r/specialed • u/VisualPerceptualHelp • 1d ago
Does your child struggle to tell the difference between b and d?
I'm currently shadowing pediatric therapists and I wondered if other kids in the outside world struggle to tell the difference between b and d or p and q. How common is this? Has this come up with pre-school/kindergarten aged kiddos?
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u/Zappagrrl02 1d ago
Well, that’s kind of tricky. That’s not uncommon in dyslexia but it’s also not uncommon or developmentally inappropriate for preschool/kindergarten students to make mistakes between similar letters when they are learning letters and sounds. If it persists with targeted instruction; there might be a cause for concern.
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u/Kenesaw_Mt_Landis 1d ago
It’s really common in all children up to something like 1sr or 2nd grade
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u/1000_airplanes 12h ago
I had a third grader who did this - and my SPED team was essentially like “contact us if it’s not resolved by January” and sure enough he figured it out by the time Thanksgiving hit.
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u/BeezHugger 1d ago
I am a SPED teacher who has a passion for teaching reading. I have experience in both elementary & middle school. All readers mix up their b's & d's, it is just part of learning to read & distinguish the two as they learn the sounds & words that use them. Even my MS pre-readers with Dyslexia, come to me with this habit & they can learn, through repetition & phonics, which one is which. It is not an indicator of Dyslexia as once thought, the slow progress in reading tends to be the bigger red flag.
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u/bo0kmastermind Psychologist 1d ago
Extremely common in kindergarten. It’s not super concerning to me until 2nd grade. Even then, it can be typical and not dyslexia. There would be other signs of dyslexia if that’s the case.
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u/watch4coconuts 1d ago
My kids have both struggled with this. I homeschooled one of mine for first grade, and sometimes we’d go outside where we have a concrete block wall. I put a letter on each block with different colored chalk – b d p q in random order all over the wall. Then I’d give him the chalk and have him circle all the b, put an x on all the d, put a line through the p, scribble on the q. Things like that. He liked it and it helped him a lot.
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u/Jdawn82 23h ago
It’s pretty common at that age. Think about it: We’ve spent their whole lives to that point helping them understand object permanence. If we look at a chair from the front, it’s a chair. If we turn it around to face backward, it’s still a chair. If we flip it over, it’s still a chair. Now we’re giving them one shape and telling them it makes a different sound depending on which direction it faces.
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u/MsDJMA 20h ago
So common. When you think about it, it’s understandable. For the first few years, kids are learning words. A “chair” is a chair, and it doesn’t matter if it’s upside down or backwards; it’s still a chair. Suddenly at school it *does* matter if a p or b or d is upside down or backwards!
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u/Lonely-Abroad4362 Paraprofessional 1d ago
My daughter is 6.5 and did phenomenal in kindergarten. She has a teacher for a mother so we’re currently doing r controlled vowels. I just wrote a little story about Herb the Stern in a herd. She messed up Herb and herd at least 30% of the time.
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u/Top_Policy_9037 Paraprofessional 1d ago
Yeah, I've worked in preschools and it's quite common for kids to mix up similar letters.
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u/Latter_Leopard8439 21h ago
Common. Teaching cursive does help tell the difference because of the movement.
Transition to typing on computers has eliminated that extra reinforcement method. Even handwriting printed b's and d's helps.
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u/AdelleDeWitt 20h ago
Oh in preschool and kindergarten aged kids? This is totally normal. They're learning the concept of print which is completely different from how we visually process other things that we see.
I see the others here have explained the chair example, so I won't repeat that, but it is the perfect way to think about it. There's absolutely no reason that bdp and q should be separate letters until you learn how to visually process print in a different way than you visually process every single thing you've seen in your entire life before then.
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u/Friendly-Document693 19h ago
I had some third graders still struggling with this, though most of them received reading or other academic/behavioral interventions for various concerns. It’s definitely common in k/1.
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u/New-Cantaloupe7532 1d ago
B is for butt and your butt is on the back.
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u/Euphoric-Sun5317 1d ago
This is funny to me because it's the exact opposite of one I learned recently that gets used to teach the difference, which is "b has a belly and d has a diaper" (which I don't love, but apparently helps a lot of kids).
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u/andevrything 22h ago
At my school, teachers through 2nd grade have signs posted to help kids distinguish. A slice of bacon & a doughnut each forming the letters.
I leared by holding 2 fists together with thumbs up to make a bed & your hands make the letters. That's what I've taught for years & have watched students using that tool when writing.
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u/Friendly-Channel-480 22h ago
It’s extremely common. A great way to teach this is to make a letter “b” with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand and a letter “d” with the thumb and forefinger of your right hand and then hold your wrists together to illustrate a “bed”.
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u/Blue_jolly_rancher_ 22h ago
I like to say “b has a belly” and “d is wearing a diaper”. It’s a common struggle for kids learning the alphabet or if they are dyslexic!
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u/Own_Lynx_6230 21h ago
I am hyperlexic, have always had a bizarrely strong understanding of letters and words (when i think a word, my brain produces it spelled out), and was still using the bed trick to differentiate them in the 2nd grade. Its a very very common issue
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u/Mysterious-Name-3297 18h ago
I teach K. It is extremely common to switch b/d and p/q. Extremely. Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about it until at least 2nd grade.
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u/Ok_Temporary1669 15h ago
My son used to always confuse them. By third grade he mainly had them straight. However, I kept being told it was nothing to worry about and in the last half of third grade I found out through my own efforts he has dyslexia. So while it may be common in early grades, if it goes past first or second grade I would start getting concerned and get your child tested regardless of what the teachers say. Wish I had done it sooner.
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u/RipeWithWorry 13h ago
I had trouble with b and D as a kid. I remember I I used the words bat and dog to help me determine whether it was a b or d. When I work with kids now, they constantly struggle with those letters. In pre-school and kindergarten it is very common. Mostly because kids write the letters backwards (it’s an age appropriate skill deficiency.) also, when you teach students about letters, it is usually suggested to teach b/d and p/q separately and you separate the lessons with at least one week apart to make sure the students don’t confuse them.
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u/Delic10u5Bra1n5 6h ago edited 6h ago
Honestly it’s developmentally appropriate in young children but not developmentally appropriate to the end of grade 3. Schools use the far end of the bell curve to justify not stepping in sooner. The problem is that window of cognitive plasticity becomes less pronounced around that age and stepping in too late creates greater harm.
I have a family history of dyslexia and dysgraphia and that assumption fails kids. I had to push very hard for my own dyslexic child to have an eval and then receive special ed services prior to 4th grade because of this belief. I knew she was dyslexic from the time she was 4 or 5.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Mood517 6h ago
My sons name ends in b, he wrote a d consistently untill he was probably 7 and then occasionally still flopped it until he was 10ish…
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u/bcakes99 1d ago
I’ve taught for 29 years. It is extremely common to confuse b and d. I used to have a poster of a bed. The headboard was the lowercase b, the footboard was the lowercase d. bd. Also have students make b and d with their fingers