Several methods are used by teachers and parents to teach a child to read and write their b’s and d’s accurately. I’ve worked with many kids who’ve been taught by one or another method but they would still continue to confuse those two letters, both when reading them, and when writing them.
One method, described by Romalda Spalding years ago in [i]The Writing Road to Reading[/i] nearly always worked when I would teach it to a struggling reader, and I’ll get to that soon.
First, however, it’s very helpful, actually it’s necessary for the writing side of this to work, to teach a child to form “d” and “b” properly. When writing the letter “d” he should form the circle first, starting as though he’s going to write a “c” and then just continuing around and up, then back down to the base line.
When writing a “b” he should start with the line, at the top, drop to the base line, and then go back up and form the circle going clockwise, not counterclockwise, like many do. (Save that move for making “6”, not “b”.) In other words, form the “d” [i]circle first[/i], and the “b” [i]line first.[/i] This will be the key to keeping them straight when writing them.
Once a child can form the two letters correctly, he can take full advantage of Ms. Spalding’s method. I’ve written out the entire lesson in [url=http://www.ontrackreading.com/phonics-program/telling-b-from-d]Telling b from d[/url]. If you try this, you’ll find that it works, and the method has the distinct advantage that it introduces nothing that will interfere with comprehension, as some methods do.