ElizabethB Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 I either read it here or saw an e-mail from Don Potter with a new idea for B/D confusion. If it was Don, I'll post here, many students struggle with this and it's nice to have a fairly recent thread with B/D ideas. Here is my page with ideas and exercises about it: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/dbdb.html Add any ideas that have worked for you. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 The Barton system of having kids do their fingers/thumb to make a small b, then flip it down to make a p and calling it "balloons" or "pigs" worked well here for both kids. Not explaining it well but it worked. Thanks for posting the link, by the way. We don't have this issue anymore but I know plenty of others that do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Piggy-backing on the Barton method (left hand, thumb up, fist closed, looks like a lower-case b & the thumb points up, indicating it rises up like a balloon; point the thumb down (same hand), and it reminds them of a pig rooting in the ground & looks like a p), we added "doesn't match" for the key word to use when it's a d. This is more a trick for the child who sees one of them in print and needs to remember what sound it makes, though, vs. a kid remembering which way to write it (though that would work too, when he hears the sound, makes the fist, and goes through the key words to remember which way to draw it). Anyway, to help my son remember the /d/ sound & shape combo, we just added "doesn't match" because it doesn't look like the fist, and the word starts with the correct sound (doesn't, /d/). Another trick I learned before my son struggled with this, so not sure how effective with a kid with limited phonemic awareness skills, is the word bed. Spelled/shaped correctly, it looks like a little bed, and if the student can correctly segment all the sounds, it gives him the correct sounds for b & d. A little flashcard or cue card with this could serve as a reminder card for a student struggling with b/d reversals, if the phonemic awareness is there. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted September 22, 2017 Share Posted September 22, 2017 A helpful trick with the fist/thumb idea--tell the child to give themselves a fist-bump to make sure they are looking at the correct side of their hand (I'm working with a little one right now who held out the fist with the back of the hand facing her). Fist bumps make it instantly recognizable to the student which way their hands need to face! It seems to take less forethought than figuring out how to make a bed--but once they see the bed, then you can go to that analogy quickly. I find the air-writing with large arm movements helpful too--letter reversal ideas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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