Telling b and d apart?

[Alice]

I know I've seen this post before by others but I couldn't find anything searching the forums. Any tricks for helping an early reader remember which is b and which is d?

[Lorna]

One that we used, and is very popular here too, was to write the word 'bed' and draw in a bed faintly. Put the picture of the 'bed' above the child's bed. :D

[attachedto4]

If they hold up both hands and touch their pointer fingers to their thumbs, you know, like making the okay sign, then they're hands will be in a b and a d position. They just have to remember that b comes first, so that's the left, and d second, so that's the right hand. My dd does this a lot and it helps her because she reverses those letters quite a bit.

[Daisy]

I just told my children that a small "b" is a big "B" without it's top.

[Alice]

Thanks everyone!

All three are great ideas. Thanks for the help.

[MOCA]

They just have to remember that b comes first, so that's the left, and d second, so that's the right hand. My dd does this a lot and it helps her because she reverses those letters quite a bit.


1.When making the "b" and "d" with fingers and touching the 2 circles of fingers together, a bed is formed with extended fingers being the headboard and foot board. One can imagine the word "bed" being spelled with the "e" on the bed (top of 2 ringed fingers) and the "b: is first sound and finger in the word bed and "d" is last.

2.If the child understands alphabetical order and linear order, she will remember that "b" is first in the alphabet and is also the first letter made (by the left hand).

3.If the child wears a numerical, non-digital, watch, he can look at the 6 at the bottom to match with the "b".

HTH's, Janet

[Alice]

3.If the child wears a numerical, non-digital, watch, he can look at the 6 at the bottom to match with the "b".

HTH's, Janet


Thanks Janet! Although I'll leave this part out. He does have a watch he wears sometimes but it's on his right hand! That would just confuse things even more. :)

[Eliana]

The two mnemonics we've used are the picture of a bed made of the letters, and the baseball-doughnut association.

If you draw a lower case b and a lower case d with the straight line done as the outline of a baseball bat and the round part like the outline of a doughnut (use physical objects if you want to - games and sweets can make anything memorable, right?), you can have the child tell you what s/he sees first (reading from left to right, of course) the baseball bat or the doughnut - and that will tell him/her which letter it is.

[Pata]

We did something similar to Eliana, but b begins with the back and d begins with the doughnut. It has worked wonders for my dd.