getting lowercase b's and d's confused

[Celia]

My son does this constantly. Any tricks to help him get it straight? Thanks!

[Suzanne in ABQ]

My son does this constantly. Any tricks to help him get it straight? Thanks!

 

 

Make him a flash card with a picture of a bed, made out of the word "bed". In other words, the "b" is the head board, and the "d" is the foot board. You can put a small pillow on the "b" if that wouldn't be too confusing.

 

Explain the card to him, and remind him of the sounds in the word "bed" (/b/ - /eh/ - /d/) Have him practice it a few times until he really hears and understands the difference in the first sound and the last (b-b-b-eh-d-d-d, etc.)

 

Use that card as a bookmark in his phonics book, or just keep it handy whenever he is reading. He can hold it and refer to it as often as he needs to, until he doesn't need it anymore.

[DaffodilDreams]

It might be the age. My dd does this, too, but she's nearly 7 now and she is beginning to stop and ask which direction is which now. She previously didn't even realize she was reversing them, so at least this is a step in the right direction. She learned to write before she learned to read. Now that she's much better at reading, she seems to pay more attention to the letter reversal thing.

[ElizabethB]

Use all uppercase for a while, B/D is easier than b/d and B/b are similar.

 

Here are some other ideas:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dbdb.html

[Noble_Grace]

Our trick which my 8 yo dd has used since she was 5 is to hold up both hands in a thumbs up position, with the knuckles touching, and we imagine it is a bed with the head and foot board. The left hand is the "b", the right hand is the "d", and the "e" is invisible in between.

The nice thing is that this manipulative is always with them.:)

[Hannah]

Make him a flash card with a picture of a bed, made out of the word "bed".

 

This worked for us. I also showed dd to to touch the index finger on each hand to the thumb (making a cicle) while holding the other fingers up, and then touching the thumbs together to make a ‘bed’ - but without the ‘e’. I hope this description makes sense - much easier to show than describe! That way she did not always need the card when trying to remember.

 

ETA: Noble_grace's description is much better!

[KatieJ]

My youngest son is left handed and I always figured that had something to do with his letter confusion.

He came up with his own version of b & d.

He drew a line and made the circle at the bottom on both sides. He was covered either way then! At that point I just chuckled about it and figured he had his own method for solving the problem and it would go away. And one day it did.

[kalanamak]

Make him a flash card with a picture of a bed, made out of the word "bed". In other words, the "b" is the head board, and the "d" is the foot board. You can put a small pillow on the "b" if that wouldn't be too confusing.

 

 

:iagree:I made a biggish one and he put a cat sticker sleeping on the pillow. It was up next to our desk for 18 months. He did b-d reversals, at times, and even p-b or p-q reversals until he was mid-seven, and it stopped cold. I don't know the picture did anything but give him a reference to glance up at if he was unsure. He still made mistakes. But he did use it.

 

Oh, and for awhile I had a drawing of a b holding it's belly b elly and a dog with a tail off the g and the whole thing barking at the ellly. I would hold my left hand up with the index finger straight up and the rest of the fingers curled to the thumb, and , sitting on his left, move it from left to right in the air and say /b/. For the d, I'd do the same with my right hand and make it retreat from left to right, bouncing my fingers and thumb together making a barking noise under my breath as a cue, but that was more 4-5, not 6.

Edited June 19, 2010 by kalanamak

[Mom2J112903]

J still transposes any letter with the "magic c". His OT said she is fine with ANY child doing this until they are age 7, then it becomes an issue. Of course since J is 6.6yrs of age, we are working hard on this thru different ways. Nothing so far has worked though.

[Ellie]

No "tricks," but some helps:

 

I wouldn't teach upper case letters. Children who learn upper case instead of lower case will use upper case for years indisriminately throughout their writing; it's terribly difficult to remediate. :-/ When you teach upper case letters, the rules for upper case should also be taught: only at the beginning of a sentence, or when writing a proper noun.

 

Spalding teaches this way:

 

b is a tall letter with a short part. It begins with a line (the tall part) at the top of the space and ends with a circle (the short part). When you say /b/, your lips make sort of a line.

 

d is a short letter with a tall part. It begins with a circle (the short part) which sits on the base line and ends with the tall part (the line). When you say /d/, your lips make *sort of* a circle.

 

You don't teach these at the same time, but only as they are needed in reading or writing.

[Kirch]

I've told my 4 yo that "b" looks like it's going to bump the next letter or word, and the "b" sound in "bump" reminds him which letter it is. This only works if they've got strong left-to-right tracking skills, though.

[zbargainmama]

Draw a bed with the b as the headboard and the d as the foot board with a line underneath the letters. B goes at the front of the bed and D goes at the end.

[blessedmom3]

I taught my son that 'b' starts like belly and b has a belly :)

[ereks mom]

Our trick which my 8 yo dd has used since she was 5 is to hold up both hands in a thumbs up position, with the knuckles touching, and we imagine it is a bed with the head and foot board. The left hand is the "b", the right hand is the "d", and the "e" is invisible in between.

The nice thing is that this manipulative is always with them.:)

 

:001_smile:

[nmoira]

Only good if the child is tracking well from left to right, but this is how DD the Younger finally got it:

 

b and d are chairs with huge cushions... you're walking along and you want to sit...

 

b -- you run into the *back* of the chair, *bam*

d -- you can sit *down*

[bearnpurple]

I taught my son that 'b' starts like belly and b has a belly :)

:iagree: We do the same! "d" is for "derriere" or back-side. Now they always laugh when doing spelling words! :D

[jennifero]

After trying the bed trick and much frustration, I read somewhere that a lowercase "b" starts with a backbone and a "d" starts with a doughnut. It worked immediately for my dd. No more confusion. She is reading well now, but will still say backbone or doughnut if she gets confused sounding out longer words.

[Celia]

Thanks for all the tips!!

[FO4UR]

The tricks work for my ds7 for a short while...like for 5min...

 

The best thing we've done is demand proper penmanship (esp starting points) and frequent short sessions of dictating "b"..."d"...having him write the letter as he hears it.

 

He still reverses them though. For him, I don't think it's so much that he doesn't know what a b or d looks like (He can tell others the difference, for pitty sake!!!)...it's that he doesn't know if he's looking at a b or a d. Make sense?

[Adrianne in TX]

We have done the b-e -d trick and it hasn't worked with my daughter..what has worked with moderate success is "do you push a baby carriage (b)in front of you or are you dragging something (d) behind you-it has helped it click a bit more, after 2 yrs of b-e-d!!