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Number and letter reversals at age 8. A potential problem - or not?

7 replies

moosemama · 31/01/2012 23:18

Hi tis me Moose again! Grin

Not about ds1 this time, its ds2.

Basically, he has always reversed certain letters and numbers. I have had conversations with each of his teachers about it over the years and consistently been told that its not unusual and he will most likely grow out of it. The magic age of 8 years old has been bandied about as the age that most children have stopped doing it by.

He is now in year 3 and just about to turn 8. He still reverses d and b, p and q, j and l, s and z - although sometimes he gets them right.

The bigger problem is actually in numeracy, where he reverses pretty much all of the numbers that are easily reversable, isywim. So, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9.

He has a target to check each piece of work carefully for reversals when he finishes it and tends to 'find' between 25 and 50% of the reversals, although sometimes he misses almost all of them.

Yesterday he was doing his literacy homework and reversed the number 7 in the margin. I try not to point out reversals, but will say something like 'you need to check line x carefully' then if he doesn't find it say 'there's a letter/number reversal' then if after properly checking and thinking about it he still doesn't find it, I will help him. Yesterday he simply could not see that the 7 was reversed. Even if once I pointed it out to him he was insistant that it was correct. Finally I pointed to the correct number 7 on the adjacent page and then he looked genuinely shocked.

We have parent's evening coming up shortly and this time we get to see literacy and numeracy teachers instead of just his class teacher. The thing is, I really don't know what I should be asking about this.

Given that he has consistently reversed the same letters since he started writing, would it be safe to say that he is unlikely to stop doing it now?

What are the implications here? He struggled to learn to read, but has come on in leaps and bounds over the past twelve months and is now a keen reader at home. He reads very expressively, but his pace and flow aren't great. I have to admit I hadn't really noticed this all that much until yesterday, when he was reading to his little sister, so unusually, I wasn't sitting with him looking at the words. I realised that he was a lot less flowing in his reading that I had previously thought and think I may not have noticed as much before because I had the words in front of me - if that makes any sense? Confused

Other than that, his spelling is good - in that he gets 9 or 10 out of 10 most weeks on his test and is fairly good at guessing how a word might be spelled - at least phonetically.

His grasp of maths is also fine, he's a apparently mid level achiever and doesn't seem to have a problem with his actual mathematics, iyswim - just the reversal thing.

Should I even be concerned or is he ok as long as he's still achieving and progressing at a reasonable rate?

I have a friend who is very knowledgeable about dyslexia etc, but get really confused when she starts talking to me about it, as she's way over my head technically about it all.

Any help/explanations in simple layman's terms would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Smile

OP posts:
IndigoBell · 01/02/2012 06:57

I think this is going to be a vision problem - probably an eye tracking problem.

You could probably get a label of dyslexia for this - but it wont be helpful.

He will eventually stop reversing things. But his eye tracking problems won't disappear without therapy.

coppertop · 01/02/2012 11:19

I have no experience of dyslexia but my ds (ASD) was still regularly reversing letters and numbers at this age. Something that really helped with the letter reversal was learning how to do joined-up writing. It took a bit of getting used to but made a big difference.

Not much help with numbers though, and ds still sometimes reverses 2 and 5 even now. He's good at maths but if he's tired his brain goes into reversal mode. He's now 11 btw.

Chundle · 01/02/2012 11:49

My dd is same age and year she has ADHD she still reverses p and q (really struggles with q) struggles with j, 9 and 6 and some others. She's a fab reader and her writings ok but she sstruggles with maths. I've always been told she will catch up. She moved to much better school in year 3 so am hoping they will help her with it or pick up on it. Not sure what to advise sorry!

moosemama · 01/02/2012 13:15

Thanks everyone.

Indigo, he's already had a lot of orthoptist and optometrist intervention (been under the hospital since he was 3) - but not BABO, yet. He's really fast and accurate on all the standard orthoptist tests, but I suppose they wouldn't be specifically looking at tracking etc. I actually asked about convergence and binocular vision (based on the problems we know his big brother as) last time we were at the hospital and they said his results for this were good, then rechecked them and said, yep fine - no problems there.

He has a strong prescription in his left eye (his eyeball is misshapen due to pressure from repeated chalazion), minor correction only in his right, but surely if his prescription is right this shouldn't be the issue? Confused

I wasn't thinking about going for a dx or label at all really - more just wondering what I could do to support him and how much I should be pressing the school for their take on it etc.

So, it seems we have another one on the list to save up for a BABO then.

I swear my dcs are trying to bankrupt us! Grin

OP posts:
IndigoBell · 01/02/2012 13:30

I'm no longer at all keen on BABOs. The one I took my 2 to wasn't very good.

(Which is not to say that they're all bad.....)

The computerised vision therapy we did through Tinsley House was far, far better. However, you can't buy it as an individual.

However, you can buy Top Vision personal yourself. Obviously I haven't used it, but I reckon for £70 it's a good place to start.

(It's practically the only thing I can find that's similar to what we've done, and that you can buy)

You definitely want the pursuits and saccades training.

Alternatively, I'm fairly sure [http://www.readingplus.com/ Reading Plus]] is brilliant and would fix eye tracking problems.

IndigoBell · 01/02/2012 13:31

Reading Plus

moosemama · 01/02/2012 13:53

Oo thank you.

I've just had a quick look, will have a more thorough read of it all later - and they both look really good.

Do you think I would be able to help them through the Top Vision one without the level of understanding that you have about all this stuff - or would I need to some more reading around the subject myself first in order to get the best use out of it?

It certainly seems like a reasonable price, considering I could use it for both boys, so effectively only £35.00 each.

Reading plus is a bit £££s, not sure dh would go for it without a recommendation from someone who's actually used it and got good results.

Not quite sure how we'd fit it all in, what with Maths Whizz, Mathletics, Tap Typing, OT/PT exercises and homework etc, but am willing to give it a go if it will help.

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