Still confusing b's and d's

[deesmomma]

I posted months ago, I think, about being worried that my daughter gets her B's and D's mixed up frequently, only the lowercase ones though, but its still happening. Its almost like a bad habit she got into that she can't get herself out of. Her name starts with a D, she just has a bad habit of writing in all capital letters and I admit that I haven't pushed the issue much. We didn't do a formal curriculum for her when she first started learning letters. Just a "letter of the week" type system, worksheets to trace that included both the uppercase and lowercase. I think she just never paid enoughattention/I didn't focus enough on the lowercase letters. I've only just now gotten her to write Dylan instead of DYLAN.

But its not just in writing. When she's reading, she constantly says "duh" when sounding out a word with a lowercase b in it. For example "be." She'll say "duh - ee. Dee." Even as she says it she knows its wrong usually and will look at me with a sort of questioning expression on her face? Most of the time I just have to say, is that a D? And she'll say, "Oh, no. I mean be."

I realize the letters are very similar. I guess I'm just wondering how to break this habit? Any advice is very welcome.

[nathansmum]

My almost 7yr old still needs to say his little ditty to himself to help recall which is which (b = bat and ball and d = divers face with a mask then up for the snorkel and down).

Even as she says it she knows its wrong usually and will look at me with a sort of questioning expression on her face? Most of the time I just have to say, is that a D? And she'll say, "Oh, no. I mean be."

In regards to the above...I would think that she's actually reading your body language and watching for cues as to whether she's got it right or not. So as soon as you say Is that a D? She will automatically know it's the other - it may not be that she *knows* it's the other until you give her the cue if that makes sense? So i'd just say that she hasn't figured it out and makes a pot luck guess and checks for your facial expression for the answer (John Holt talks of this in How Children Fail), not a case of knowing it's wrong in advance.

When I helped my son with figuring them out - I actually drew a picture of the bat and a ball and then traced the line of the letter over the top while saying the rhyme. It seems to be enough for him to say the rhyme and then the formation follows for him.

BTW, my son also chose to write in upper case letters for a long time even though he knew both equally. In fact, he still ocasionally reverts to writing in upper case and it's only when I would cue him to write lower that he would consistently start to choose that.

[theretohere]

How old is she?
This is one of the reasons that I taught my DD to write in cursive- the letters are formed in such a way that they don't reverse. It's helped a lot with reversals in reading. Is that an option?

[gwen's mom]

My 7 year old does the same thing...

[luvmy2girlz29]

My 6 yr. dd learned a little jingle from a PBS show called Word World to tell the lower case b and d apart. A line with a circle is a b and a circle with a line is a d. It has really helped her.

Korrie

[deesmomma]

Thanks everyone, especially on the rhyme tip. I can't believe I didn't think of something like that. And she's six and a half, sorry I left that out.

[deesmomma]

Okay on the same topic, does anyone have a list/website/webpage somewhere with a list of these little tips/tricks to go by?