Learning Behavior in 4 1/2 Year Old: Spelling Backwards, Mirror Like

Backward writing is actually very common in kids this age. I did preschool assessments for years, and part of the testing was to have the child write his or her name. SO many were either completely backward or partially backward. The scoring for that section even had "writes some letters backward," and "writes entire name backwards." It didn't mean anything bad or good -just where a kid is developmentally.

My son is 4 also, and did this for about a month, a few months ago. It was weird, it he wrote with his right hand, he would write correctly. If he wrote with his left hand, he would write like you described. He writes the correct way now.

I think it is pretty common in kids 6 and under. I would watch but not stress over it too much if it is improving.

My 4 year old son doesn't really write letters even though he recognizes them. His preschool teacher does a lot of exercises that she calls "crossing the midline" (using both hands and/or one hand on both sides of the visual field) that are supposed to help with pre-writing. _The Out of Synch Child Has Fun_ has some examples (it is written to help children with various sensory processing disorders) but there are probably lots of other places to look too. I would think activites that use a left to right motion would be helpful as well.

I found an article on this:

http://www.todaysparent.com/schoolage/article.jsp?content...

Looks like it's okay -- nothing to really panic about. :)

My daughter does this. She's in kindergarten now and is doing a better job of not flipping her letters or numbers around. However, after school breaks, she flips them again. She can also read upside down, write words upside down, and draw pictures upside down. I think she just has the ability to do these things from many different angles, so it's harder for her to learn the one right way to write the letter p, for example. With practice, she gets it!

Like your daughter, when she was 4.5, she wrote a whole sentence in mirror image. She was already reading, so I knew she didn't have dyslexia. Keep an eye on your daughter, but it sounds like it won't be a big problem. It just might take her a little longer to learn the right way to write letters and numbers. But who know, maybe she'll grow up to be a world-famous architect!

C.
www.littlebitquirky.blogspot.com

Two of my kids did this, to a degree. My daughter, who is left handed, did it more. It wasn't all the time, and it wasn't a lot. She stopped doing it by I think first grade.

Totally normal...
My 3 1/2 year old will even spell signs backwards - instead of STOP she reads it like POTS and she writes her letters all over the place, backwards, upside down. Writing and reading for left to right is a completely learned skill and doesn't come natural.
I wouldn't worry to much at this age.

It is really hard to know if it is due to her age or if a learning disability will show once she is in school. Right now, don't worry too much. When she is in kindergarten keep a close eye on her progress in reading. There is a list of dolch words that she should learn (you could find the list on the internet) if she is not learning the words you may want to have her evaluated. At that time, the school will tell you that she is too young, do not believe them. Research and hire an advocate if you can.

My daughter has dyslexia. Like you, we have read to her since she was an infant. She loves books. When she was a toddler we would read a book to her once and she would have it memorized. In kindergarten she could not learn her site words. In first grade she continued to memorize books but still had a difficult time learning to spell, she also displayed a list of other symptoms related to dyslexia. I requested that she be tested, the school told me she was too young. Not true, the younger it is diagnosed and intervention started the better the outcome. I fought it, got her tested and just as I suspected she had dyslexia with an IQ of around 124 in 1st grade. She is now in 3rd grade, loves school, still loves books, and reads at a 4th grade level because she is in a reading rich environment, she is smart, motivated and we provided appropriate intervention at an early age. She does reverse her letters sometimes. Every now and then does she write entire words backwards, not often.

So, don't worry right now, just keep an eye on things and if you are on top of it, everything will be fine. Often children with dyslexia are extremely intelligent and possess many gifts. If you are curious, google the National dyslexia association for a list of symptoms to look for, I think it breaks symptoms down by age.
Good Luck, it sounds like you have a very smart little girl.

p.s. I have heard that a lot of kids who do not have dyslexia or any other learning disability do what you describe when they are young, I just wanted to tell you my experience so the you will be aware, not to worry you.

