Supporting DS with his reading

[Littlepurpleprincess]

My DS is 5 and a half years old and in year one at school. He loves being read to and listening to stories but he has really struggled with learning to read. He is getting a lot of support fro school but we have one ongoing problem. It's a very small thing but as it's been happening for a year now so it is becoming very frustrating for DS.

Basically, he muddles up 'b' and 'd'. You'd think he would at least get it right 50% of the time but he gets it wrong 9 out of 10 times!

It's such a small silly thing but inevitably happens on every page he reads so does bring him down.

Does anyone have any tips of helping to remember which is which?

He has other things he finds difficult too with reading but I know that if I can help him overcome one thing, it will boost his confidence.

Write the word "bed" wherever he is likely to see it; On his home/school diary, on a flash-card as you start reading, and ask his teacher to laminate the word and stick it to his table where he usually sits. My DD1 had the same problem

No experience of this particular problem but physical props may help - magnetic letters, tracing letters in sand/shaving foam/glitter, making letters from pasta/playdoh?

If he can feel the shape maybe see if he can do it blindfolded - guess which letter he is touching by working out if the straight line is on the right or left.

If that makes sense.

Make a large toy out of cardboard which is a flat column with two discs inside it. You pull the discs out, one on the left and say dddd and the other on the right side and say bbb (maybe ensure both can't appear at the same time.)

He plays with the toy and gets a reward every time he correctly identifies the letter. I'm guessing he'll get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Thanks for the ideas. "Bed" is a good word for practising it. I do lots of messy play and all that (Im a childminder).

His teachers advise was repeatition.

ime, and you may be doing this already, is for you to be really relaxed about it. If they sense your stress it seems to kill the fun.
My ds was a little late to read and I think it was partly because he sensed my anxiety about it and became anxious too.

Best to do a little, briefly and keep it fun, that's just my experience anyway. Dd is taking to it more easily because I'm so chilled about it I suspect.

He's definately improve since we became more relaxed. When he was in reception we were insisting he read to us each night but it didn't go well. So, we went back to just reading to him and enjoying stories again. From there we've slowly built up to him reading to us each night again.

Bed and get him to write the letters out. Ds used to have a little saying about a dinosaurs bottom which I think is a read write inc thing. It is a phase which many children go through I believe but some get stuck in the phase longer than others.