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Why Does My Child Write Their Letters Backwards?
274 Plays1 day ago
Episode 80. This week, Miss Beth dives into a question she hears all the time from concerned parents: "Why does my child write their letters backwards?"
In this episode, Miss Beth goes over backward letter writing in children, reversing letters and numbers, typical writing development milestones, and when to worry about letter reversals.
If you've ever watched your child scribble their name with letters facing the wrong direction, you're definitely not alone! This is completely normal and part of your child's natural development. Miss Beth explains why backward writing is so common in early learners and shares the encouraging news that most kids naturally outgrow this phase by around age seven.
You'll also discover why proper letter formation matters, how reading and writing skills work hand-in-hand, and some practical, fun ways to support your budding writer at home.
So grab your favorite beverage, get cozy, and let's chat about writing development. Your child's literacy journey is just beginning, and we're here to help you every step of the way!
Tracing Letters A-Z Handwriting Graphic
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Transcript
Is it natural for children to write backwards?
00:00:00
Speaker
Let's do, is this natural or not? Is it natural for my five-year-old to be writing letters and words completely backwards? Let's talk about it.
00:00:12
Speaker
Play Onwards! This is Play Onwards from Big City Readers. Is this Beth? Okay. Welcome back to the play on words podcast. I'm miss Beth. And today we have a great parent question that we're going to be diving into that. I actually get all the time and it is how common is it for my five-year-old to write things backwards.
Understanding reversed writing in child development
00:00:37
Speaker
And today I'm actually so excited because my friend and coworker slash boss is here. Would you say you're my boss?
00:00:47
Speaker
Sometimes. yeah um Susan, so we're just going to talk about this topic together because, well, actually how you came to be here for the fans is you were a Big City Readers mom and then you started working for the team and I love that. so Yeah, a parent and a Big City Readers team member.
00:01:07
Speaker
Love it. All right. So the parent asks, I'm not sure how common this is or if you've ever encountered it, but my five-year-old sometimes writes things backwards. Sometimes it's almost eerie. The letters are backwards and the sentence is backwards, spelled correctly, but everything is like a mirror image. Is this a sign of anything or is his brain working through learning how to write and read? Side note, I also can write upside down backwards and memorize the alphabet backwards as a kid. So I'm less concerned and more curious. Wow. What was your first thought? okay
00:01:39
Speaker
My thought was I was impressed that she could write upside down and backwards and memorize the alphabet backwards. That was like, hold on. That's the more unusual part of this question to me. Yeah. In the mirror. And also I thought this is perfect for October because...
00:01:53
Speaker
speaking of why are why is the coco cart so cute why is it so creepy when things are written mirror image backwards like there's something eerie about that she's right she is right and i'm re-watching stranger things and ah i don't think you have to say spoiler alert when it's 10 years old did you ever watch it yes Okay, so we we just finished season one last night, and I like couldn't remember it. I was like gasping at things again. Really good rewatch like if you want to rewatch it. I don't really like spooky, so it's like it's just enough spooky for me.
00:02:27
Speaker
But at the end, spoiler alert, at the end, Will like looks of season one, he like looks in the mirror, and then like all of a sudden like the the but like lights flicker, and it goes back to like the upside down, and then it stops. And he's like, oh no. So maybe that's why mirrors are creepy. I don't know.
00:02:44
Speaker
No, I do have more thoughts on on this part though. I don't know a lot about creepy, but okay. I'm going to talk. And if you, you be the parent because you are a parent, if there's anything that like, you're like, wait, wait, wait, can you explain that more?
00:02:58
Speaker
Feel free to jump in and also feel free to weigh in as, as a big city reader's parent, because I know you joke like, oh yeah, I'm going to start being, I'm going to start teaching reading, but you actually, you've been here for a long time and you do, you've worked very closely with me. So you probably do have a lot of thoughts on the topic. So feel free to jump in.