Hummm. I had a learning disability as a child & I wish someone had been observant enough to get it checked out....so I would. She might just be playing with letters & being creative. But it never hurts ot make sure something else isn't going on. I love Dr. Lange, a neuropsychologist in Portland that is very good and has a gentle manner that I don't think would intimidate children. Good luck and take care-

It's probably nothing to worry about. My daughter did this too, and now writes beautifully. I am a pre-k teacher and see this with my students as well.

My left-handed third child did more mirror-writing than his siblings. He's now a junior in college, with a B+ average. Relax!
Hope this helps!

she is or sounds very smart I wouldn't worry too much at all. My kids couldn't do that untill they were at least 5 she may also be a lefty or be able to do both hands ambi some thing dectris ??I forgot but know I am a wee bit the same.Don't stress it'll all work out.
S.

It's completely normal and how exciting that she is interested in learning at such an early age. My son is very similar, although we're still working on his writing. He knows all the letter shapes and can draw them large, but now it's a matter of mastering control over his little hand. I do not push this either, in fact, since he's my second he's lucky if I have time to help him at all. :) Kids are amazing. Keep up the good work and don't worry at all. She's fine. Oh, I wouldn't bother correcting her too much at this point. Keep it fun and she'll want to keep it up.

;

I've seen kids do that without it being an issue. It could also be an indicator of dyslexia. You can have her evaluated if you're concerned.

It's totally normal. Every 3-4 year old kid that I know had done this.

Don't worry, she will be fine. This is called pre-writing and to them they are writing. Just keep reading and pointing to words in books. This models the correct way and she will most likely come around in time. My daughter just turned 5, is a lefty, and still writes backwards sometimes. She loves to write, but it isn't perfect. Yet, I am so proud of her.

Start writing her little notes and encourage her to write to you. We all have a "mailbox" in our house. Just some shoe boxes that we modified so that each of us could have one. We write little letters to each other. My daughter got a Klutz Chicken Socks book called "Little Letters" for Christmas and has gone through every note card in it, plus one of the refills that you can get. I found it online and it was from her baby brother. She loved it, best gift for that age to practice. They also get to see true letters written, instead of text-ese, if you practice back and forth. What child doesn't love to get mail, even if it is within the house and not the actual mailbox.

Have fun with her. Oh, we also liked using the "magic pen" a year ago. Use a pen and make dotted letters forming various word groups, like dog, log, frog, bog, etc. and have her trace over them. We used the magic pen to play school teacher (I was the teacher and did the dotted words), she ate it up.

Learning is fun for them, make it a game.
D.

You could always have her tested for dyslexia or other vision problems -
Check with your opthalmologist to see if they do vision therapy or could give you a referral.

It's not uncommon for a kid to reverse letters or even numbers even through first grade but mirrored images are a little different than that.

I think you are too "concerned". You clearly have a very bright child. Relax and enjoy her for what she is. Maybe spend more time on other kinds of activities such as playing with dolls or out of door activities. Imagination is a very important aspect of growing up. Concentration on spelling and words is too structured for a four year old. Maybe she is telling you that she is just playing with words. I would want to know what interests her at pre-school. Good luck. Relax and enjoy your wonderful little girl.

I am a former classroom teacher, taught 1st, 4th, and 5th. My daughter was just past 3 and starting to write letters to form words and very eager to read. I got Teach Your Child to Read in Just 10 Minutes a Day (a purely phonics program and entirely logical system for teaching reading to 2- and 3-yr-olds). It was just $22 from Amazon and a fun and logical approach to teaching reading at that age. One main reason I started her so young was to capitalize on that curiosity and excitement, also to train her in good habits from the start. She still now and then will write letters in any order or from right to left to form words (we are not working on writing yet) but when reading, she goes from left to right. She is just now 3.5 and reading at the 1st grade level, and LOVING it! We are about 2/3 through the program. (She'll be at the 2nd grade level when finished with this book.) I wouldn't wait until kindergarten to teach your daughter. It is such a delight to be the one to open reading to her! I agree with the other moms who say your daughter is linguistically bright. My nephew (at 1.5) "read" a familiar book backwards word for word and shocked his parents at bedtime storytime! Encourage your daughter's reading and writing, and give her the tools she needs when she seems ready.

