In fact, writing letters backwards is part of how kids develop writing skills. When you think about it, b, d, p, and q are all really the same letter. They're just turned in different directions. So it's not surprising that kids who are just learning to write would flip them around.
The majority of kids outgrow reversing as they get stronger at reading and writing. Reversing letters is typical and fairly common up until second grade. That's because the letters b, d, p, and q are really all the same letter. They're just flipped and turned.
Letter reversals, when children write letters backward or upside down, can be common up until the age of 7 years. It is often called mirror writing. This is due to poor working memory as well as weaknesses in visual processing skills. Children typically reverse the letters b, d, q, p, and the numbers 9, 5, and 7.
It is very likely that, at some point, your child will write their letters backwards as they learn to write. This is usually nothing to be concerned about: number reversals are also very common. Most children will reverse some of their numbers or letters up to around the age of seven.
Most people think that dyslexia causes people to reverse letters and numbers and see words backwards. But reversals happen as a normal part of development, and are seen in many kids until first or second grade. The main problem in dyslexia is trouble recognizing phonemes (pronounced: FO-neems).
Mirror writing is an unusual script, in which the writing runs in the opposite direction to normal, with individual letters reversed, so that it is most easily read using a mirror.
180° rotational ambigrams
"Half-turn" ambigrams or point reflection ambigrams, commonly called "upside-down words", are 180° rotational symmetrical calligraphies. We can read them right side up or upside down, or both. Rotation ambigrams are the most common type of ambigrams for good reason.
An ambigram is a word or design that retains meaning when viewed from a different direction or perspective. Specifically, a rotational ambigram reads the same when viewed upside down, while a mirror or bilateral ambigram is one that reads the same backward and forward.
A child who has visual impairment, can struggle with letter formation as a result of decreased exposure to letters during reading. In certain cases of ADHD, impulsivity can lead to letter reversals, particularly when a child rushes the pen strokes of a letter and does not proofread his or her own work.
Letter reversals can be common in many children up until age 7, or 3rd grade. Occasional reversals past age 8 are common too. The reason for this has been suggested to be poor working memory and also a lack of visual processing skills. This does not mean your child has a learning difficulty.
Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words. Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word. Difficulty spelling.
Reading & writing
take longer to write, and produce less, than other students. immediately forget what they have just read. present a slower reading and processing speed. miss out words or skip lines as they read.
Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder characterized by writing disabilities. Specifically, the disorder causes a person's writing to be distorted or incorrect. In children, the disorder generally emerges when they are first introduced to writing.
Transient mirror writing sometimes occurs in both left-handed and right-handed healthy children as a normal phase during writing development.
Although the term was recently coined by the American scholar of cognitive science, Douglas Hofstadter, the existence of ambigrams has been attested since at least the first millennium, where the first sator square palindrome was found in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii (79 AD).
Ability to write mirrored text
15% of left-handed people have the language centres in both halves of their brain. The cerebral cortex and motor homunculus are affected by this, causing the person to be able to read and write backwards quite naturally.
It is an unusual script, in which the writing runs in the opposite direction to normal, with individual letters reversed, so that it is most easily read using a mirror. This writing is seen in healthy individuals; it is also associated with various lesions that most commonly involve the left hemisphere.
Children may struggle with reverse letters and mirror writing due to a poor or lack of understanding of how to correctly form letters. Mirror writing can also be a common indicator of dyslexia in students. However, it is important to know that not all students with dyslexia struggle with mirror writing.
ADHD is not a cause of dysgraphia. However, children with ADHD are at a higher than average risk of developing dysgraphia; they may have additional learning disabilities as well. Some evidence suggests that girls with ADHD may be more likely than boys to have both dysgraphia and dyslexia.
The 4 types of dyslexia include phonological dyslexia, surface dyslexia, rapid naming deficit, and double deficit dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disorder where the person often has difficulty reading and interpreting what they read.
Symptoms. Kids with dysgraphia have unclear, irregular, or inconsistent handwriting, often with different slants, shapes, upper- and lower-case letters, and cursive and print styles. They also tend to write or copy things slowly.