Letter confusion

[springmama]

My 6 year old dd, almost always confuses "b" and "d"; "p" and "q" and sometimes even "Z" and "N". She used to get "u" and "n" mixed up but not so much anymore.

 

Surely there are games or books that will help with this. Repetition just does not seem to work although I know it probably will if I keep up with it.

 

Advice?

[Mandamom]

It can be normal up until 8 years old to reverse letters.

 

Write letters in a salt/sand tray (Keeping elbows and wrists off the table) can develop muscle memory which can be helpful.

 

Good luck.

[Mrs. Lilac]

My daughter has had similar issues....what's worked for us is to make up some kind of memory device around which way the letters face (the lower case ones, that is). As in....

 

"b" is buddies with the other letters, so he always faces them (whereas d turns his back)

 

or "p" is pals with the other letters, so she always faces them, etc.

[ElizabethB]

HWT. It's also helpful for number reversals, my daughter doesn't reverse letters, but she did reverse a few numbers before HWT.

 

I have a worksheet for b/d along with a few other b/d hints:

 

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

[Ellie]

My 6 year old dd, almost always confuses "b" and "d"; "p" and "q" and sometimes even "Z" and "N". She used to get "u" and "n" mixed up but not so much anymore.

 

Surely there are games or books that will help with this. Repetition just does not seem to work although I know it probably will if I keep up with it.

 

Advice?

Those are normal confusions, so no need to worry yet.:)

 

This is how Spalding teaches those letters:

 

"b" is a tall letter with a short part. It begins with a line (the tall part) and ends with a circle (the short part). When you say /b/, your lips make sort of a line.

 

"d" is a short letter with a tall part. It begins with a circle (the short part) and ends with a line (the tall part). when you say /d/, your lips make sort of a circle.

 

"p" begins with a line and ends with a circle. "q" begins with a circle and ends with a line. Also, in English q is almost always written with u--qu.

 

"z" begins with a horizontal line, written in the direction that we read and write (left to right). "n" begins with a straight line starting at the top and going straight down to the base line.

 

And of course, you only discuss the letter you're working on, not comparing it to other similar letters.

 

These are kind of techinical descriptions, but it really does help dc to analyze the things they write.

[Lovedtodeath]

b and d are easily remedied by drawing pictures.

 

Write the word bed and draw a bed with a headboard and footboard.

 

You can also write bd and make it into glasses, a man with hair sticking up.

 

Personally, with that many letters being a problem, I would start to be concerned about dyslexia and get in touch with Orton-Gillingham for suggestions.

[Melabella]

I agree that it might be a good idea to look into dyslexia. You can get a lot of information just by googling 'dyslexia symptoms'. If your child displays a high number of the symptoms, you can either look into testing or, at the least, keep an eye on it.

 

My daughter had all of those reversal problems at 6 and she still has trouble with them at almost 10. She is dyslexic, but mildly. Her ps teachers didn't think she had a problem, but I knew from looking at the other dyslexia symptoms, that she was most definately dyslexic.

[Karen sn]

Anyone have a link for Mr. bd eyes?

[FO4UR]

Cursive. My ds still mixes up printed letters some, but not in cursive. He learned to associate b and d with their cursive counterparts and that made it a whole lot easier to think about - He came to me all excited one day and shouted that print d and cursive d look the same - print b and cursive b do not. Since then, he rarely mixes up b and d.

 

m, n, u, v, w, ......I made up little diddies to "Sally the Camel" - "The m in cursive has 3 humps....." If I see him hesitate on those letters, I start humming the tune:001_smile:

 

hth

[Mom22ns]

My child also reversed all those letters at 6 and doesn't have dyslexia. At six many children are still reversing all of those letters. It is true a dyslexic would, but so will many others. If she is having a very hard time with reading or any other symptoms of dyslexia, you might check it out, but otherwise, this is still very normal for her age. I wouldn't be concerned before second grade and my son still had the occasional reversal then, but they were going away, which is normal.

[Bambam]

One "handy" method to assist the child with the b/d and p/q confusion is the following:

 

Have the child curl their fingers into the palm (like making a fist) but have the thumbs sticking straight up. The curled up fingers are facing you. If you look at them, the left hand is a "b" and the right hand is "d". Remember the order because b comes before d in the alphabet. For "p" and "q", flip your hands over and you have a "p" (left, before q in alphabet) and "q" (right).

 

My oldest would do this with her left hand quite frequently when writing for a couple of years.