This is very common for young kids. Even 1st graders can have this problem. I wouldn't worry about it.

My insight tells me that she might be dyslexic.

Don't be concerned just yet. It sounds like she hasn't really learned the rules of writing yet. I was a kid who wrote backwards and mirrored. What happened for me is that language is VERY flexible in my mind (as may be the case for you daughter). I can read backward, mirrored, upside down and can still write in all of these configurations as well. Because of this flexibility with language, I was able to study 2 languages in high school and 5 languages at the same time in college with very little trouble (and always got As in all of them!) You may have a future polyglot on your hands! Just keep working with her on the rules, don't get frustrated and know that she may have great language skills later on because of this flexibility!

Hi K.,

Writing backward is extremely common in youngsters. I'm a preschool teacher and see it all the time. The best thing you can do to encourage your child to keep writing is NOT to bring it to her attention. Let her write her own way, because at this age, it's far more important to keep her interested in writing for herself, not for adult approval. If she asks you for feedback, you can remark that she's written a letter in a different direction than we usually write it, and leave it at that. If you make writing discouraging and no fun because she's 'doing it wrong', she'll be likely to view it as a difficult task and be more likely to give up.

If this is something YOU are motivated to address, pick up some sandpaper letters from a Montessori website. (They are wooden and have sandpaper on the top side.) These will help her to better orient her letters and provide and experiential, three-dimensional experience with them. Please remember that she's got plenty of time to learn how to do this, and that your child's kindergarten teachers will be able to give her even more support and encouragement in writing. At this point, though, let her do this for her own pleasure. I've seen children up to 6 or so do this, so don't worry--she'll get it her own time, and she sounds fine!

Ex- k-1 teacher her. Some kids do this at this age. Do not worry. Most out grow it and the kindergarten teacher has many tools to help her grow out of it.

One thing you can do at this age and at home that is not expensive, is make play do lower case letters of words that she is interested in. Don't keep them. Have her trace them like she is going to write them. Then put them back in the box and make them again tomorrow. Don't expect immediate success.

Let me know how it goes. W.

Children at this age haven't quite learned the skill of "tracking" with their eyes. A lot of time when I'm teaching piano at this age level, I have to actually point as the child reads, so that they know what direction to read in. You have to remember, Arabic is read from right to left, for example, not left to right. So they learn to track from right to left. We have to teach our children left to right!

Dislexia is where the student does the letter perfectly - backwards, and probably applies to words as well. I wouldn't worry about it yet. This is actually a very common thing, as the child learns to letter correctly. My sister who is very bright used to make all of her letters backwards, and yet she did well in school.

She's not dyslexic!! She's normal! I'm around kids her age daily (my own, babysitting, subbing at Kindergarten) and most kids I've seen do that. DON'T WORRY!!

I haven't taken the time to read any other responses yet, so apologies if this is duplicate. I have no advice per se about whether or not this is significant, but I wanted to share that my nearly 6 yo son does exactly what you describe as well, usually with names. You didn't mention if she always does it or only sometimes, and in contract my son is reading Dr. Seuss type books (just started about 2 weeks ago) and often will write words correctly. So for what it's worth, I don't think it's uncommon? Or perhaps it's rare and my son shares your daughter's infliction :-) Good luck and I'm going to read the other responses now to see if perhaps I need to be concerned as well. By the way, my son's Montessori teacher shared no concerns with me in this area so I assumed at this point of development it is normal. Seriously, I don't think I could write a name that way if I tried and don't know how they do it! I suppose after so many years of being "trained" to write it correctly our brain doesn't allow us to easily write it backwards/inverted.

It's called dyslexia and in most cases it will right itself. She is an extremely intelligent child. I would not worry as her teachers will correct her writing. If she reads before she goes to school you might consider private school. I read before going to public school and I could add two columns of numbers and my teachers were impossible trying to make me feel I couldn't do things because I was bored in school.
My advise is to start looking for a really well qualified private school that teaches at the child's level of development like a Montessori school.
And, I also sent my children to private school in the time between 5th and 8th grade when many schools are unable to help children with high IQ's.