One of the most confusing letter for some children to master is the "b" and the "d." If we take a moment to look at these two letters, they have a lot of similarites. For example, there is a straight line going up, out of the side of a round circle. The difference is crucial because that is what distinguishes the letter. the way in which the circle is positioned. There are many mneumonics that can be used to assist children in determining what letter it is.
My oldest son was very fortunate because he had three b's in his name, he would write his name on the paper, and knew exactly, which was which. My daughter did not have a b in her name, so we had to put this issue to rest. No pun intended, we drew a bed and wrote the word. There are the two letters, side by side with e in the middle. Well, how did we know which was first well, b comes before d.
Of course, all children are different and there is never one approach that works 100% of the time. There more strategies we have the better. I want you to take a moment to envision, a big red balloon. This balloon needs to be incredible, so we will make it big and we will want to share it with the world. What would we need to do with it? Of, course fill it up with helium. If I let go, you know exactly what will happen. The balloon would go up in the air. If you take a child's left hand, because the majority of the time that child will have a pencil in their right hand, and have them make a fist (where you can not see the knuckles). Then have the child point their thumb in the air (the direction that the red balloon is going), now you have a b for balloon. Of course, we continue with the opposite, but in this case it is not the d. We think of pigs, and how much they love to play in the mud. These pigs like to go way down in the mud, now the child can point their thumb down to create a p for pigs. Now what about the poor d, well if we know that it is not b by looking at our left hand when writing, then we know it just has to be the other letter. The other letter, which is d. A multi-sensory technique.
What techniques do you use when helping children with these confusing letters?
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I see this problem all the time in my third grade classroom. In my first month of teaching, I was so shocked that third graders would still confuse letters that I went to speak with our school's special education teacher. She assured me that it is still okay for third graders to confuse letters and I continue to see it year after year. You mentioned your son who didn't have a problem because of the 'b's in his name, but I once had a child whose last name was 'Webb' and he continually wrote it as 'Wedd'. I have learned, unfortunately having a 'b' or 'd' in the name doesn't always mean the child will be able to form it correctly. To help my students, I always remind them that 'b's have bellies. I'll watch a student as he or she draws the intial line for the letter and say, "Remember 'b's have bellies." I know it sounds childish to use with third graders, but I have found that it does help IF they take the time to think about it before they write the letter.
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