Ds says he is flipping letters in his head?

[FairProspects]

I know that ds has some visual perception isssues, and he is in vision therapy. I also know that he flips letters, but now he is getting increasingly frustrated by it (perhaps as he gains reading fluency it bothers him more?).

For example, he really struggles with is and sit in particular, as he tends to flip the places of the i and s. Today, he kept confusing on and not. He finally gave up in frustration and asked for help because according to him "My brain keeps seeing the letters moving and flipping them."

What on earth? How do I help with this? Is this still a visual perception/processing issue or is there more to it? I know flipping letters can be common up to a certain age, could this still be a beginning reader thing? I can't decide if I want to bang my head against a wall that we are still dealing with this or cry because I'm sad it is so hard for him!

Edited October 13, 2010 by FairProspects

[choirfarm]

Have you asked your vision therapist? We had to keep a journal and my daughter had to write about school and what she liked and what she found hard. ( Basically she told me and then I wrote it out and she copied it into the journal for 1st grade. In 2nd she started writing more of it herself.)

 

Christine

[FO4UR]

My ds7 does that all the time...I suspect dyslexia in him, but I haven't been able to formally test him. He does have visual perception issues, I know. (He saw a dev opt, and did VT last year with me).

 

We take things slow. I use a card to uncover letters one at a time when he'll let me. I will often give him the first sound if I think he's inverting letters in his head...if we are coming up to the word "was" for ex., I'll say /w/ very subtly as he gets to that word. Otherwise, it's a 50/50 guess if it's was or saw.

 

As mine gets better at reading, I notice more trouble tracking a line.

 

One thing that helps is making the letters and words in some kind of 3D format. Playdoh, foam magnets, puffy letter stickers... I don't know why this works really, but I read "The Gift of Dyslexia" and decided it couldn't hurt LOL. It did help, especially with letter reversals and phonogram inverting (hs for "sh" and ht for "th"...as in "hte end":001_huh:)

[Kates]

I also would suspect dyslexia - this is what happens for my son, and the therapies outlined in "The Gift of Dyslexia" helped him immensely. So many things (including reading), although they're still difficult at times, are much more manageable than they used to be.

 

Also, he's noticed that some fonts cut down on this by far - oddly enough, he can read the entire Percy Jackson series with no problem...and just about every kid in that series is dyslexic. Turns out that the font and spacing are perfect for kids that deal with different types of dyslexia ;) For many other books through, the words "do skateboard tricks in front of me" (in his words) and he can only read them for a few minutes, even if they're easier books. We compared them side by side, and every time it was courier, 1 1/2 or double spaced font that allowed him to read easily. Go figure.

 

We're getting him a Nook for Christmas, since it will reformat any book automatically into the perfect font and spacing for him. Just wanted to put those little factoids out there, in case they help anyone :)

[Susan in KY]

I also would suspect dyslexia... the therapies outlined in "The Gift of Dyslexia" helped him immensely.

 

Give this a try. I once tutored a dyslexic using the therapies in that book, and it worked great. His initial goal was a GED, which he got in due time. Then he went on to college and is now well beloved and compensated at his current employ. The Gift of Dyslexia is $ well spent, imo.