Abstract
Young children, who are exposed to Latin script letters, experience difficulties in distinguishing between the reversible letters b and d and may therefore transform b into d (and vice versa). When children begin to write, in cultures with left-to-right writing/reading systems, they also often turn Arabic digits in the direction of writing/reading, thus, for example, producing ε instead of 3. However, two different terms or processes, namely, confusion and reversal, are used in the literature to label these apparent transformations. This study aimed to provide empirical evidence that the two processes are indeed very different. The sample consisted of 529 first graders (Mage = 6.21 years) who participated in the French National Assessment at the beginning of the school year. Simple linear, Bayesian, and logistic regression modeling of the left–right reversal rate in writing digits as a function of the confusion rate in children’s recognition of the letters b and d showed a negative relationship between the two rates, and a nonparametric test yielded a significant negative correlation (rS(318) = –0.373, p < .001). These results seem to rule out the possibility that the same process leads to reversing characters (letters or digits) in writing and misrecognizing b as d (or vice versa). This is the first study reporting strong empirical evidence that the processes of reversal and confusion are very different. Consequently, it would be a mistake to treat confusion between b and d as the reversal of b into d (and vice versa).
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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(Software application or custom code): The program used R is free.
Notes
The rule applies only to the writing of characters and thus makes no assumption about a more frequent recognition of b as d than of d as b (see the distinguishing of d-type letters from b-type letters by Treiman and Kessler, 2011).
In France, écoles maternelles (preschools) are open to all children aged at least 3 years. Almost all children attend at least the second year (middle section, 4- to 5 years of age) and the final year (upper section, 5 to 6.5 years of age).
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We thank all the children and teachers who participated in the assessment. We are also grateful to the colleagues and administrators who have facilitated our work.
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The two authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by CL. The first draft of the manuscript (including statistical processing) was written by JPF. The two authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.
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Fischer, JP., Luxembourger, C. Typical 6-year-old children’s confusion between “b” and “d” in reading cannot be assimilated to reversal. Read Writ 35, 2433–2451 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10290-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10290-6