Letter Reversals And Interventions That Work

A common misconception is that if a child reverses letters, or reads a word backward, they must be dyslexic. In the book, Overcoming Dyslexia, Sally Shaywitz writes, “While it is true that dyslexic children have difficulties attaching the appropriate labels or names to letters and words, there is no evidence that they actually see letters and words backwards.”

A person with dyslexia can reverse or transpose letters, but so can a person without dyslexia.

What Is A Letter Reversal?

A letter (or number) reversal is exactly what it sounds like. A child flip flops the letter and writes it incorrectly. Common letter reversals include:

• Writing a letter backwards, such as reversing b for d, or p for q
• Writing a letter upside down such as m for w, or n for u

Letter reversals can happen in reading too. A child may read the word bat as pat, or mud as wud. They may even transpose a whole word and say was for saw.

Again, just because a child is reversing letters, in writing and/or reading, it does not mean that they are dyslexic!

Why Do Kids Reverse Letters?

Consider this… a hand is a hand no matter which way you look at it.

Now, consider this...

Do you see how challenging that could be!? There are a number of reasons why reversals happen, and once you understand why your student is making these mistakes, you'll be able to help them remediate these errors.

Let's look at just a few reasons why these reversals might be happening.

When Are Reversals No Longer “Normal”?

Benjamin Franklin famously said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The earlier the intervention starts the easier these reversals will be to correct. But, before we become too concerned, it is important to remember that letter reversals are typical until the age of 7 or 8.

What Interventions Work?

Students must have a secure foundation of letters and sounds at every level of reading. Becoming fluent at the letter/sound level is the first step in fixing reversals. When this level of understanding is mastered, you may still see reversals at the word and sentence level because the task the student is being asked to complete is more challenging. 

Let's take a look at some interventions that work.

• Teach left and right: this makes giving directions and guidance on letter formation much easier
• Teach letters & sounds in groups: when you teach letters and sounds in groups, you can get to blending skills right away. It also ensures that students aren't overwhelmed by all 26 letters and they can securely master a manageable groups of letter (4 or 5) at one time before adding more.
• Fluency drills: fluency drills are a great way to work toward speed and precision. These drills can and should be used at the letter/sound level, word level, phrase level and sentence level. This is also the perfect time to build in a robust review of previously learned material.

🔴Flashcards

🟠 Letter Recognition Charts

🟡 Alphabet Arch Activities

🟢 Matching and Sorting Activities

🔵 Games

• Make it multisensory: Use as many senses as possible. Imagine that there is an item in a brown paper bag and you're asked to guess what that item is, but you can only smell it. That's going to be difficult if the item is a Lego. Now imagine, you're asked to guess an item but you can use your sense of smell and touch. Easier! Now imagine, you're asked to guess the item using your sense of smell, touch, sight, and hearing. It's not even a guess at that point! When teaching letters and sounds, use ALL the senses. Make as many connections in the brain as possible to say, "A <b> looks like this, feels like this, sounds like this, smells like this, tastes like this." Some senses are easier than others to incorporate 🙂
• Explicitly teach letter formation: When teaching the letter and sound, include letter formation. This instruction should be multisensory as well. No matter the age, don't assume your students have mastered these skills. Explicitly teach:

🔴 Proper Pencil Grip

🟠 Paper Slant

🟡 Posture

🟢 Consistent Verbal Directions (<a> = "pull back, around, down")

🔵 Variety of Instruction: sky write, use tactile surfaces to trace (sandpaper), trace with a finger then pencil eraser, then with pencil lead

• Use visual cues: Post an alphabet strip on the wall (with or without picture cues), use smaller alphabet strips on desks or in writing folders, teach a concept and support that teaching with an anchor chart, utilize hand motions that can become silent visual clues
  • "B Bands": put a blue/brown rubber band, string or hair tie on your students' left hand. That is the hand that can make the letter <b>. 

• • There are a number of visual aides you can find on the world wide web, so there is no need to recreate the wheel (unless you want to, of course!)

A word of caution...when working with an older student, you can image they may be self-conscious about reversal and transposing errors. I don't think I need to say this, but show a respect for their efforts and grace when correcting. Actually, that's true for all learners and not just older students. A discreet visual aid, or a silent hand motion are both excellent strategies in this case.

Other interventions that may be appropriate, depending on the situation:

• Teach cursive handwriting: Cursive can help with letter reversals because all lowercase cursive letters start on the baseline, which eliminates the confusion of different starting positions for letters like b, d, p, and q. There are a number of other benefits to teaching cursive, but that's for another post. (If you're looking for a great resource to teach cursive, check this out: COMPLETE Cursive Writing Pack Using the Train-Trace-Try Method!
• Typing
• Speech to Text technology

FREEBIE Time!

If you're looking for more ideas for teaching letters and sounds, check out our FREE "Letters & Sounds Guidebook." Just click on the image below, enter your email address, and we'll send you the free guide instantly!

Please let us know if you have any questions and happy teaching!