Even the most confident early readers can get confused between "b" and "d", and for some children these letters can be a real problem.
One way of ending the confusion is with the "bed" trick. Print out the poster below and show it to your child. Then ask him to hold his hands in front of the poster, and, forming his first finger and thumb into a ring and pointing the other three fingers straight up, to mimic the shapes of the letters. Help him to sound out the word "bed" while noticing that "b" and his left hand starts the word, whilst "d" and his right hand finishes it.
By combining seeing (the poster), listening (sounding out the word) and doing (using his hands to make the shapes of the letters and imagining the bed between them) you are giving him a good chance of finally getting to grips with these tricky letters.
