The Literacy Crisis | Episode 6: Why Letter Reversals Aren’t Always Dyslexia

Why Letter Reversals Are Normal — and When They’re a Flag for Dyslexia

It’s a common myth that reversing letters like “b” and “d” is a sure sign of dyslexia. The truth? Letter reversals are developmentally normal for most children up to around age 7 or even 8. As children learn to write, their brains are still training the visual system to distinguish left from right — something most kids outgrow naturally.

But for some children with dyslexia, the reversal habit lingers past this point — not because they’re "backward readers," but because their brains struggle to prune the visual processing that treats mirrored images as identical.

This is especially common in kids with visual processing delays, weaker phoneme-to-letter mapping skills, or persistent phonological challenges. When reversals continue beyond grade 2 or 3 — especially alongside decoding difficulties, inconsistent spelling, or slow reading — that's when it’s time to evaluate further.