Why Do Some Students Struggle To Write p’s b’s and d’s?

While correcting written work, you might have noticed errors where a student confuses the letter “b” with “d,” “p” with “q,” “6” with “ 9” or writes “R” backwards, but when asked to spell verbally, they answer correctly. When asked to read, these students may mistake “bat” as “pat” or pronounce “poor” as “door.” These mistakes frustrate both the student and teacher as they fail to understand the root cause of the problem. The student feels frustrated with the negative feedback and the teacher may fail to recognize that the student may be having a problem with Visual discrimination.

What is Visual discrimination?

The ability to perceive and identify differences in images, objects and symbols by sight is known as visual discrimination. Thus to successfully read and write, a student must be able to perceive and understand the differences in the letters and numbers. For example, students should be able to identify that in “b” the curve is towards the right and that in “d” it is to the left. This ability to differentiate right from left is known as right left discrimination. When a student fails to understand this crucial difference between the two letters, he often mixes up the two.

How does it affect learning?

A student with visual discrimination deficit will have poor reading and writing skills. Often a deficit in this skill is exhibited as reversal of letter and numbers “b as d” or “6 as 9,” incorrect reading affecting comprehension and mistakes in calculation i.e. the student may have got the answer as 61, but when he writes it down it may become 91. These students will also have difficulty in placement of numbers. For example, if the teacher writes 671, but the student may copy it as 761. There may be difficulties with following orders in a particular direction i.e. calculating from right to left (ones, tens and hundreds) .

When the core issue is left unaddressed for long, further learning is affected as the student may develop feelings of frustration, irritability, poor self confidence. This eventually leads to a dislike towards learning and going to school. Students may resort to truancy or unwanted behaviors to mask their difficulties in learning.

How can I help?

Once the student is identified as having a deficit in visual discrimination, the next step is to inform the parents and request for a consultation with a concerned professional.

In the classroom, you can support the student and help them by providing additional help in the form of verbal or tactile cues. Include games like twister, treasure hunt (with directions) and Simon says to help students to understand and learn to differentiate the right and left side. Design and create 3d letters and numbers using and use them for teaching so that students can learn the same through tactile input. You can also facilitate learning letters and numbers through use of sand, clay and other creative mediums.

Finally, provide lots of positive reinforcement and encouragement when tasks are completed to motivate the student to keep trying and do their best.

Discuss here: What are some tactile activities that you have used to promote learning of letters and numbers?

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