00:03:15
Speaker
But i love that she's not like worried. She's just like, yeah, I'm just curious. But I think I've talked about this topic to you before.
Teaching print tracking for proper writing direction
00:03:24
Speaker
So one thing that is happening with kids is our brains are still learning to distinguish between left and right and how to orient letters in the right way. And this is like a really normal part of development. And it's how we process visual information before We really master the direction of how we write.
00:03:46
Speaker
So what that really means is, okay, I have this coffee table snake and I'm holding it right side up. It's a snake. If I flip it over, it's still a snake. If I flip it on its side, it's still a snake.
00:04:00
Speaker
And so when five-year-olds especially, or like little kids before age seven, like that's when we start to see it solidify, but they are seeing letters as an object. And so whether it's the snake or a hat or the remote control or a shoe or a letter,
00:04:17
Speaker
It still stays the same if it's flipped upside down, if it's flipped on its side. The thing they haven't learned yet is that the letter needs to be facing a certain way for it to make that sound. Um, or to like, they haven't, they haven't learned that it needs to be in a certain way. Like if they put their shoe in their room or in. The basement, it's still their shoe. If they put it on their head or in their pocket or on their foot, it's still their shoe. Letters are really, like, and numbers are the only thing that need to be a certain way for it to be that object that they that they want it to be.
00:04:53
Speaker
And it's the same for words. but Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. actually i just took a screenshot today of, I was looking for something and I just remembered, I was like, I should pull this up to show people because it's one, so adorable. And two, well, actually i took a couple screenshots. So the first one here, it says, um, Atlas loves Beth, miss, but like, he doesn't understand that like in order to read it as miss Beth, that miss needs to go before Beth. You know, like we haven't learned that the words need to be in a certain order. We haven't learned that the letters need to go in a certain way. So yeah, the opposite, the writing the letters backwards and the writing the words backwards, they just think like, all right, I'm writing this on the page, like anywhere on the page, it counts. And this is why it's so important to teach kids. Like if you take our baby or toddler or preschool class, you'll notice, oh, I guess I do have a book in front of me, but
00:05:51
Speaker
It's a coffee table book, it's not a children's book. So for those watching, or not watching, it's a pop art book. What's really important is teaching kids um how to track print. So we don't wanna teach kids to memorize words, but we wanted to start pointing out that print moves from left to right and top to bottom. So that means like you could just open a picture book and say,
00:06:16
Speaker
Point to the first picture before they're able to like point to the first letter or word. So we're starting to show them like, oh, top and left is where we start. And you can also do this with like drawing activities. I like to put like a star at the top left corner or a sticker, whatever you have. And then another one at the bottom right corner. And like say, like how can you get there? like Connect these two. But like the star, like make it consistent on the one that starts. So like star is always the start. maybe you have a stop sticker or maybe you just do a red dot at the bottom right and it's like that's the end so we're just teaching them to get there you might draw them like a zigzag and like have them connect it or like do like a dotted line and have them like connect it so we're just starting to show that print moves that way like everything moves that way does make sense
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, and you said age, Shisa mentions that her child is five, and you said that by about age seven, that was going to be question. When should it start to be a concern and and should you always be correcting it, no matter what age they're doing it? This is a great question. People are going to love having you here.
00:07:25
Speaker
I mean, I do already because you already keep me in line.
When to be concerned about writing backwards
00:07:29
Speaker
I could just ramble for days. um Okay, so up through like age seven-ish, like I hate to give a specific time because then people are like, oh no, they turned seven and they haven't fixed it.
00:07:40
Speaker
And it also doesn't mean that your child's advanced if they never did this. So, you know, like take, you know, what's that old saying? Like take, um don't let compliments go to your head and don't let criticism go to your heart. Like don't, don't take every like milestone as exactly that.
