Uppercase or lowercase??

Question

When kids are learning to write the abc's and thier name, which do you teach first- uppercase letters or lowercase letters?

Answer 1

Lowercase letters. It's esier for them to learn how to say them aswell. Then You can teach them the uppercase letters and all the rules once they know the lowercase well. :)

Answer 2

When writing their name they should learn to write it properly, with an uppercase for the first letter and the rest lowercase. It is harder for them to write, but when they learn to write it in all uppercase it becomes a habit which it hard to correct later.

Answer 3

Usually both at the same time like Aa  Bb CcDdetc...

Answer 4

As a former Early Childhood Teacher of 13 years, I would say this was one of the biggest issues that we had - parents always taught their child upper case at home, and were excited because their child was "writing". The problem existed once they got to school (and also our job in preschool) because they are taught lower case first.

Year after year we had to educate the parents - if they wanted to work on writing at home, make sure it is lower case.

Think about it - when you are writing - you predominately write in lower case, with the occasional upper case letter thrown in at the start of a sentence, for a name etc.

I think it's great that parents show an interest in their child's education and want to assist them in their learning, but when they teach them upper case first, they are actually making it harder, as the teacher then has to "unlearn" the child and they are back to square 1 having to learn to write all over again.

Answer 5

My daughter learned uppercase but then when she went to Kindergarten she didn't know how to write her name correctly because she didn't know lowercase, so I would say teach them together that is how she is learning.

Answer 6

UPPER CASE.  MORE STRAIGHT LINES.  EASIER FOR LITTLE ONES.

Answer 7

When I went to school they were taught together.

Answer 8

You want to start with lower case for most things.  Most of the reading and writing they will do is in lower case.

With their name, you want to begin to teach them that the first one is upper case.

You do not want to teach them all upper case at first.

Just have their name available and ask them to write it on any art work they do.  They can try to copy it.  You'll begin by getting a few different shapes and/or lines and you'll begin to see how the development of writing starts.  It's a wonderful process to just observe over time.

Matt

Answer 9

Hi there

That is a very interesting question.

I would not focus on learning any particular way.



As a teacher, I always taught upper and lower together, with probably more focus on the lower as that is used the most in our reading and writing.

If you child is very young, I would not worry too much, maybe have a few charts up with both.

I have a simple alphabet chart (free from http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/alpha... up next to my 3 year olds bed.  We often just go over the letters before sleep.  He loves it.

I really think that it is best to try and learn them together.

If your child starts to write letters in a certain way, go with the flow - they will soon learn the difference when it is needed.

Hope that helps..

Cheers

DC

Answer 10

Don't think it matters, as long as they understand why each is different.

Might as well teach them while they're little minds are sponges.

Answer 11

Upper case first.  You would confuse them if you told them they spelled there name wrong by using lower case for the first letter in there name.

Answer 12

Upper

Answer 13

UPPERCASE first

Answer 14

Teach your child to write his/her name with an uppercase letter followed by lower-case letters (e.g. Chris, Julie).

Answer 15

uppercase. ezy to wright

Answer 16

If I remember correctly, I learned them at the same time, and as far as I know (I worked as an aide for a couple years), that's still how it's done, at least in my school district anyway. One row of A, one row of a, etc...

Ultimately, I'm not sure it really matters as long as they get it.

Answer 17

My four year old is being taught upper case only at pre-school, but I'm teaching her both at the same time, because she gets confused! We use hooked on phonics. They have great flashcards.

Answer 18

Lower case letters are top priority.  As many have already said, the lower case letters are the ones your child will need to use most. You can start with teaching your child to write the lower case letter, and just show him/her the upper case that goes with it so they have been exposed to the concept of each letter having two separate looks.  It's a good idea to start with the letters that have a single sound, such as m,b,s,d,f, h, etc.