Number Reversals

I am often asked if I have anything similar to the reversal packages for numbers. I haven’t developed a product for this, but do have some ideas to share. Please give them a try and let me know. These ideas apply to print reversals.

I have grouped the numbers into those that start with a ‘down’ action and those that start with a ‘forward’ action. (at the bottom of each website page, there is a “download conference handouts” icon. Click on this, enter ‘brenda’ for username and ‘itchy123′ for password and print off the “Position-in-Space and Printing’ handout. This will give you info on ‘down’ and ‘forward’.)

The ‘down’ group includes 1, 4, 5 and 6. While children can’t reverse 1, I start with it to get the ‘down’ motion (I say, “come down to your tummy) and have them experience success right off the bat. ‘4’ is down, forward and down again. ‘5’ is down, around and then put the top on. ‘6’ is down and around. Practicing these as a group helps them internalize the pattern. It helps also to have children verbalize these motions as they are doing them.

The ‘forward’ group includes 2, 3 and 7. ‘2’ is forward, down and forward again. ‘3’ is forward, around, forward, around. ‘7’ is forward, down.

They can’t reverse 8, so I don’t worry about it for this issue.

I call ‘9’ “Naughty 9” because it goes backward. Say, “Naughty 9 goes backwards, around and down.”

Give these a try. The key is practice as children who reverse typically have memory problems and needs lots of repetition to get things to long term memory.

Apologies for this being so late. I was in Mexico and had on-going problems with both internet and computer!