What letter looks like the number 5" expecting "S" and he had to hard time answering this. I made it simpler and simpler like "0" and "1" expecting "O" and "I/l" etc. but it took a lot of effort to get him to understand the concept. And he finally answered "6" with "b". Are kids this age expected to make such visual associations?

Thank you very much!

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  • Does your son have a clear understanding of what rhyming means? For the number/letter similarities, did he get to see all the letters at the time to choose from, or was he supposed to pick a letter from memory? Without knowing this information, it will be hard to give an accurate answer. Personally, going on only what you've provided so for, I believe you may be associating issues that are not connected, except that the questions asked may not have had sufficient structure behind them for success. – user11394 Jul 26 '15 at 6:49
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    Thanks @CreationEdge! Your first question made me actually wonder if I haven't given him enough "data" to understand rhyming. For the next bit, he did not have the letters/numbers in front of him at the point I asked the question. Later I explained it on a piece of paper and then when I asked him what does '6' look like he said 'b'-- so I guess he got it later on. I was just worried because it seemed too trivial to me even at the beginning, but I guess I was expecting too much from a 5 something year old... – Sumi Jul 31 '15 at 21:31
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He may have good language skills and very smart, but you have to remember that he is still 5, or maybe 6 now. He may not yet have the capability to think outside the box like that. Though I do commend you for challenging him like this and I encourage you to keep doing it.

It's great exercise from his mind and will help him in the future.

And yes this is completely normal with kids of that age.

(keep up the good work with him :D)

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  • Hi, Alice, and welcome to the site. Citing a reference to support your position would make this a better answer (this is a Q&A site). Otherwise this can be seen as just your opinion, and we try to give answers with some kind of authoritative reference here. (The OP did ask, "Is this normal for a kid his age?") Please have a look at the site tour and visit the help center for guidance on how to use this site. Again, welcome! – anongoodnurse Jul 25 '15 at 2:48
  • My experience has been similar to Alice's. Your two questions involve abstract thinking, which is not very well developed in most 6yos. – aparente001 Jul 25 '15 at 5:46
  • Anongoodnurse - I understand what you're saying about citing a reference, but for all the questions I've answered so far it's based on my personal experience with children. Though if I do find that my answers seem to be lacking I will try to find some support for them to make them better. I'm sorry if my answer isn't what this site is looking for, I'll try harder with it. – Alice Jul 25 '15 at 17:03
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    @Alice A lot of very good answers can be composed from personal experience. Something about typical child developmental milestones, though, would be helped by authoritative sources :) Keep contributing! – Acire Jul 26 '15 at 19:10

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