00:07:55
Speaker
But around age seven is when we want to see kids um starting to understand that print needs to be in a certain way for it to makes sense. Like, so the letters and their names should go in order. They should start writing their words in the right order. um Before each seven, we want to see them writing their words in order, but like P, Q, B, D reversals through like the beginning to middle of second grade is really typical. And it's not like the sign for dyslexia. So many people think like, oh my gosh, they write their B's and D's backwards. Are they dyslexic? Um, no, there's a lot more signs for dyslexia and two of them being actually like to look out for more is if they struggle with rhyming and if they struggle with naming colors.
00:08:43
Speaker
So there you go. That outsider, tens that wasn't for this episode. but We do have a dyslexia podcast episode, so maybe we should link that one. um Um, yeah, go ahead. But correcting, like, should you, even if it's normal, is it still something that is going to be, they're going to just sort of correct them themselves over time? Or is it something that you should correct them? I would say less correcting them, more focus when you're reading the book, showing them that it has to move a certain way. So that might look like having them point to the words while you read it out loud to them.
00:09:18
Speaker
or Or just saying like, point to the first word, point to the last word. um, fine, you know, point to the spaces. So they're just starting to realize and see, oh this is how print works. Like I need it to go in a certain order. So at five, i i wouldn't really correct it. I might even like show them in the mirror and be like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. You wrote it in this way that we can see it. It's a code only we can read in the mirror. Like these are mirror words. Like you can like celebrate what they did without like squashing their confidence. And then like on a different day or later that day, like,
00:09:57
Speaker
pull out an activity, you say let's write a sentence together or let's write a word together and then you show them how to write that word. So show them by stretching out the word. Say you're gonna write like, the cat ran. And so you're gonna do cat together and go cat. What's the first sound? And they're gonna say kuh and then you're gonna say what letter spells kuh?
00:10:18
Speaker
And then they're gonna say C. And so then you're gonna do like also then you could have them count the sounds. at, and they're going to say three sounds. You can count them with your fingers. Then put three lines on the board and then point to, okay, you said the first sound is and that letter is C. Put the C there. That's the first one. So it's more so in isolation of practice that you're going to do it with specific words or sentences. Really focus on showing them how we move print from left to right and how it needs to be in order. And then like really, really honing in on that practice of like, okay, so say you you stretch out the words, you count the sounds, you draw three lines for the sounds, you have them write at with you. It takes like seven minutes. You're going to this with two sentences. You're going to have them read the sentence back to you and touch each word as they do it. So these are the moments that are actually going to help them
00:11:12
Speaker
understand that they need to write in a certain way but correcting it in that moment i would say like kind of just squashes confidence so i might say like oh my gosh how cool let's go read it in the mirror and then at a different time then show them we gotta to start it right here so the first letter goes here and just really really like overdo it on like one short sentence like really really practice I feel like this question about flipping letters and writing backwards comes up all the time.
00:11:43
Speaker
And is it ever a concern? Or is this just one of those things that we notice as parents? Because it's like an easy thing to see. We're like, okay, this is wrong. um and But you're saying it's not it's not necessarily a big dyslexia like sign.
00:11:59
Speaker
um So is it generally like a normal thing and oh yeah fine i've never seen it i've never seen a kid not flip letters i i would almost feel like it's more of a concern if they like are three four or five years old and never flipped a letter like but it's so developmentally appropriate that no it's not concern but if they're like seven and a half if you've done explicit instruction like this so i always like to remind parents and teachers like we can't say that it's a concern if we haven't done valid instruction so like that means like if they're just reversing letters and you haven't practiced doing this stuff with them for like six weeks
00:12:38
Speaker
Then that's not really a concern. Like they just maybe haven't been taught. That would be like, if you were like going to a workout class for the very first time and they're like showing you all these moves and and they're like, go do it. And you're like, I don't know how to do these moves. And they're like, whoa, she needs a physical therapist evaluation. She can't even move her body.
00:12:58
Speaker
like so Like you need to be taught the right form and format in anything that we do. If you are working explicitly with your child, say you're noticing they're doing backwards letters, they're five and a half, six.
