Letter Reversals Games

📝 This post, Letter Reversal Games, was originally published in 2012. I have since updated it with new information, personal experience, and resources to better help you and your child!

https://boymamateachermama.com/teacher-mama-help-letter-reversals/Over a year ago, I wrote about a post, Easy Ways to Help Your Child with Letter Reversals, here on Boy Mama Teacher Mama. Since then, I returned to the classroom and sat with many parents during conferences who were worried about their child’s reversals. I reassured them — just as I reassure you now — that letter reversals are completely normal, and as the year progressed, I saw fewer and fewer of them, just as expected.

During those conferences, I also found myself explaining the difference between letter reversals and mirror writing. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they are actually different. Mirror writing refers to letters written in reverse order (right to left) or letters that appear correct only when viewed in a mirror. Letter reversals are more specific — reversing individual letters like b/d or p/q.

My own son was reversing letters and doing mirror writing. After some basic testing, we discovered visual tracking issues, so we worked with an amazing tutor over the summer. She found that his visual memory wasn’t strong, which affected his letter formation. Together they went back to basics — breaking letters down into lines and circles and rebuilding his foundation from the ground up.

Inspired by their work, I created these letter reversal games for us to play at home. They were so helpful that I found myself using them in my classroom too!

Please note: These games are for fun and for practice they will not “fix” the reversals. If you are concerned about your child’s learning, speak to their teacher for guidance.

Letter Reversal Games

Creating the Die

I began by creating these letter-reversal dice for the game. I turned an empty milk carton into a cube, covered it with colored paper, and then glued letters onto each face of the die. I also covered all sides with clear packing tape for durability.

Below are the 4 of the 6 sides. The colored line always goes beneath the letter to help with directionality

NOTE: I have recently updated this product, and now it includes pre-made dice that simply need to be printed and assembled.

Letter Reversal Games

This product includes 3 different letter reversal games. All played with the newly created die.

Game #1: Roll and Create

Materials needed:
✔️prepared lines and circle
✔️prepared die

Preparation: Roll and Create takes a bit of preparation. You will need to print out the templates on heavy paper or print them and glue them to cardboard. I glued mine on an empty cereal box and cut them out. Once these pieces are done, you are ready to Roll and Create.

Objective: To begin to see the parts of each letter, how they go together, and work on directionality.

To Play: Roll the die and create the letter it lands on using the lines and circles you just prepared. If the die lands on a “choose” space, the player can choose which of the two letters on the die to make.

Roll and Create Game Games for Letter Reversals

Game #2: Roll and Circle

Materials needed:
✔️letter template (2 choices included)
✔️prepared die
✔️pencil

Preparation: Print the template

Objective: To match letters by lines and circles and direction.

To Play: Players roll the die, then circle the matching letter on their paper. If having all 4 (p. q. d, b) letters on one page is too much for your learner, templates with only 2 letters at a time are included.