How to help a child with b/d recognition

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amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 6:58 pm

ds is 9 yrs old and he still has a hard time differentiating between a b and d. how can I visually help him. any tricks? so frustratiing.

simcha2

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:02 pm

The bat hits the ball. B has the line (the bat) first.

amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:03 pm

im sorry but I didnt understand what your saying. I dont know what you mean by the line. please explain yourself

what does bat and ball have to do with this? I dont understand

octopus

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:06 pm

The lower case b has a line. that is the bat. Then is the loop which is the ball. The bat hits the ball is just a "trick" to remember b.

thunderstorm

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:08 pm

octopus wrote:

The lower case b has a line. that is the bat. Then is the loop which is the ball. The bat hits the ball is just a "trick" to remember b.

But a lower case d also has a bat and ball .. how do you explain this. I'm having the same issue with my DS

amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:09 pm

oh ok now I got it. so so cute. never thought of it. thanks so much for clarifying

octopus

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:12 pm

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

But a lower case d also has a bat and ball .. how do you explain this. I'm having the same issue with my DS

in a lower case d the ball is first so the bat does not hit the ball.

octopus

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 7:17 pm

google b and d confusion. there are some good tricks out there.

amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 8:23 pm

octupus such a good idea. I never would have thought of that. love this place....

OutATowner

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 8:34 pm

I found that that works for some kids, but if the "bat" is first on the wrong side it doesn't help, meaning, she can think the bat is first even if it's on the right, what we consider "after." I used to sing (tto farmer in the dell)"a bat then the ball...thats how we make a b, a bat then the ball." But the kids wpuld make the bat and then make the ball on the wrong aide, resulting in a d.
Best two tricks: lowercase b "fits into" the uppercase B. Give her a page of uppercase B and gave her highlight the lowercase b inside. Most kids kniw which way the B goes.
Another way, make fists with thumbs up and fists facing eachother. Hold up the left hand, say b, right hand forms a d. If she practices this enough she will learn to use her hands as a reference. Worked with some of my students who had the most difficult time. If I am not explaining it clearly, please let me know.
One more, more for writing- "c then d." Make a lowercase c, adding the line makes it a d. Also Worked for my students.

Last edited by OutATowner on Wed, Jan 10 2018, 8:37 pm; edited 2 times in total

amother

Gold

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 8:36 pm

wow, ok I think this is great. I will try all of this with ds. hope it will help him.

bsy

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 9:02 pm

There's a way to draw a bed with the bedposts made out of a b and d. When you say the word "bed" you first say the b and then the d. It's linked to the image where the b is the first bedpost and the d is the second. Google b and d bed and you'll see what I mean. There are different options.

OutATowner

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 10:17 pm

Some of these suggestions are great, but from my experience there needs to be as few steps as possible. Thinking of the word bed, isolating each sound, recognizing that the /b/ sound is first....to us it seems like one step but for a child who struggles with b/d it's not so simple.
Just speaking from years if trial and error with different age students and different visual tricks. It's actually something I feel passionate about because I've seen so many students get frustrated, and I LOVE when they finally get it.

cbg

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 10:59 pm

If he's a righty, and his right hand is holding the pen.
If he makes an ok sign with his left hand (that is free), it forms a b.

Lefty, free hand (right) forms a d.

seeker

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 11:04 pm

Start with writing, the proper way to form a b is very different from d and helps to differentiate them. This works best when you start as early as possible before they've had too much time to get mixed up by doing it wrong.

I've found the bed trick works well for many kids, especially if you keep a reference graphic taped to their desk. True it's not the simplest but it gives them that help when they are unsure and then they quickly graduate from using it.

Tricks like the bat/ball and bed are only helpful specifically for the b/d reversals, but if the child has a problem with directionality in general (I.e. reading and writing left-to-right, for English) that needs to be dealt with. There are both gross motor and eye-hand exercises that can help with it.

For practicing fluent recognition of these confusable letters, I am IN LOVE with an app called "B D Bake-off." It's so simple, the kids love it, and it does what it's meant to do. $1.99 on the App Store and I've gotten way more than my money's worth out of it (unusual, which is why I almost never get paid apps) Unfortunately I don't know anything like it for Android.

amother

Smokey

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 11:40 pm

b is for baby. b looks like mommy when she has a baby in her stomach.

seeker

Wed, Jan 10 2018, 11:51 pm

And d looks like same mommy walking in the other direction... these tricks never worked for me, lol. Good thing I didn't need them much, time took care of me B"H.

amother

Taupe

Thu, Jan 11 2018, 9:47 am

My 9 year old had this but outgrew it somehow. It just clicked eventually. She's still having issues with gimmel and zayin though. Any good tricks for that?

kjb

Thu, Jan 11 2018, 2:58 pm

Imagine the ball part of the letter as the 'front' of it, the part that points the direction its going in. draw the two letters large on a piece of paper and put it in front of her Then get her tor raise her hands over the paper and point her two index fingers towards each other and look at them. Then tap her on the left had and say 'this is the b. it points that way'. Then the right: 'this is the d. It points THAT way'. repeat and test until she has a strong visual-physical imprint of the process. Then, next time she forgets, she'll just be able to raise her two hands in front of herself with her fingers pointing, and remember. And soon it will become automatic. Does this make sense?

simcha2

Thu, Jan 11 2018, 3:34 pm

amother wrote:

My 9 year old had this but outgrew it somehow. It just clicked eventually. She's still having issues with gimmel and zayin though. Any good tricks for that?

Gimnel goes the same way as a G (which makes the same sound)

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