00:13:13
Speaker
You do this method that I just told you. You practice two decodable sentences a day. spending 10 minutes a day on those two short decodable sentences, five days a week for four weeks, and you see absolutely no change, then I would say that's something, not a concern, but something to note. And like, whenever you go to get like an assessment or or to see a diagnostician, like they're going to ask for all of your evidence. So it's just a good...
00:13:38
Speaker
a good practice to like just take notes. like Just like you're a detective of your child, so it's not like, oh God, is this a problem? But it's like, oh, I noticed this. And then I really practiced it with them and it didn't get better.
00:13:50
Speaker
Maybe I should talk to someone about them. So only holding them accountable for what we have taught them. That's also like a behavioral practice. I remember this from my classroom days that like it was, um, I was trained in the responsive classroom. And so like, that means like everything is about logical consequences and stuff. So if you give kindergartners crayons and they start drawing on the table, but you didn't explicitly say what you wanted them to do. That is not a behavioral issue. That was, that's on the teacher. So it's the same thing. Like we are so like schools in general.
00:14:23
Speaker
oh I won't go down this tangent, but a friend, well, maybe that will, but a friend texted me saying like her first grade teacher, the first two weeks of school said her child needs to get outside tutoring. And I was like,
00:14:37
Speaker
I need more information. Like, can you ask for the assessments they conducted? Can you ask for like what the school is doing? What, what tiers have they done with him for, um, for reading intervention? And like, that's such a, such a jump to be like, he's struggling, no information and get outside tutoring. So for any parent that's like, oh, my kid can't do this. Like ask yourself, have they been taught the right way? Have I worked on this with them?
00:15:05
Speaker
And then, and do I have enough time that I've worked on this with them, that I have evidence that they are struggling with this. That's good point. But around second grade, um, reversals fade as ah as a fine motor pattern and left to right dominance, like, you know, by they've been learning how to read and write in first
Impact of the pandemic on handwriting skills
00:15:25
Speaker
grade. So they really, their visual processing should mature like that all should like solidify.
00:15:31
Speaker
by around second grade. so So I would say like first grade and kindergarten, not that big of a worry. If they haven't been practicing, not that big of a worry, but if they're like end of second grade, then I would maybe just note it.
00:15:46
Speaker
Speaking of writing, I was scrolling through Instagram, as you do, and now I'm being fed all these reading all this reading content. And Scary Mommy made a post about how 10-year-olds and kids who are older, we're talking about 5- to 7-year-olds, but now older kids, 10-year-olds, are having such a difficult time with handwriting and writing that teachers are like giving them tracing worksheets and worksheets from for like kindergarten age level to catch up with writing And they're saying this is not just at this one school, but they're seeing it at many schools. And then I'd seen responses to that too of of parents of kids that age, 10 to 12, blaming kind of pandemic time on that, saying their kids were like in kindergarten at the time of the pandemic.
00:16:31
Speaker
So they didn't get the writing practice at that time. And so they did more, you know, typing. So do you have any advice if kid if people are noticing they're like 10-year-old not being able to write clearly? I mean, this probably isn't writing backwards, but...
00:16:49
Speaker
No, i write correctly I've been noticing this too. Have you noticed this about writing? What, or are you, yeah, what? My child goes to a school where they do cursive. They learn cursive. And I do think that that, and they don't do any typing yet. She's in second grade and they're all, they they do a lot of handwriting practice. So,
00:17:08
Speaker
Personally, I believe her handwriting is beautiful. It is. I've seen it. I've seen it. But um I know that's not the case for like every school. So yeah, I personally haven't seen that in my child, but anecdotally, I guess this is happening.
00:17:23
Speaker
Well, you know this, like I've been in a lot of my tutoring sessions and consultations with parents and like the small groups tutoring that I'm working with first graders. This was like, i like take notes individually on each of the kids. And I then like look at all my notes at the end of the week and like cross examine patterns and stuff. And I have seen so many kids, every single child I've worked with struggling with writing.
