Helping with Letter Reversal

Here are some helpful tricks we use to help with letter reversal. I know there are lots out there but this one we have found to be the least confusing. There are two here for b and d as well as p and g. If you know any more please share on my facebook page.

b and d

To help with b and d letter reversal Freya makes a bed with her hands – see the photos below as a picture paints a 1000 words is certainly true in this case.

It is important that the knuckles are together.

I said to Freya imagine that there is a pillow on the flat bit (above left index finger) and that is where you lay your head. I asked Freya to imagine who was sleeping in her bed to check she really understood that her hands were a bed.

You could use these photos to help but I used my index finger to draw imaginary letters for Freya to see.

It took her a few goes but now when she gets stuck on a b or d up go her hands. Such a nice trick to give children independence to support their own reading and writing.

p and g

When I was researching this I also came across the pig for p and g. These aren’t letters that Freya confuses so much but I thought it would be nice to share.

Hands together again but this time thumbs pointing down.

The thumbs form the legs of the pig.

Again I showed Freya how the hands roughly form the shape of the letters.

It would be more helpful if pig was spelt piq as Freya seems to mix up p and q more – but at least this way she can check the p and knows that q goes the other way.