b and d confusion

[cartwheel]

My daughter has been doing really well with difficult sound-letter correspondences such as "igh" and "ou," etc., BUT she still confuses b and d almost all the time.

I understand that this is fairly common. I wonder if I might have been able to avoid this had I known at the time to teach her these graphemes separately from each other, rather than so close together with the Alphabet Song.

Any suggestions as to how I can help her?

Thank you.
Jennie

[maizie]

I would get your child to start 'on the line' whichever letter they are writing. I see so many children start their b or d 'at the top' and then can't remember which side the 'ball' goes! , so for a 'b' You would start 'on the line - straight up and straight back down, then back halfway up and over to the right (which is the direction all writing should 'flow' in) to form the 'ball'. For a 'd' start on the line, up and 'round' to half way, back and all the way round to meet the first part, continue on up, then back down to the line. If you always start and finish 'on the line' it makes transition to 'joined up' writing easier.

Always get the child to say the 'sound' of the letter as they write it. It helps to embed kinaesthetic memory of the rhythm and shape of the letter associated with the sound.

I found a very good tip, which works for reading and writing on Rod Everson's site. It is a bit complex to explain, but it is easy in practice. It is associated with the mouth shape made when the letters are sounded.

To say 'b' you start with the mouth closed (straight line) and then open it. So when you write it, you start with the straight line, when you read it, you see the 'straight line' first, so mouth closed to say the sound. The opposite applies to 'd', where you start with an open mouth (round), so when writing it, you start with the 'round' (open mouth) and when reading it the 'round' reminds you to say the sound 'open mouth' first. This works for 'p' and 'q' confusion too.

[cartwheel]

Indeed, I have tried to focus on just the "b" for now, and have had her say the sound when writing it. She actually has difficulty more often when reading than when writing for some reason (due to her habit of rushing to a guess?).
At her school they always start at the top, so I don't think pre-cursive writing is going "to fly." The mouth movement idea might well work with her.
Thank you, everyone.
Jennie

[MDavis]

Some teachers told me about a neat mnemonic trick. Write the word "bed." Note that the 'b' looks like the top of the bed and the 'd' looks like the foot. Several teachers tell me they have had good luck with this.

[cartwheel]

Good news.
Because my daughter is very interested in facial expressions, I began with Maizie's idea of thinking of how the mouth starts closed (straight line) when saying b. The effect was immediate. After months of struggling with this, it's amazing how one simple "intervention" has made such a difference.
Thank you, everyone.

[Maltesers]

I made these posters, just scroll down the page a little. I photographed my daughter's hands. If you click on the image, you can right click and save them to your computer.

http://hltastaffroom.blogspot.com/2008/ ... usion.html

[Peter Warner]

I like the 'bed' trick that MDavis mentions.

Here is an article, poster, and worksheet for using that routine:

http://homepage.mac.com/peterwarner/Eng ... ing42.html

Best regards, Peter Warner.