muddling up letters teaching ideas?

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
1

I have a two year old who I have been showing whole words to and numbers and numbers of dots using a computer programme for a year and he has just about sorted reading numbers 1-9 but he struggles with letters a b and d and gets them muddled up does anyone have any ideas on how to sort this out? We have some phonics flash cards large foam letters and I sometimes write letters in play dough but I have a limited income so I need cheap ideas. He only can say about 30 words and not all of the letter sounds so he may be muddled up with even more letters I don’t know.

2

I think this is completely normal. I remember reading something about it how children see things as pictures and they don’t differentiate the orientation of the picture, so d, b, p are all the same shape, so he thinks it is the same thing. When they get older they will naturally be able to tell a difference. I wouldn’t focus on that for now.

3

So if I continue with whole word reading will muddling b, d and p sort itself out?

4

yes, I’m sure it will. My son is 3 1/2 and he knows his letters very well and has for a long time but he still sometimes confuses those letters. He isn’t reading yet, except for a few small words like cat and dog. I thought I read that they wouldn’t start reading until they stopped confusing those letters but that it is something that will come in time and has to do with them seeing things as pictures. Sorry, I wish I could remember better but I do know it is normal.

5

capital letters might be easier to start with. i remember reading a book by sidney ledson, that kids memorise words base on shape. b, p, is about the same shape, so capital letters would be easier to start with.

6

Charzeliumn,
Please continue teaching your baby whole words. Your baby will pick up eventually.
I have a small suggestion: you can create mini books with “b” “p” and “d” sounds at the beginning of words. You can introduce one book at a time. Babies learn whole words much easier than the alphabet at this time of age. They need to see the reason behind alphabet letters and through words and easy books they see that letters are to form words and sentences that have a meaning: communication

I created post about these books on my blog and I provided links you need.You can print out words for free.

Here is the link:

http://earlylearning-eaton.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-i-taught-my-baby-to-read-in-2.html
marta