I've posted before about being worried about DS now 5.5 and writing. He has made huge strides and now writes and draws for pleasure. His letters are not perfect but that's fine and they are getting better the more he does it. Numbers are now what the letters were, problematic. He's more interested in them so we are now noticing that he is having trouble in that he is reversing them. A relative said the dreaded d word, disappointed, so irritating, just because he was discussing prime numbers doesn't mean he can't have trouble writing them!!! Anyhow, I talked to him to make sure the relative hadn't undone all we had done and he knew we were super proud of the strides he made, his willingness to try, and is willingness to be corrected (which he is so much more open to).He is no longer resistant to learning it, which is awesome. What made me so pissed off with the relative is that he might have an LD like me, and they know that and are concerned so if he does, you would still say you are disappointed!!

But in talking to DS I noticed something, when he has something to copy, he is slow but does it correctly in terms of direction and overall look of the letter or number. But if he is trying to do it from memory, he is much slower, and often does it mirror imaged. I asked him what he thinks while he is writing without something to look at. First he thinks he won't be able to do it right (trying not to cry) then I said, no what does it look like in your head, like in a book, or like in a mirror. And he said in a mirror! But this is only with numbers now, he used to do it with letters but not anymore,although he is still pretty deliberate just not as slow.

Is this a concern, or am I just able to see, and he can describe, the development. Not sure what to make of it.

Thanks,

DeHe

Thinking about this some more, I think if its a development that has already gone through and 'got right' so o speak, its probably okay.


This is interesting that he said it looks like in a mirror, since that implies some ability visualise both the book and the mirror image and compare them. I don't know what it means, but it's interesting.

DeHe, the only way I was able to get letters and numbers facing the right way is that I had a reliable picture of the lower case A in my head and I remembered ALL other letters, and even eventually numbers relative to the A. I think I remembered the A with some freaking relationship to my handedness, which I was only able to remember by holding out my hand to pick up a pencil. These were the bizarre coping mechanisms I came up with my issues were never even noticed really, let alone remediated, so I am not suggesting he do as I did exactly. But perhaps some reference point to refer to is why he has sorted the alphabet but he hasn't found something similar for numbers?

My son had letter and number reversals until he was 7.5. After his IQ test with very high PRI, I talked with him about how he sees the letters/numbers - he can flip them all around in his head. I told him that not everyone has that gift, so his teachers would appreciate if he wrote them the way the teacher sees them when he's doing school work - he can flip them all around when he is writing for fun. Pretty much resolved the problem.

When DD was in vision therapy, her therapist gave her the following exercise to help with her with cross body integration and letter/number reversals. We used a white board mounted on the side of our refrigerator because the therapist wanted a big arm motion including the shoulder.

1) Draw an infinity symbol on the white board oriented horizontally. Draw a vertical center line through the infinity symbol. Write a "L" on the left side of the board and a "R" on the right side to help your child keep track of which is which.
2) Have the child trace over the infinity symbol starting from the centerline and moving up and to the left (like you are starting a handwritten "a"). Have the child shout out left and right as he/she crosses the centerline. Have the child trace the symbol and say the direction 10 times.
3) To practice specific letters or numbers, start from the centerline and write the letter or number for the child over the infinity symbol. The numbers "4, 5, 9" start with a motion that goes to the left of the centerline, "0, 6, 8" also go to the left but are centered over the centerline, "2, 3, 7" go to the right. Have the child trace over the letter/number 5 times and say the letter out loud as they are tracing.

DD still occasionally reverses letters and numbers but the incidence has decreased significantly.

Knute
Thanks for the tip, sounds like something we could do and interestingly sounds like what mumto3 did on her own. I am still stuck on the fact that he doesn't do it when copying but does without the help, but I know that my isses emerge under stress and this is stressful for him.

Boon - love how you asked him to do it the "right" way without making what he was doing seem wrong!

Gosh I just re read my post, sorry it was so garbled.