00:17:51
Speaker
writing formation, like writing letters from the bottom, which I think is not talked about enough because I think that people don't think it matters that much. They're like, if they're getting it done, they're getting it done. But like, that's, that's the same thing as like saying that giving your kid cotton candy is like feeding them. It's food. It's like, is it? It's not,
Importance of correct letter formation
00:18:10
Speaker
it's not really food. Like kids writing the wrong way in first grade and us not correcting it is like feeding, feeding them cotton candy for a week and being like, They're getting their food there. It's like, you're going to have a mess at the end of that week. And you're going to like, it's going to backfire for sure. ah So we need to make sure that we are jumping in really early talking about how we form the letters, just like how we're talking about that print moves from left to right and top to bottom, like writing print moves from left to right and top to bottom. So it all goes together. So if we're not teaching kids, that like their letters need to start at the top and move to the left, then they're going to be writing the letters the wrong way. And so what happens when kids are writing the letters the wrong way um is it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it leads to so much so much frustration. So it's like these split second moments that kids, when they're writing, if they're not taught and automatically writing, like we know that the letters move this way, um they are having these split second moments when they're writing. And if they're in second grade, they might have to write like their opinion on things. So we're asking them to think about the text, come up with your idea, write it in a creative way, and know how everything is spelled and know how to form all the letters. So they're having like in these like quick, quick, quick moments that we don't even see in their brain, like so many things to think about.
00:19:39
Speaker
So teaching proper letter formation is just one of the ways that we make sure that like that's off their plate. And cursive is one of the ways that that really helps because we have to form the letters the right way because the letters are all connected. So you can't lift up your pencil and write one letter the wrong way. Have you heard that letters need to be starting at the top? Have I? Yeah.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yes. but but but but but I'm like wondering that. like I'm wondering if parents are like, yeah, i know letters need to start at the top. No, I think this is a really ah good topic because I don't think... It's not something that I...
00:20:17
Speaker
thought about or considered, especially when my daughter was younger, like before school, that I i knew letters needed to start at the top, but I think I didn't realize ah how that that actually impacted other things. like But yeah, it is. And I think it's not really emphasized.
00:20:34
Speaker
It's not. And so so the brain isn't born typically knowing directionality. so kids don't naturally see mirror images as the same. That's why it's called mirror invariance. So um that's why like they're not thinking that word is is wrong that's written backwards. But writing direction, like correctly writing letters over and over trains the brain to notice that. So if we're like kids struggle with B and D often because they don't know how to properly write the letter. So B and D are written really different. And so this is why explicit handwriting instruction, like starting at the top, moving left to right, really matters because it helps develop spatial awareness for print, which then like is easier for us to read.
00:21:21
Speaker
But also... when so like writing like we said like writing direction matters because we know english print moves from left to right and top to bottom so writing letters correctly helps the brain build consistent pathways between what it sees what it says and what it does. and that's how reading fluency is built. So writing letters the proper way matters a lot for how kids read as well. And when we form letters backwards, we're reinforcing a different motor map in the brain. So forming the correct way helps kids to store for accurate muscle memory and visual memory
00:22:04
Speaker
of each of the letters and each of the words as as they are building them. As you're talking, I just realized I write my S's. My name is Susan, so i have two S's. And I always have always written written my S's from the bottom up. like And i never only as an adult I found out that that was like the wrong way to do it. So but clearly nobody corrected me as a child when I wrote my name. Susan, I can't feel I didn't ask this when I was interviewing you.
00:22:31
Speaker
That's the only one I think now I'm like going over my head. I'm like, how do I write my letters? Do I write them? I actually have to admit something. I, I, I write the letter M from the bottom. But so like, it's like, there is a little bit of nuance. Like if it's like one thing, but when we're teaching, when we're talking about like, if you have like a fourth grader and you're like, everything's fine and they're excelling in school and they have no anxiety or no frustrations, I'm not going to correct their right.
