Reversing letters

[ajjkt]

My DD6 recently had a behavioural optometry assessment. I was concerned that when she writes letters and numbers she seems to reverse individual letters and numbers. In other words d becomes b, p becomes q. This happens with any letter or number that could possibly be reversed.

 

The optometrist confirmed that she does indeed do this more than expected. In fact, she was assessed at being on the 10th percentile for her age for reversing letters. He wanted her assessed again in 6 months to see if there has been any change before commencing vision therapy.

 

So, my question is ...

 

 

1. is there anything you have done or heard of that can help a child with this other than daily handwriting practice?
   
2. have you heard of vision therapy and in your experience (or what you have heard) is it useful?
   

 

[riada]

I don't have any great wisdom for your two questions, sorry. I did want to say that my dd5 occasionally reverses her letters, exactly as you described, and also writes the word backwards. In example for the word "thanks" she would write "sknaht" and all those letters individually would be reversed as well. Amazingly she reads it perfectly.

 

I had her tested and they said until she was 7 they wouldn't recommend doing anything. That many children reverse letters and words in some variation and it's okay. They outgrow it naturally. I'll be interested in hearing your replies to see if what we were told is common or if we should be more concerned with it.:001_smile:

[coffeefreak]

Our oldest had a mild dysgraphia (reversing letters when writing). I went to a Dianne Craft conference and she had FABULOUS aids for us. She does something called the "writing 8" with the kids and it solves reversals. We did it for the recommended time and it worked. We don't have those problems anymore. A side note, our daughter's problems were small compared to most the kids she works with. I talked to her during the conference and this was the only thing recommended for our dd. If there are other factors, she might recommend more, but her books are very clear on things you can do.

 

Here's the link to her website. Dianne Craft

 

Blessings!

[ElizabethB]

HWT is helpful. My daughter reverses a few numbers, HWT has helped with that. Using all uppercase helped her with letters, she only occasionally reversed them, but HWT helped for those few she occasionally reversed, too. We used all uppercase in K and have only this year switched to mixed case.

 

I recommend uppercase for a while, and I have a exercise for B/D confusion on my dyslexia page, scroll down to the paragraph titled "specific remediation hints, about 7/8 of the way down, it's the "specific remediation exercises" link.

 

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

[coffeefreak]

I also wanted to add something Dianne said at the conference that stuck in my head. The reason society and schools say, "come back to us when your child is ____ age," is, in a classroom, they have no way of knowing if the problem is because of a learning glitch, or because the child has not learned how to do it correctly. In the case of writing reversals, she said for every reversal you find as a homeschool parent, there were probably dozens that they struggled over that you didn't find. As a homeschooler, age tends not to be the issue, because you are one on one. You know you've taught it directly to the child, and you've taught it correctly. If they're not doing it correctly, than something needs to be done now, not later. Like I said before, we only needed to do one exercise, but she has books with instructions on how to get the brain to process properly. She wants to enable parents to help their children on their own first, instead of paying thousands of dollars to figure out what's wrong.

 

I know there will be people who disagree, but I really was thankful that she prompted me to be concerned about something everyone else told me my dd would grow out of. We worked on it and within 6 months it was no longer an issue. My dd does great in math, and she no longer has her writing "glitch" (what Dianne Craft calls it). Obviously, I can't say enough good things about her so, I'll go now.

 

I hope I've helped!:D

Dorinda

[FO4UR]

cursive

[ElizabethB]

cursive

:iagree:

 

Cursive and uppercase are both helpful for preventing reversals. I use uppercase with my remedial students, Don Potter uses cursive. Both are much better than lowercase or mixed case letters.

[Laura Corin]

I wouldn't worry at that age. Cursive does help, but time helps too.

 

Laura

[Ellie]

Spalding would be a great help. It gives specific directions for writing each letter--starting and stopping and directions that don't depend on "left" and "right." It teaches "letters that begin with circles" and "letters that begin with lines. This tends to alleviate most reversals; for example, "d" is a short letter with a tall part that begins with a circle; "b" is a tall letter with a short part that begins with a line. Also, the sound of each letter is taught at the same time, giving an auditory clue for writing each letter.

 

If you don't want to use Spalding, you could make letters out of sandpaper and glue them to cardboard, then have your dd trace the letters with her finger in the correct directions. If your library has a copy of WRTR, you could use the directions in that for how to properly write each letter.

[Testimony]

I think that 6 years old is too soon to determine. Most children reverse their letters especially p and q and b and d. Both of my sons did in the beginning and both of them write it perfectly now. I get a book from my library. I don't remember the name of it. It specifically deals with that kind of problem.

 

I remember in this book it suggested having the child hold up their left had and make a circle with their forefingers and thumb. Then tell them that is a "p". It should make that letter. Then do the same with the right hand only it will be a "q". You can do the same with "b" and "d" only the child makes a circle with their thumb and pointer. The other fingers stand up straight.

 

They also had a chart of "p" and "q". The child had to identify the letters as if taking an eye test. I wish I could remember that book. I used it to help my younger son.

 

Merry Christmas,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[ajjkt]

I know that it is common for children to reverse letters, it is just that she does it SO much.

 

What is writing 8? I'm really not clear on this.

 

We are using SWR, which I believe is a modified version of Spalding's WRTR.

 

She does not know left and right. Nor when given her left, can she identify left on someone next to her or facing her.

 

I'm not too stressed at this stage, I just was wanting to know if there is something I can do to help her grow out of this.

[Ellie]

I know that it is common for children to reverse letters, it is just that she does it SO much.

 

What is writing 8? I'm really not clear on this.

 

We are using SWR, which I believe is a modified version of Spalding's WRTR.

 

She does not know left and right. Nor when given her left, can she identify left on someone next to her or facing her.

 

I'm not too stressed at this stage, I just was wanting to know if there is something I can do to help her grow out of this.

SWR is not modified version of Spalding or WRTR, but it does teach similarly. It should help.

 

Actress Susan Hampshire is dyslexic and wrote a book called, amazingly, Susan's Story about her life. Her story is remarkable. I learned that true dyslexia is quite different from what many people think it is. :-o

[Laura Corin]

She does not know left and right. Nor when given her left, can she identify left on someone next to her or facing her.

 

I'm not too stressed at this stage, I just was wanting to know if there is something I can do to help her grow out of this.

 

Working out the right and left of other people, especially those facing you, is actually really hard.

 

Hobbes took forever (it seemed to me) to get his left and right sorted out. He really only got it perfectly straight within the last year (so after he was 7 1/2). He also reversed letters a lot. Now he has nice handwriting and knows which hand is which, when he bothers to think about it.

 

So yes, there could be something going on, but it's too soon to tell, I believe.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[coffeefreak]

I know that it is common for children to reverse letters, it is just that she does it SO much.

 

What is writing 8? I'm really not clear on this.

 

Hmmm, I looked at her website because she used to have samples on her website, but I can't find them now. Here's a picture of the book it's from, and a picture of a kid doing the exercise Writing 8.

 

If you PM me, I'll scan the instruction pages in after Christmas so you can look at it. What it does is gives the kids a "midpoint" and helps them learn to place the letters in the right hemisphere. Dianne Craft also agreed with cursive, but she said it's important to print first, even if it's for a brief time. Kind of a walk before you crawl sort of thing.

 

Merry Christmas!

Dorinda

[siloam]

My oldest was reversing letters at 6, and grew out of it by age 8. Don't worry till they are older, or there are additional issues (spelling words backwards, sounding out backwards, ect...).

 

Heather