It is not uncommon for children to confuse p/d/q/b.
There is a great video clip in which an educator holds up a watch by one end of the band and asks his audience of teachers what he is holding – a watch! He then then turns the watch upside down by holding it by the other end of the band and again asks what he is holding – a watch. He repeats this several more times holding the watch horizontally and then turning the watch so the audience can only see the back of the watch. He finishes by making the point that for the first 4 years of a child’s life he/she learns about object constancy (i.e., irrespective of how an object is held or from which angle it is viewed it is the same object – the watch doesn’t suddenly become a ball just because it is being held differently or viewed from a different angle).
However, when a child goes to school and starts learning the letters of the alphabet, suddenly this concept of object constancy no longer holds true – a stick with a circle can be a ‘p’, ‘d’, ‘q’ or ‘b’ depending on how it is viewed.
So, how can we help children having difficulty distinguishing between these letters and in particular between ‘b’ and ‘d’?
I very rarely work with students who don’t have a reasonable understanding of the alphabet. However, when I start at this level and teach students how to write each letter correctly including the correct starting position and direction of formation, they don’t confuse ‘b’ and ‘d’ when writing, even though they might confuse the letters when reading. This suggests that a good starting point is to ensure that children are forming the letters correctly.
As a child, I never found it particularly helpful talking about a bat and ball or drum and drumsticks because I could never remember if it was ball and bat or bat and ball, or drum and drumsticks or drumsticks and drum.
My suggestions:
- Show the student how to correctly form a ‘b’ using the verbal cue: /b/-bat hits the ball forward – /b/. Ask the student to write the letter while saying the verbal cue. Once the student is forming the letter correctly, you can drop the verbal cue to /b/-bat. Challenge the student to write the letter ‘b’ as many times as possible in one minute on a whiteboard while saying the verbal cue -/b/ bat. If the student makes an error rub out immediately and remind them /b/ bat down hit the ball forward.
- Once the student can easily write and correctly write the letter around 15-20 times in a minute, repeat the activity on lined paper, preferably using dotted thirds so that the letter is correctly positioned and proportioned.
- Next introduce ‘d’ by discussing with the student how before you open a door you need to turn the door know. Show the student how to correctly form a ‘d’ using the verbal cue-/d/ turn the doorknob then open the door /d/. It is also useful to compare the formation of ‘d’ with ‘a’. I find that children rarely reverse the letter ‘a’. Consequently, it is often useful if they think of the letter ‘d’ as being like the letter ‘a’ with a long stick. Write the word ‘dad’ on a whiteboard and then place a piece of paper on the top half of the word to demonstrate the similarity between ‘d’ and ‘a’.
- Next, ask the student to write the letter ‘d’ while saying the verbal cue. Once the student is forming the letter correctly, you can drop the verbal cue to /d/-doorknob. Challenge the student to write the letter ‘d’ as many times as possible in one minute on a whiteboard while saying the verbal cue -/d/ doorknob. If the student makes an error rub out immediately and remind them /b/ turn the doorknob then open the door.
- Once the student can easily write and correctly write the letter around 15-20 times in a minute, repeat the activity on lined paper, preferably using dotted thirds so that the letter is correctly positioned and proportioned.
- The next step is to mix up the writing of ‘b’ and ‘d’. Tell the student to write either /b/ or /d/ – use the sound not the letter name. Count how many times they can write the letters correctly in a minute. Again, they should be easily write 15-20 letters correctly. Begin writing on a whiteboard and then transition to lined paper.
- Once children can do this activity, challenge them to write words which contain both ‘b’ and ‘d’ (e.g., bed, bad, bid, bud, dob, dub, dab, dib, bib, bub, dad, did, bend, band, bead, etc.). I always to it as a game, whereby every time the student writes the word correctly, they get a point. Every time they make an error, I get the point. The first person to 5 wins.
Alternative suggestion:
- Teach students the bed (see accompanying picture). Bed begins with ‘b’ and the first hand looks like a ‘b’ with the thumb and side of the hand forming the ‘stick’ and the fist forming the ‘ball’. Bed ends with ‘d’ and the second hand looks like a ‘d’. Many children need to see the two letters written and make the comparison between the shape of the letter and the shape of their hands to make the connection. Actually draw the letters on the children’s hands so they can clearly see the link between the shape of the letter and the shape formed by their hand.
- Focus on one letter. For right-handed children, I would initially just focus on the ‘b’ and talk about their /b/ hand. I would suggest placing a rubber band around the left hand as a tactile reminder that this is the /b/ hand. Ask the student to form the /b/ with their left hand and fingers. Relate this to the shape of a ‘b’.
- Every time the student wants to write ‘b’ or ‘d’ encourage them to form the first part of the bed with their ‘b’ left hand and to say /b/ bat. This is ‘b’. If they are writing ‘b’, then they just copy the formation. If they are writing ‘d’, it’s the other one and the cue is /d/ doorknob. For left-handed children do the reverse (i.e., they form the end of the bed with their right hand. This is ‘d’ and the reverse is ‘b’). I would then introduce the letters in the reverse order.
- Every time students write ‘b’ or ‘d’, encourage them to check irrespective of whether the letter has been written correctly or incorrectly. As this checking process is understood, change from a verbal cue to just tapping on the letter. Hopefully, students will begin checking without prompting!!
- You may also find that with some students need to consolidate differentiating between b/d in print. The Sound Hearing book has activities that would be useful.
Some children also confuse ‘p’. Once students have stopped confusing d/b, then introduce ‘p’. The verbal cue is – /p/ draw the pig’s leg then it’s head /p/. Follow the same steps as for b/d.
To consolidate students’ knowledge of p/d/b you can use the p-d-b writing dice. However, do NOT use the dice as a teaching aid. It should only be used as a fun way of practising and consolidating the correct formation of p/d/b.