00:22:56
Speaker
Great. Like no one is saying do that. Like obviously we have gotten by with just these one letter that we do the wrong way. This is talking about how to help set kids up for success from the beginning. And so writing the right way, it also helps build orthographic mapping, which not to totally nerd out, but you know how I love
Orthographic mapping and its role in literacy
00:23:16
Speaker
it. Please do. Okay. Okay. If you insist. Orthographic mapping is the process of connecting letters to sounds to meaning.
00:23:24
Speaker
um And it's something that happens in the brain. And so every time a child writes a letter correctly, their brain strengthens that connection between the visual of what the letter looks like, the motor, what it feels like to write, and the phoneme, like what it sounds like.
00:23:43
Speaker
And so this helps the brain. it be able to instantly recognize words. So you've heard me talk about orthographic mapping for sight words, like how we want to map the word the right way, how we map the word, we count the sounds in cat and then we write the sounds in order. So orthographic mapping is an actual like brain process of instantly recognizing and um recalling the words and decoding.
00:24:10
Speaker
So it eventually happens automatically, but we can practice building this skill in the brain by practicing writing the letters the right way, by practicing mapping the words, by practicing counting the sounds.
00:24:25
Speaker
But it's not about perfection. It's about... It's about pattern. So like, we don't want to pressure five-year-olds to write every letter perfectly, but we want to build consistency. So, so, you know, I would say like, if they're writing for fun,
00:24:44
Speaker
this is not the time to correct them. I would take like separate that these these times. So let them write for fun and do whatever they want. Then like two hours later be like, let's practice something and like practice writing a story together. Like we start, the first word goes right where the star is and the last word goes where the circle is and just like giving them that visual of when they can practice. But like let their creativity still be their creativity.
00:25:08
Speaker
Also, other ways you can practice this, multi-sensory practice. So you can trace in the air um letters. So like have them, like do this if you're at like the grocery store in line, like have them trace letters in the air or trace in sand.
00:25:22
Speaker
or like on their siblings or classmates backs, which is like a fun little like, you know, multi-sensory in a lot of ways activity, like writing the letters from the top or just like writing them in the carpet, in the grass, like multi-sensory just means another sense. It doesn't have to be like messy shaving cream or sand. But the more senses we use the more pathways and connections happen in the brain. So like just as many senses as you can, which somebody emailed us the other day that they were spelling with their pasta, right?
00:25:52
Speaker
I love that. That was so cute. One other thing to note is that reading and writing are super connected. And I think so many people put such a focus on reading, but like writing is actually a great way that you can see what your child is understanding.
The connection between reading and writing
00:26:10
Speaker
So, so many kids can read like really big words, but they can't write them. And that is actually like a secret window into what you should be working on with your child, looking at what spelling patterns they are struggling with. And typically in this like five, six year old stage, if they can read it, they should be able to write it.
00:26:31
Speaker
But writing backwards doesn't mean that they're behind in decoding. um This is just like just a little note to keep in mind about writing. But writing, like I always say this to people, like send me a picture of your child's writing on Instagram and I can like tell you what I'm noticing. And it's not even going to be about their messy handwriting or not. Like I want to see their independent writing of how they're spelling words. Because as we know, we've talked about how.
00:26:55
Speaker
Inventive spelling is an important developmental stage through second and sometimes third grade, but we're only holding kids accountable for what we have taught them. So we want to make sure that we're teaching kids how to write the letters the right way. That print moves from left to right. We're going to be talking about that books open this way and you can start that with your baby or toddler. Like we do this in our toddler on demand class. Like I show you how that looks with a baby. Point to the first picture.
