should I be concerned about this? (reversing letters when writing)

[caedmyn]

My 7 YO 1st grader has been reversing letters when he writes without a model (ie he doesn't do it with copywork). He really has only done copywork plus writing his name before, but a couple times lately he has done some writing in a worksheet and I've noticed that he is reversing many letters. Today he reversed every letter that could be reversed in the 2 words he wrote and his name. Should I be concerned about this? He gets d and b mixed up frequently...maybe half the time...when he reads but I think that is not uncommon at this age? He doesn't read fluently yet.

[KSinNS]

Assuming he is making progress reading, I think this is quite normal. I think reversals typically resolve around age 8, at least that's when mine did. My 7 year old reverses b and d reading, and many other letters writing. He is 8 in 2 weeks and he is just starting to improve. Today he wrote every s backwards, but for the first time ever, noticed and corrected them. And he thought about the d before writing it. HWOT is laid out in such a way to reduce reversals. T's reversals resolved this fall, and she just turned 9 in October.

[Ellie]

My 7 YO 1st grader has been reversing letters when he writes without a model (ie he doesn't do it with copywork). He really has only done copywork plus writing his name before, but a couple times lately he has done some writing in a worksheet and I've noticed that he is reversing many letters. Today he reversed every letter that could be reversed in the 2 words he wrote and his name. Should I be concerned about this? He gets d and b mixed up frequently...maybe half the time...when he reads but I think that is not uncommon at this age? He doesn't read fluently yet.

 

Not yet.

 

Spalding and its spin-offs do an excellent job of teaching children to write their letters, with specific directional instructions. If you have not given him such specific instructions, he may not realize that there is even such a thing as reversing letters.

 

Which is a good plug for Spalding, as it teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, and includes penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing, all in one fell swoop. :-)

[Raifta]

Another vote for not worrying yet.  DS recently, around the time he turned 8, finally stopped reversing letters and now consistently writes them correctly.  We still have problems with his numbers but I'm seeing progress.  We also used HWOT for manuscript printing practice, which helped him to be able to distinguish between b and d when reading even if he sometimes still reversed them when writing initially.

[MerryAtHope]

It can still be normal at this age, but here are some tips on how to address reversals with him and begin working through these.