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Chiara Hoyt

My Child Reverses Letters... Is This Normal? Getting To The Bottom Of Letter Reversals


A girl lays on her stomach and writes with a pink pecil.

What Are Letter Reversals & Why Do They Occur?


Letter reversals are extremely common for children under 7.  If you really think about it, understanding that a letter only carries meaning when it faces a certain direction is a complex concept for young readers to fully grasp.


In written English we've got all kinds of symbols and pictures that children this age are learning to recognize, for example. A picture of a dog or a house is still a dog or a house even if I flip it upside down or backwards, and pictures are how children are introduced to most vocabulary words.  But then you have letter, which to young children are basically the same as pictures, but these specific "pictures" only carry meaning when they look one certain way. This is honestly pretty confusing for young readers at first, and is the reason why letter reversals are so common as children initially learn to read and write. 


Letter Reversals Among Older Readers


If your child is older than 7, and you are placing intentional focus on these reversals, and you still don’t see improvements, then we can move toward asking some more specific questions. I always like to ask kids a few baseline questions when I see them continually struggling with letter reversals.


One of the first questions I often ask them is, "Do the letters move around or stay in the same place when you’re reading?" If they say yes, that they DO move around, I ask them more about how that movement appears. For example, "Do the letters turn upside down or switch their place in the word or shift above or below the line of words?”


If they indicate that the letters are moving, I would say the first line of defense is to check their eyesight, because maybe, as simple as it seems, they just need glasses.  If the eye doctor reports no significant issues, or glasses don't fix things for them, checking for dyslexia is a solid next step.  


Children working with alphabet letter cards.

Tips for Improving Letter Reversals


If they are younger than seven, though, these kinds of letter reversals are pretty typical. Through repeated exposure, especially to lower case letters, and by doing activities such as

  • practicing the strokes in a sand tray

  • building the letters with play-dough

  • using letter cards that involve lacing or threading

  • using dot markers to follow the direction of the stroke

  • incorporating visual aids like pictures into their handwriting work (ex: using b and d to create the headboard and footboard of an illustrated bed)


you will likely see improvement in your child's letter reversals with time. One last tip for all struggling readers is to refrain from correcting them constantly, despite the fact that you know they are making mistakes. Instead, take note of their errors, and choose moments to introduce or reinforce the letter symbols in a low-pressure way. Coupled with the above activities, these are all great strategies to build children's letter-symbol correspondence and reduce the frequency of letter reversals over time.


Remember, no matter what the cause of your child’s struggle is, you can get to the bottom of it, and your child can meet with success when the right interventions are in place! Your child is lucky to have you working toward solutions for their struggles, and with intention and dedication, they will get back on the right track before you know it!

 

Want to dive deeper into the root causes of your struggling reader's difficulty with literacy?

Take this 3-minute quiz to see what's got them stuck and receive personalized feedback on what next steps to take!


A parent helps her struggling reader, who is showing frustration.

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