[kelsemaroo]

Many of my first graders are moving along well in their reading and writing skills. I have one girl however, who still gets stuck mixing up her b's and d's. Any suggestions for how to help her get those straight?

[Malene]

I was told that you should work on recognizing b only. I teach the bat before the ball. You can draw a bat and ball on the chalk or white board. When the child make a mistake have them trace the bat and ball several times while repeating the bat before the ball. They will get d because it is not bat first.

[kattlyn]

I like to show the kids that you can make a b and d by making the 'ok' sign with your fingers. Someone here I think had a great poster showing it---I like to show them and say 'a,B,c,D - most of them use that trick for awhile, then they get it -- also I think the websit is 'tampareads' - has a b/d confusion paper to print out - I keep it up on the board and when they think they have it down, we time them and see how many mistakes they get - then we go thru same with just the sounds - challenging and FUN. Check out also a pter posted some business card size bed posters.

[busybee4]

I have my kid check to see how the letter starts a b starts with a b-b- bat(l) and a starts with a d-d- drum (o). I also use the make a bed with your hands thumbs up in fists knuckles together and fingertips facing you. This makes a "bed" and b is first and d is last just like the word sounds.

[lead teacher]

this is something that I totally made up on the fly one day while working with a student.

B's have bumps on the bottom. D's are different

B-b
D-d

if you cover up the top portion of the capital letter B it looks like a lower case b.

[readfirst]

I have my kids practice b and d's by lining up and walking down the hall...if they are "b's" they are looking where they are going, if they are "d's" they are looking where they have been. B's look at the rest of the letters and in the direction we read, d's look back at what has already happened!

I also teach b has a belly and d has a "dumpa" (something from my husband's Polish grandma) 2 years ago my kids really got a kick out of that and it stuck...it hasn't worked since!

I also make an "easy chart" that we practice skills each day. On the top are b, d, j and g that students confuse. (b d bbbdddj g ggjjbd etc) I point to each letter and students say the sounds. This helps them learn to recognize the sound quickly, which makes decoding quicker for fluency.

[wyoteach]

I think it was on here awhile ago that I found where someone had made "bed" stickers for b/d reversal problems. Does anyone know where I might find those again??? Thanks!

I've tried "b sees d" (with lil eyes looking at each other), b-b-b-bat before b-b-b-ball to describe the b (| then o) and nothing stuck as much as ...

"b" has a b-b-b-belly (draw a little body around it, so that the o is a belly) and d has a d-d-d-d-oooodooo (draw a little body so the o is the doodoo). My daughter thought it was sooooo funny that she can't forget it now. IT STUCK!

[fishingforfun]

I use the "bed" trick.

*Have them do both hands in thumbs up.
*Put their knuckles together so that the left hand looks like a b and the right hand looks like a d.
*BED* See link below.

http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011...-solution.html