Inverting letters and numbers in Year 2

[FullBeam]

My dd is 6.3 and is about average for her class in literacy and numeracy. I have noticed that she often inverts the letters in her spellings. Eg. 'rain' will become 'rian'. In her last test on the 10 times table, she got the first few right and then inverted the numbers. Eg writing 04 instead of 40.

She was a very premature baby and struggled with her fine motor skills, so I wonder if she is taking a little more time to differentiate the order is which letters and numbers should be written.

Her teacher hasn't expressed any concern about this but I intend to ask her about it next week. Does anyone else have any experience of this? Is she a little old to be doing this?

Thanks in advance.

It's probably due to a visual perception problem or an eye tracking problem.

Teacher won't express concern. Teacher will tell you 'don't worry, it's very common at this age'.

And it is very common at this age. Whether or not it's a problem depends on if she has other difficulties as well as this.

You can wait and see if she does grow out of it. Or do cheap exercises with her at home. Or ask school to do cheap exercises with her. Or do expensive therapy with her.

All depends how concerned you are......

Ds 6.5 use to do that he would do 15 as 50 and 50 as 05. He still sometimes writes 5 backwards too.
With spellings he also would write words as they sound to him.
What our school did was take the young summer born kids and do half an hour each morning for phonics and do alot of sounding out words they picked this up tho in year 1 he is now out of that group because he can now spell.
Also for numeracy again the summer born children have been put on a 'number count course' again it's half an hour maths jut counting not sure how many schools do this it is extra funding and it's a qualified teacher that works with the children it is also 121 it has boosted ds so much I am very surprised myself and of course plsd ask ur school or suggest what my ds has been doing.

Hope this helps x

Thanks for your reply Indigo Bell.

I am a little concerned but because of her prematurity I do tend to worry about her and sometimes I worry unduly.

But you have given me something to investigate and think about. Thank you.

Ps they say premature babies do quite well at school so hang on in there u jut may see a boost soon x

Thanks Kardashianw, it may just be that she needs to practice a little more and thanks for the reassurance.

She has the double disadvantage of being premature and summer born ( due date September, born in June), so she needed a little extra help to keep up. Last year she had some extra small group help but this year that hasn't happened in the same way.

Although she struggled socially at first she is average in reading and maths for her class and making steady progress. This inverting letters and numbers thing bothered me because I thought she might have grown out of it by now and I know it can sometimes be a sign of dyslexia.

She has just read her book to me quite fluently ( ORT stage 7) and I made her read it without using her finger to follow the words. I'll see what her teacher has to say; she is very experienced and on the ball.

Honestly my ds use to do it too. He definatley wrote numbers the wrong way. Ask for sure about the number counts lessons because I was worried that ds was dyspraxia an the teacher who did the 121 said no it's because he is a younger and will take time for him to pick things up which he has done. Maybe practice she did alot of counting in 2s forward backwards in 10 and she use to say tell your children pronounce 40 as ur drinking tea 4tea and 14 big smile show ur teeth fourteen was quite interesting. X

I would encourage her to use her finger when reading to establish/reinforce left to right tracking since she is writing 04 rather than 40. Does she understand the meaning of the 0 in forty
I often say four (4) tee (0)
five (5) tee (0)
six (6) tee (0)
you get the idea
it is common for some children to continue to reverse but also something worth monitoring

Thanks mrz - some very good advice. Numbers count sound useful too, Kardashianw. I will explore with her what she understands about the tens/units in 40 etc.