00:27:19
Speaker
Going to the last picture. Let's count the piggies. One, two, three. And you count them in order. These tiny moments, even taking like your child's Cheerios and like counting them, moving from left to right, or stacking them in a tower and counting them from top to bottom. These are tiny moments that are building their print awareness. and these foundational skills that kids need before they even read and write. So by the time they're five or six, we want to make sure they have this super strong foundation of understanding this is how we open the book. This is how we close the book. This is how we turn the page. This is where we define the first word. This is the last word. This is the letter P. These are uppercase letters. These are lowercase letters.
Building foundational skills with engaging activities
00:28:00
Speaker
This is how we write the letter P. where Do we start our letters at the top?
00:28:06
Speaker
All of these little fun, little sing-songy, sweet, silly moments that seem like, ah this doesn't matter. All kids learn how to do this. No, that's not true. They don't. These moments matter.
00:28:19
Speaker
And it's really important to make sure that you are really enforcing these things in a fun, exciting way that builds your child's confidence and makes them feel like they are ready to try new things. um And that like, it's okay that they made a mistake. You know, I love when kids are like, yay, I made a mistake. Oh my gosh, you wrote that letter from the bottom. Let's erase it and start over. Where do we start our letters? And they'll always sing back at the top. and then they'll fix it. So so all these tiny moments really, really help kids in the long run and in their journey of becoming readers and writers.
00:28:57
Speaker
Last question about letters, because we get this a lot too. Does it matter if you're, for the younger kids, if you're teaching them capital uppercase letters or lowercase letters, do you have a preference? Oh, that's such a good, such a good question, Susan. um Like, okay, so lowercase, I like teach them both at the same time.
00:29:19
Speaker
Lowercase letters are going to be instrumental in learning to read. If kids are just recognizing uppercase letters, they are going to struggle with reading because most books, most words, there's just a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and then the rest is lowercase letters. So I focus, I would like to do both together or more focus on lowercase letters.
00:29:44
Speaker
However, toddlers Our hands aren't fully able to form all of the curves in lowercase letters. Actually, there's a graphic I'll share with this, but we can first do up and down lines and then horizontal lines, um then a circle, but we it's tricky to start to do diagonal letters.
00:30:09
Speaker
And so we want to make sure that we're giving lots of opportunities for for kids to be able to do this. So it's easier for kids to, at the very early stage, to be writing uppercase letters, but we want them to be able to recognize lowercase letters too.
00:30:25
Speaker
And if just because their hands aren't developmentally ready to write uppercase letters yet doesn't mean that we can't practice them. Like you can have them build the letter with Play-Doh. Like I always love to have them roll Play-Doh and like make the lines and like curve, like, you know, like make a snake and like curve it up. And that's how you make the E.
00:30:43
Speaker
There's lots of ways to practice writing letters and honestly writing letters, like the best way to do it is like having them be at the park and go on the monkey bars, strengthen their hands so they can write those letters and then like do like follow the leader and build a letter. um with your feet like marching on the sidewalk or bring chalk and have them like trace the letters starting at the top with their feet use their whole body so like we can help them learn how to build that letter like by walking the letter that's really big drawn on the sidewalk or by drawing the letter in the air you know e starts here and and then comes up and curves around they can build these lowercase letters without
00:31:25
Speaker
having the hand strength to actually hold the pencil and write them. So do you think everyone should have those alphabet blocks and like, are those actually helpful? The magnetic alphabet letters or like having, i mean, I guess that would be for more letter recognition than writing unless you're tracing them with your hands.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. I, wait, are you thinking of the specific one in particular? No, I'm just thinking of the two that I feel like, especially as the, I feel like when your child is little, you feel like you have to have the alpha, whatever magnetic alphabet on your fridge. And you have to have like the alphabet puzzle, you know, like it's like a wooden, yeah but do those actually help? are they just like one more tool?
