Multisensory Approach to Prevent Letter Reversals

b or d?
p or q?
2 or 5?
9 or 6?

Does your child have difficulty with reversing letters when writing?  Do they become confused with certain letters of the alphabet?

​Letter reversal are quite common for young children.   It is common for letters, numbers and even whole words to be reversed when they are first learning to read and write.   This does not necessarily mean that your child has a learning difficulty.

Lane (2005) reports the following stages of visual motor development related to letter reversals.

• 5½ - 6½ years Children overcome up/down (vertical) reversals
• 7½ years            Children overcome left/right (horizontal) reversals
• 9-10 years     Children are able to understand how the relationship among objects would appear at various angles.

Lane (2005) also makes the following observations regarding children who do make reversals.

• It is normal to reverse, however the prevalence is higher in children who have dyslexia.
• There are 2:1 more horizontal reversal errors than vertical reversal errors due to difficulties children have in establishing stable left to right habits of visual scanning.
• Object/Form constancy (ability to see the same object even if presented in a different way) affects letter reversal confusion.
• Letter reversals may affect reading.  If reversals still occur in children who are 7 and 8 years old; this may indicate reading difficulties.
• Mirror reading and writing are more common in children who are left handed.
• Not all children "grow out" of letter reversals. ​

There are heaps of "tricks" and "visual prompts" available for teaching commonly reversed letters (just check Google or Pinterest) . Most of the tricks and prompts you will find rely on a child's visual discrimination and visual memory.  This is great for the majority of children who are developing typically, however sometimes these are not "enough".  Some children canNOT retain the information from visual prompts to prevent reversals in identification and writing.  

Before jumping into teaching any tricks or these letters specifically ...  there are a few things that I work on with my OT students first!

This includes:

• Left to right direction  

It is important that children are able to discriminate their left side from their right side (ie. can they identify their left hand from their right hand).  Find a quick trick for teaching left and right HERE.

After learning to discriminate left and right; then it is important that children learn that most reading and writing (in the Western world) occurs FROM left to right.  The direction of writing is really important for prevention reversals and is also related to a child's ability to "cross the midline". Read more about  crossing the midline and  bilateral coordination HERE (you will also find a neat left to right direction page as part of the Bilateral Integration Reference Sheet).

• Letter identification

This may seem obvious, but children learn letter formation best when they know how to "name" and "identify" each letter.  Many kindergarten (and even older children) are asked to write letters and they are yet to master naming them and identifying them.  Being able to identify letters provides a "road map" for children to "visualise" what the letter is that they are forming.  If you have an older child, you can combine naming and identifying letters with also naming and identifying letter sounds.  

• Letter families

When teaching handwriting, I teach in "letter families" according to formation or size (depending on a child's difficulties).   Children who are having letter reversal difficulties benefit from classifying letters into a "family" or group according to the first motor pattern needed to form these lowercase letters (ie. the left component for formation).    This means that all the lower case letters that start with a "straight line down" are taught together and all the letters that start with a "c" component are taught together. 

For children who reverse letters, they can begin to group all the "straight line" down letters together (ie. l, t, b, h, k) and differentiate them from the letters that start with a "c" (ie. c, o, a, d, g, q, s).  These "letter families" are taught at different times to help with discrimination between the letter families and grouping a letter family.   Read more about letter families HERE.  

• Visual Perceptual Skills needed for handwriting.

​There are a number of visual perceptual skills that affect handwriting and therefore letter reversals.  These visual perceptual skills include eye/hand coordination, visual discrimination, position in space, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy and visual memory.  A child who is having difficulty with letter reversals may also be having difficulties with one or more of these visual perceptual skills. Read more about visual perceptual skills needed for handwriting HERE.

​

A multi sensory approach to teaching and learning commonly reversed letters will help to engage your child in a number of ways.  It seeks to work on the components I have just mentioned (left to right direction, letter identification/naming, letter formation and visual perceptual skills) as well as engage your child in their motor learning through kinesthetic and/or proprioceptive feedback.  

For each of these approaches, you may want to emphasize the starting points and you may want to model the direction of letter formation.  Children will need a visual model to see what they are forming.  Some children will require a strong emphasis between the components of each letter (eg. left line and right circular form - to form "b").

Here are 10  ways to provide a multi-sensory approach:

• ​Use glitter glue or sand paper outlines to provide a tactile surface for your child to trace letters and numbers.
• Use a sensory bin filled with uncooked rice, lentils, beans, sand or packaging peanuts.  Use a finger or a tool (eg. paintbrush, feather) to form letters.
• Make letters with playdough or putty. Poke holes in the dough with a finger or Q-tip. 
• Use a "messy" medium such as shaving cream, gel or jelly.  These can be contained in a zip lock bag with letters formed using a finger.
• Draw the letters with chalk onto a pavement or driveway.  Have your child walk or hop along the letters.
• Use a ribbon wand, instrument, stick (be careful), paintbrush, etc to draw out the letters in the air.
• Use a vertical surface such as a whiteboard, window or shower screen.  Paint (with a finger or a brush) the letters on with water, paint or wet/dry erase markers. 
• Use loose parts such as buttons, pipecleaners, pom poms, rocks, leaves, sticks, blocks to create letters.
• Use a car to drive down a letter road. (See this article for more about letter roads).  
• Use food - Bake cookies or use fruits, vegetables, crackers or even candy to form letters. 

Watch the following You-tube video showing you how children can get confused with commonly reversed letters and my favourite multi-sensory approaches (link here if you can't see it on this page ---> PREVENTING LETTER REVERSALS YOU-TUBE)
 
Have you considered these aspects to help prevent letter reversals? What are your favourite multi-sensory approaches to teach letter formation? 
​

Cindy is a registered occupational therapist practising in Sydney, Australia.  She has two growing children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. She is also addicted to making printables (even when they take a long time to complete).  Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy blog Your Kids OT.  Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog

Cindy is a member of the Functional Skills for Kids Therapy Team.  They have together published THE HANDWRITING BOOK, THE SCISSORS SKILLS BOOK and THE TOILETING BOOK.

​The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions. Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote recommended products. Your Kids OT receives a small commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details. ​​​
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