Why Your Preschooler Knows Letters, but Can't Use Them Yet
- Melissa McCall
- Jan 13
- 5 min read
A Simple Game That Reveals Everything...
One of my favorite games to play in a preschool classroom looks deceptively simple.
I stand in front of the group a place a letter card on my forehead. I can’t see it. The children can.
They start making the letter sound and doing the motion that goes with it, and I have to guess what letter it is. When I get it right, we cheer. After a few rounds, we pick a few children to come up and be the teacher too.
We call it the Headbands Letter Game, and it’s one of the six games included with our Alphabet Motion Flashcards. I love this game for one reason: it instantly shows me which preschooler knows letters and sounds, and who may only know the name…or no letter at all.
Some children jump in confidently, making the sound and motion right away. Others freeze. They may know the letter name when you point to it on a chart, but they can’t access it when they need to use it.
And that gap is at the heart of one of the biggest misunderstandings in early literacy.
Letter Recognition vs. Letter-Sound Access
There’s a big difference between recognizing a letter and being able to use it.
Letter recognition is when a child can look at a printed letter and say its name. "This is A.” “That’s B.”
Letter-sound access is when a child can hear or see a letter and immediately retrieve its sound and use it in a word, a game, or a task.
This is what matters when children eventually learn to read. It’s not enough to know that a symbol is called “B.” Children need to be able to think, “That letter represents the /b/ sound.”
In the headbands game, this difference becomes obvious very quickly, when some children can easily name the sound, and others cannot.
Why This Gap Is So Common
Most preschool classrooms are heavy on letter exposure but light on sound play.
Children see letters everywhere: on walls, calendars, books, posters. Teachers do letter hunts on worksheets and Play-Doh letter building, but many don’t get nearly enough opportunities to:
Say letter sounds
Move their bodies with sounds
Hear sounds in words
Practice retrieving sounds quickly
Letter names are valuable. In fact, they are one of the strongest predictors of later reading success, and knowing letter names actually helps children learn letter sounds faster. But names alone don’t build the pathways children need to use letters for real literacy tasks.
Without consistent sound-based play, children end up with a shallow form of letter knowledge. They recognize letters but can’t access them when it counts.
What This Tells Us About Preschool Instruction
This gap isn’t a child problem. It’s an instruction problem.
Most children are taught letters in pieces:
A week on A
Then a week on B
Maybe some coloring
Maybe some tracing
But strong alphabetic knowledge is built when children learn letters as a whole system:
Name
Sound (we also use our whole body motions with our flashcards)
Formation
Find it
Over and over, across many settings and experiences.
When instruction only focuses on names or only isolates one letter per week, children don’t get enough opportunities to connect the dots. They know the labels. They don’t know the tool.
The Good News: This Is Completely Fixable
This gap between knowing letter names and being able to use them is very easy to address. Children don’t need more worksheets or longer lessons. They need letters taught more completely, consistently, and through meaningful and engaging experiences!
There are two simple ways to do that.
1. Teach each letter as a whole
Every time a letter is introduced, children should experience it in its entirety. A strong research-backed letter introduction process includes teaching:
• The letter name
• The letter sound (with body movements)!
• Letter formation
• Finding the letter in meaningful print
When all of these happen together, the brain links the visual symbol, the sound, and the movement. That’s what makes letters stick. You can see what this looks like in action in the example below.
2. Revisit letters through intentional cycles
The second piece is just as important: children need to see and use letters again and again over time instead of only learning one letter per week.
Instead of teaching one letter all week and then moving on, letter cycles bring letters back repeatedly in short, meaningful bursts. This repeated exposure strengthens memory and helps children retrieve both the name and the sound more easily.
That’s the idea behind our Letter Cycle Framework. It simply gives teachers a way to organize letter instruction so it’s spaced, repeated, and developmentally aligned instead of isolated.
Grab our free Letter Cycle Framework by clicking the button below!
One preschool teacher and mother recently reached out to share her success with making the switch, both as a parent and a teacher!
She said, "I’m lucky enough to not only teach in the 3s but have my daughter experience your program in the other 3s class and I am so blown away! In less than 6 weeks she’s not only become more confident in the letters in her name but knows every single letter sound WITH the motion. She demands we “do the letters” every night at bedtime and is smiling so big when she finishes z! Our school has bought in to your program and we are loving it so much and seeing that it truly works." - Katelyn, 3s teacher.
When children get both complete letter instruction and intentional repetition, the gap closes quickly and children begin to thrive…while having FUN!
So if you’re seeing children who “know” their letters but can’t really use them, you’re not alone and you’re not doing anything wrong. You just need a better way to teach and revisit letters. If you want an even deeper understanding, check out our self-paced course, Alphabet Academy.
Are you ready to make an impact on your students! Share a big take-away below!
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We believe that every child deserves a bright future, and this begins with a strong foundation in early literacy skills. At Moving Little Minds, we are dedicated to providing research-based literacy activities in fun and engaging ways! By merging instruction with play, we ensure that children are reaching their full potential and embark on their educational journey well-prepared for the
future! Let's build those KEY emergent literacy skills together.
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