Any tricks for distinguishing between "b" and "d"?

[mrsfussypants]

Do you have any tricks for helping a beginning reader distinguish between the lowercase letters "b" and "d"? Some sort of a mnemonic or something? My 3.5yo DD needs a little assistance in this arena (she's starting to read already ). TIA!

[notjustmamie]

How about something like "B comes before D in the alphabet, so the line is before the circle. D comes after B, so its line comes after the circle"?

[annettemarie]

B starts with a board and d starts with a doughnut.

[Momma Aimee]

where were you all when I was in school

[nathansmum]

I found one recently for my ds who started having trouble.

b = line down for the bat then up and over for the ball (bat and ball)
d = circle for the mask then up for the snorkel and down (diver wearing a mask and snorkel)

You can draw them with the picture of the bat and ball and the diver's face inside the mask (d).

The other I have heard is b-d (bed) with the sticks forming the ends of the bed.

[bubbamummy]

In my class we used the word 'bed' written in lower case as the two 'sticks' of the b and d look like the bed ends...we even had a little person lying on the 'bed'. That helped some kids remember

[gridley13]

I was going to suggest the bed thing as well. I did that with my dd and it worked, my son has it on his desk now. I basically took an index card and wrote the word bed on it, then drew a picture of a bed using the b and d as ends.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Originally Posted by bubbamummy

In my class we used the word 'bed' written in lower case as the two 'sticks' of the b and d look like the bed ends...we even had a little person lying on the 'bed'. That helped some kids remember

Yup, this is how my mom taught us (and her second graders!)

[sapphire_chan]

And, of course, with reading you've got the added help that the word should be familiar when you've decoded it.

If you reab the letters for each other, the worbs will sounb funny in your minb.

[MamaMonica]

Another trick is to make the OK sign with left and right hands (with fingers together) so the hands look like b and d and then hold both hands up to the letter printed on the page to compare. Since b comes before d in the alphabet, it's formed with the left hand and that helps the child know which is the b and which is d.

[akwifeandmomma]

Originally Posted by MamaMonica

Another trick is to make the OK sign with left and right hands (with fingers together) so the hands look like b and d and then hold both hands up to the letter printed on the page to compare. Since b comes before d in the alphabet, it's formed with the left hand and that helps the child know which is the b and which is d.

This is exactly what we do!

[elanorh]

I like the 'bed' idea.

My first grade teacher told us that the 'baby b' faces away from its mom, and the 'baby d' faces towards his mom.

[mrsfussypants]

Thank you, everybody! These are great!

[pinky]

Another approach is just to wait. It's very developmentally normal to be reversing at that age. If she hasn't figured it out by five or six, you might want to help her out. But at three I just wouldn't worry about it!

[Daffodil]

I read about the bed idea somewhere on MDC, and the suggestion I saw was that you can make a bed with your hands so you can see the letters - make fists with your thumbs sticking up and the backs of your hands facing away from you, and put them together to make a bed. The left hand looks like a b, and the right hand looks like a d. This worked for my DD.

[hippiemama76]

b is a mama with a Baby in her Belly. d is a Daddy with a baby on his back. Only works for certain households though

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by hippiemama76

b is a mama with a Baby in her Belly. d is a Daddy with a baby on his back. Only works for certain households though

Cute, but I don't think that would work for my little reverser since you could also reverse those allusions. d could be a mommy with a baby in her belly, just facing left instead of right, LOL!

[Mom979902]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

I read about the bed idea somewhere on MDC, and the suggestion I saw was that you can make a bed with your hands so you can see the letters - make fists with your thumbs sticking up and the backs of your hands facing away from you, and put them together to make a bed. The left hand looks like a b, and the right hand looks like a d. This worked for my DD.

This is the trick I use, but my 10 yo still confuses them. Maybe we have to try something written down.

Lots of good ideas.

[AAK]

One more:
The bed thing didn't work for my dd, so we went to the alphabet order for help. As you say the alphabet, a b c d (b sees (c) d). We drew a little eye on b and on d as if they were looking at each other.

I wish I had known about the ok sign one, I think that would have worked even better for us.

Amy

[elizawill]

we also use the "bed" trick. here's a visual:

http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/01193/BED1.gif

or

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/BandD.JPG