Lois Letchford: Dyslexia and letter formation

5 Dec 2017 · 3 min

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2:41

In this introductory vlog, Lois Letchford greets viewers, mentions her upcoming book, her assistant Zan, and her collaboration with Stephen Hurley. She then focuses on a core teaching challenge: students in grades 3‑4 with dyslexia often struggle with letter formation, leading to confusion (e.g., mixing up B and D) and reduced enjoyment of writing. Letchford explains that inconsistent starting points for letters such as A, B, D, and H cause these difficulties. She proposes a systematic approach that gives each letter a definite, repeatable starting point: for A, start near the centre and draw backwards; D shares the same start as A; B starts at the top with a long stem that loops down; H also starts at the top, goes up and around, leaving an open space at the bottom. By teaching these consistent stroke sequences, she helps students form letters more reliably, improving fluency and confidence in writing.

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Hello, I'm Lois Letchford. Thank you for joining me on my blog. It's, uh, this is my first ever vlog and it's great to be here and do this with my fantastic assistant, Zan, who helps me do most things. As you know, I'm writing a book and my book is on the way and we are going through the last edits. We get our digital maps this weekend. And I'm also talking to Stephen Hurley on a Wednesday night. We've got 3 more Wednesday nights. So please enjoy listening to them either live or as a podcast. But what I wanted to talk to you about today was particularly about letter formation and the way it inhibits our students' writing and enjoyment of writing. Students come to me at various ages, often in grade 3 and 4, with struggling with writing, and they'll do a letter B and D. Well, B and D are common to Muddle up anyway. But when you're starting a B at the top and making it look like a letter 6, and D, you've got to think, ah, which way do I go? So I start at the top and I'll go the other way. So that's my B and the D. And the A, they know, well, A's got some sort of a circle and then it's got a stick on it. So to write a word bad, and this is my thinking, I start at the top. It's that way. A circle with a stick, D, I've got to start at the top and go the other way. So I've written the word bad. And if I did the word had, that's interesting too because H, often they start like the letter N, only on the wrong side. They go backwards and give me an N, lift the pen and then go down. So when I teach students to formulate letters, I have a definite starting point. And for A, I start in the centre of the page, more like, and go backwards to give me an A. And once I've done an A, I know that D is exactly the same. Longest stem up and around. D starts in the same spot as the A. Then I can do B. B starts at the top, long stem up and around to join at the bottom. And H? Is exactly the same starting point. Start at the top, up and around, and leaving an open space at the bottom. So that's how I help my students learn to formulate letters so it becomes easy for them to write and remember where I start, where they start, and writing becomes much more enjoyable. So thank you, and I hope this is helpful to you.