In my years of dyslexia tutoring, I have seen many symptoms of dyslexia that repeatedly surface with my dyslexic students. One of these symptoms is the reversal of letter sounds. One of the things that a good dyslexia tutor treats is the tendency of a student to reverse sounds. This reversal of sounds can occur with many different words, and it is a very common symptom of dyslexia. To give you an example, I was recently tutoring one of my students, and they flipped the word “from”, and made it “form”. So, they flipped the “or” sound in this case. In another situation, I asked a student to spell the word “film”, and they spelled it as “flim”; reversing the “i” and “l”.
Letter reversal can also occur with consonant blends. Consonant blends are just what they sound like; consonant letters blended together to create a certain sound. Dyslexia tutors often have their students practice with blend flash cards during their dyslexia tutoring sessions. Common blends that are practiced are “sl”, “cr”, “sm”, and many others. During dyslexia tutoring, students sometimes flip these sounds and say them incorrectly.
To help a dyslexic student with letter reversal, one of the best things that you can do is have them read out loud to you. If they say a word incorrectly, have them go back and sound it out. Remind them what order the letters and sounds are in. This is very valuable practice for a dyslexic student.
Peter
