the brain has a letter-box

What is my little kitten doing?

We know that children have a letterbox on the left side of the head, right behind the ear.

About "five hundred columns of neurons are needed for the initial bank of letter detectors." 

These detectors are reacting to the tiny differences in letters, like the difference between c and e.

Bottom line: be sure your child correctly prints and knows b, d, g, p, q - ignore all other backward letters, they will not slow your child's progress, are rarely dyslexia, and your child will self-correct by mid 2nd Grade.

Kids know the name and sound of b, d, g, p, q but confuse the shapes when the child starts trying to read words in 1st Grade. The child confuses shapes b / d and p / q / g.  Work to avoid this problem: When reading stories with your child, ask your child to find b at the start, middle, and end of words. Do the same for d, g, p, q.   Also, you point to a word with one of these five letters and ask your child to name the letter. ( What is this letter in about? What is this letter in sad? )  

It is vital to help your child because the brain executes reading as a complex habit. An item incorrectly learned is very hard to fix later. I just finished tutoring a 1st grade boy, a very smart, adorable boy, who needed 5 months of hard-hitting concentration to re-wire his brain with the correct direction for letter b.

The quotation about the number of neurons required for the letterbox is from research conducted by Stanislas Dehaene and found in his book, Reading in the brain (2009).

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Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great day, Mary Maisner