d & b printing mistakes...still!

[KerriBerri]

Dd 8 is still mixing up her d's and b's when she prints. The only consolation I have is that she corrects herself, but it still happens daily. Is this normal? I expected it when she started writing, but here we are 4 years later....

[In The Great White North]

Switch to cursive and the problem will go away (d and b don't look anything alike in cursive)

[Lolly]

It is still normal at 8. The fact that she self corrects is really great!:001_smile:

[Rockhopper]

My dd is 7 and we have been struggling with this for years too. Actually she has made great improvement - when she first started writing she wrote EVERYthing backwards AND mirrored... but I digress...

 

Anyway, I think it's still normal and I think if she's self-correcting then she is on the right path.

 

You didn't ask for advice and you've probably heard and tried all my tricks -- but just in case any of these are new to you, we've had very good progress in the last couple of months doing the following:

 

-starting the day, very first thing, with writing the alphabet two times, thinking carefully about the way the letters are facing

 

-even before that, drawing a left to right arrow at the top of the page and remembering out loud that our letters go (basically) from left to right.

 

(we use HWT's Magic C idea, and then our own "stick and launch" idea for letters like b and p - you make a stick and then launch off to the right to make the rest of the letter)

 

-using our two fists with thumbs upraised to make a bed to help us see b and d

 

-using our mouths to say "buh" and "duh", "puh" and "qu" to see that b and p start with (our mouths in) a line and d and q start with (our mouths in) a circle

[Photo Ninja]

What helped one of my dc was "first a little c, then a little d". When writing a 'd', first write a c, then add the tall line to make a 'd'.

[Medieval Mom]

Switch to cursive and the problem will go away (d and b don't look anything alike in cursive)

 

:iagree:

[LaxMom]

Switch to cursive and the problem will go away (d and b don't look anything alike in cursive)

 

Yup, we cleared that up with cursive for the boys. For 6 year olds, I am very impressed with their handwriting, too.

[NotSoObvious]

If she's self-correcting, it sounds like she's on her way out of the habit. It's very common.

When I taught first grade, I taught the kids that b is "baby bear, then his belly" and I'd make a big deal of drawing his fat belly.

For d, we say "doorknob, then the door."

 

It helps my dd and I still catch her saying, "doorknob..." under her breath.

[mrs.m]

We have it here and he is 9. But he doesn't have problems with much else with reading so I'm hoping he'll outgrow it or he'll become proficient enough in cursive this year. One day my DD, then 10, told me she still reverses them and has to erase and rewrite. I never noticed because she catches it on her own.

 

Something that helps is Mr. Beady eyes.

[chiguirre]

You could try, "D starts with a doughnut, B with a bat."

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Cursive:D

[Frontier Mom]

I put a picture with the word bed but it looks like a bed: b__d. I went over how the headboards go to the outside and the cushy circles are where we sleep. She was very visual but this really connected for her. She could see it, knew the word and began to get them right.

[Misty]

My 8yr old daughter still has trouble too.. I taught her to hold her hands up and look at the way her index fingers and thumbs go in the directions an imaginary b and d would and to think of the word "bed" as she does this. She always gets it correct now, but she ALWAYS has to reference her hands. I must mention that my daughter does have some learning disabilities, Asperger's, ADHD, possible dyslexia, convergence insufficiency, etc.

 

Here is a visual of the bed idea (without the hands)..

http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/b-or-d-new-posters-for-bd-reversal/

[oldskool]

My dd did this at age 8 all through 2nd grade. I was concerned too, but her teachers said that it was no big deal. And they were right. By 3rd she had moved on to cursive and the problem was gone.

 

Lesley

[Thia]

One thing I did was take an index card and write a capital B, then with a different color, inside/over the capital B, I wrote a lower case. So the little b, fits IN the big B. With the D, I showed, in two colors, how they stand back to back. It seems to have helped my 6 year old.