“cowboy” into “cow” and “boy”) and trouble reco gnizing words that rhyme (e.g., cat, bat, hat).
Kindergarten-age children also may have trouble connecting letters with their sounds (e.g., let-
ter b makes the sound /b/) and may be unable  to recognize phonemes (e.g., do not know
which in a set of words [e.g., dog, man, car] starts with the same sound as “cat”).
Specific learning disorder in elementary school–age children typically manifests as
marked difficulty learning letter-sound corres pondence (particularly in English-speaking
children), fluent word decoding, spelling, or ma th facts; reading aloud is slow, inaccurate,
and effortful, and some childr en struggle to understand the magnitude that a spoken or
written number represents. Children in prim ary grades (grades 1–3) may continue to have
problems recognizing and manipulating phon emes, be unable to read common one-sylla-
ble words (such as mat or top), and be un able recognize common irregularly spelled
words (e.g., said, two). They may commit read ing errors that indicate problems in con-
necting sounds and letters (e.g., “big” for “g ot”) and have difficult y sequencing numbers
and letters. Children in grades 1-3 also may have difficulty remembering number facts or
arithmetic procedures for addi ng, subtracting, and so forth, and may complain that read-
ing or arithmetic is hard and avoid doing it. Ch ildren with specific learning disorder in the
middle grades (grades 4–6) may mispronounce or skip parts of long, multisyllable words
(e.g., say “conible” for “convertible,” “aminal” for “animal”) and confuse words that