Teaching · Related Services

Count the reversals, then look at the rate.

Tally each reversed letter as you read through a sample. The summary turns the count into a rate per 100 letters, so two samples of different lengths can be compared.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Related Services toolkit, $99 for 152 items.

The reversal sample

One record per writing sample. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$19 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
Reversals per 100 letters for one sample, the letters involved, and what to try before the next sample.
Who it is for
School occupational therapists, kindergarten to grade 3 teachers, special education teachers and reading interventionists.
Format
Browser tracker. One saved record per sample; printed with its summary or as a blank form; CSV; export and import a file.
Access
$19 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
bbdone shape, two directions
Drawn for this page. b and d are the same shape facing different ways, which is why they are the reversals young writers make most.

How to use it

  1. Choose a sample the student wrote without help: a story, a journal entry or a dictated sentence set.
  2. Count roughly how many letters and numerals it has; a line count times letters per line is close enough.
  3. Read through once and tap plus for each reversal.
  4. Ask the student to read it back and note what they catch.
  5. Compare samples by rate, not by raw count.

Count a sample

What the tracker covers

Reversals are common

Most young writers reverse letters and numerals while they learn; it usually fades by about age 7 or 8. The International Dyslexia Association notes that reversals are not, on their own, a sign of dyslexia.

What helps

Explicit letter formation teaching with a consistent starting point and stroke order, and frequent short practice, gives students a motor pattern for each letter instead of a picture to remember.

What it is not

A reversal count does not screen for or identify any disability. Concerns about reading or writing go to the school team, who look at much more than reversals.

Sources

  1. International Dyslexia Association. Dyslexia Basics (fact sheet): reversals are common in young children and not a defining sign of dyslexia.
  2. Treiman, R., Gordon, J., Boada, R., Peterson, R. L., and Pennington, B. F. (2014). Statistical learning, letter reversals, and reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(6), 383–394.
  3. Graham, S., and others (2012). Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers (NCEE 2012-4058). Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse: on teaching handwriting.
  4. Case-Smith, J., and O’Brien, J. C. (Eds.). Occupational Therapy for Children and Adolescents (7th ed.). Elsevier, 2015: chapter on handwriting.

The example sample is made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.