00:32:09
Speaker
They're just a tool. Like I am big into reminding parents, like there is no toy that is going to teach your child. You are going to teach your child. So like, I don't ever want people to feel bad. Like they need like, oh, everybody has that wooden puzzle, even though everybody does. But it's like, honestly, if I walked into your house and I saw a post-it with um like the letter C on a cup, I would be like, round of applause. That is a good parent. That is the best tool because you actually gave meaning to that letter. So yes, kids need to be able to name the letters, but so much more than that. And the the alphabetic principle is like to be able to, name every letter, uppercase and lowercase, to be able to name every sound, uppercase and lowercase, to be able to write every letter, uppercase and
Hands-on learning and parental involvement
00:32:55
Speaker
lowercase. Can they say, not sing the alphabet? So like so many people will be like, look at my one-year-old, they can sing the alphabet and they can even point to the letters and like that is great, that's that's really cool.
00:33:07
Speaker
But we need to see what kids can actually do with the sounds and um how they can put them in the right order to actually see that they're understanding how words and sounds work. So there's nothing wrong with having alphabet things. i like, I love seeing letters all over the house. I myself have like a jar of just ABCs that I like have it in my kitchen as like decor because it's like in a cookie jar and I just think it's cute.
00:33:33
Speaker
And like whenever anyone comes over, like, you know, we had two two-year-olds over the other day and I was like, took them out and like let them play with letters. Cause like kids just like tiny objects. So whatever like works with your family is great.
00:33:46
Speaker
I don't think there's like any tool that is magical at all. There's no game. that is magical in teaching your child how to read. There's no textbook. There's no workbook. Like you are the one that teaches your child. So don't feel like you have to, don't like, you don't have to buy into that consumerism of like, oh, this game is going to teach my child how to read. Like actually you are.
00:34:06
Speaker
Um, and you're going to teach them their letters and sounds too. And you can do it Play-Doh. You can do it with the carpet. You can do it with chalk, you can do it with a spray bottle, you can do it with paint, um but really we're looking for like consistency and um doing it the right way. So saying the sounds the right way and forming the letters the right way and doing it often in small amounts, like five minutes every day.
00:34:34
Speaker
It doesn't have to be like a 30-minute tutoring session twice a week, like just a couple minutes every day.
Personalized teaching methods and resources
00:34:40
Speaker
Okay, so to wrap this episode up, but here is your ah maybe parent permission slip to not do this perfectly.
00:34:50
Speaker
That it's okay for your child to write letters and words backwards as they are learning to write. We're only gonna hold kids accountable for what they have explicitly been taught.
00:35:04
Speaker
Introduce lowercase letters sooner than you think. If your child can't write all of the letters yet, that doesn't mean that they can't practice them. like There's a lot of ways that we can practice. So I guess the permission slip is, this is your permission to teach your child to read and write however it feels good for you and your child. It doesn't have to look like you sitting at a table. It doesn't have to look like having a tutor. It doesn't have to look like buying the game or the puzzle or the alphabet cards that everybody has. it just has to look like consistent, fun learning.
00:35:39
Speaker
And you are your child's first and best teacher. Don't you ever forget that you know your child best and they are going to learn so much more from you than anyone else in the world.
00:35:54
Speaker
So thank you so much for listening. i'm Miss Beth. This is the Play On Words podcast from Big City Readers. You can follow Big City Readers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, or go bigcityreaders.com. I am not kidding, you guys. We have thousands of free resources, activities, tips, tricks. So if you're like, I heard something here and I want someone else to know about it, like you can find the written version as well at bigcityreaders.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, will you share it with a friend and make sure that you're following here, wherever you're listening to this podcast, play on words. And it means so much if you will rate and review this
00:36:37
Speaker
show. That's how we get in front of other parents. And our goal here is to just make this not only the learning to read process, but like parenting and teaching your kids in general in the early years as easy and fun as possible. so Please um send us your questions if you have any. Let me know if you liked this episode. If you've got a story, a question, or even a win that you want to share, send it my way. I love to hang out with you in my DMs on Instagram at BigCityReaders. I love to hear from you and I might even share it on a future episode. So let me know if you have any questions. And as always, remember, you have what it takes to teach your child.
00:37:19
Speaker
See you soon. and