Are Letter Reversals An Indication Of Dyslexia?

Whilst letter reversals aren’t an indication of dyslexia by themselves, it’s a long established myth amongst parents and professionals. Surprisingly, reversals and confusion are common up to around the age of 8. 

26 letters in the alphabet are a lot to learn and remember, some of the letters look very similar, especially b and d. If you’re finding it hard to imagine just how difficult it can be for a child to learn the alphabet, get someone to draw a few made up and similar letter shapes on a page and try and learn them yourself. You’ll discover what your child is experiencing and quickly understand their confusion.

Due to this common myth about letter reversals, it’s possible that a child who is dyslexic but has not been diagnosed by a professional teacher or psychologist might be missed because they’re not reversing their letters or words.

The important lesson to learn here is that before you assume your child is dyslexic always look for multiple symptoms of dyslexia.

If your child is confused about the direction and orientation of letters and is not showing any other symptoms of dyslexia some intervention tasks are needed to get them on track with their peers. 

First off, you will need to give your children lots of practise with establishing a sense of left and right. You can use a range of physical activities for this which involves whole body learning. Then you can use b and d confusion worksheets to consolidate the learning. Having a strategy for working out the difference by using a wall poster prompt is very helpful – using the word bed helps many children, desktop prompts, playing the b/d bulldog letter reversals game, similar and difference games, Kim’s game, eye games, visual dot to dot patterns. I have created a pack of motivating and engaging resources, here is a FREE demonstration pack of Bulldog and sample pack of letter reversal worksheets.