Do lots of young children confuse b and d and write numbers backwards or is this a sign of dyslexia

[handlemecarefully]

Dd - aged 5, seems bright in terms of verbal skills, conceptual skills etc. Struggling with reading (still missing some letter recognition) and confuses 'b' and 'd', also 'g' and 'y' and writes the numbers 2, 5 and 7 back to front.

Is this commonplace at the early stages of formal education or could she by dyslexic?

(Back to check later - must go and collect her from school)

Totally normal. Thats why in the first couple of years schooling they do p/q d/b worksheets.

I was a bit worried when my DD was still inverting 5 at the start of Yr2. Till I looked at some old exercise books of mine that mum had kept. I did the same thing! (and I was top of the class at everything except handwriting. Back in the days when one was told such things )

Oh, and when she started writing, DD would occasionally do totally mirror writing. This didn't bother me... Leonardo da Vinci in the bud

Ds1 is 7 and still does this when he's tired.

Was told that it would only start being seen as a problem towards middle/end
Year 2.

And just to prove me right...DD was doing some Maths type activities this afternoon (she likes those activity books when playing schools at home with her dolls). She wrote all her 7 and 9s the wrong way round, wrote 12 as 21 and her 6 upside down! I am guessing she was tired, lol

It's common.

It's called visual perceptual deficit.

There's a notion influenced by observations that children with reading problems often make letter reversals.

d b
p q
saw was
nip pin

BUT... both reversal errors are also made by normally developing beginningn readers/writers.

Absolutely normal. And, for what it's worth, handlemecarefully, your dd is not "struggling with reading". She's only 5 and, as I say with boring predictability on every thread like this I come across, in practically every other country in the world she wouldn't even be at formal school yet! She's doing brilliantly, reading doesn't 'click' for a lot of them til well into year 1 or even year 2.

The b/d thing. My dd used to say that she remembered "b" because he had a big belly sticking out in front. Ds, however, thought about this and said "But so has D"!

My middle child used to read 'tigger' as 'rabbit' and vice versa.

Can he have the prize for Maximum Letter Confusion?

my 7yo and 6yo dds both do this very regularly.

I occasionally do wonder if 7yo is vaguely dyslexic but 6y0 dd2 definitely isn't. She reads and writes very well but writes b and d backwards as often as not, also numbers.

Ah but seeker she is struggling - she's in.....blue squirrels ('bottom' group, although we are not supposed to talk openly of such things )

Normal, I think.

I remember asking DD1's teacher the question in Yr 1 because she wrote so much back to front. Teacher said fine - they sort themselves out, and she did.

Totally normal, don't worry.

Very impressed at your knowledge base Fiofio [awe emticon]

Seeker ... can I be boringly predictable with you?
Completely agree with you ... 5 is very early to say 'struggling with reading' ...
Reading is about 'decoding' and some children crack the code earlier than others.
Totally normal - ... DS was getting his ps and qs, 7s and 9s and 6s mixed up until he was well into Year 1.

ghosty -shall we form a ang and take over the education system of this country? Starting by raising the entry age to 6?

It's a gang I want to form - not an ang. I'm sure angs are very nice......

Absolutely normal. At ds' school (in usa) they don't start correcting backwards letters until age 7 (2nd grade), because it's very normal and not a sign of anything.

V v normal for children to reverse b and d/ To remind my son, I get him to make a 'bed' with his hands (make the thumbs up sign with both hands, put hands together with fingers touching - b at one end and d at the other.

That's a good one chipbutty. I always try to write the word "bed" for her and get her to use it when she's unsure but making the word with your hands like that is very good. We'll try that one.

I like that 'bed' idea with the hands. Dd (age 7) doesn't do it anymore but it used to confuse her ALL the time while she was learning.
At a recent parent teacher meeting (year2) the teacher said that they should be growing out of it now.

Ds will always read b as d when it's at the start of a word but not in the middle for some reason.

Lot of young children write both numbers and letters back to front - perfectly normal

Absolutely normal developmental stage. Only a concern if it persists after the age of 8, despite specific teaching to target the reversals/confusions. the 'bed' stategy is a good one, as is 'bat before ball' for b - good for crickety boys! Also 'c before d' - as in, alphabetical order but also you have to do a c as you start writing a d. Hope that makes sense....

ds is 5 and does exactly the same and also does this with "p" i think it's just a case of practise at this age and wouldn;t worry too much