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kristinannie
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 10:15pm | IP Logged
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My son is very gifted in math and loves to be challenged. However, he often writes his numbers backwards. When numbers are in copywork or we are keeping score, he writes them correctly, but he puts quite a few backwards (maybe 25% of his numbers) when doing math. If I had to guess, he is focused on getting the problems right (they are challenging) and not focused on writing the numbers correctly. I had him write out 1-10 on a piece of paper and look at it while doing his math today and he only made one mistake. He is 6 and just starting 1st grade. I feel like he is OK, but I just wanted to double check that this is normal. Thanks!
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 10:30pm | IP Logged
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Very normal. It's a phase many kids go through (numbers or letters) and doesn't have to mean anything more than that. 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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kristinannie
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 10:38pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
| Very normal. It's a phase many kids go through (numbers or letters) and doesn't have to mean anything more than that. |
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THANK YOU!
My husband is very concerned to the point that I don't even show him my son's work. I just needed someone to tell me that my gut is right and it is normal!!!!
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Claire F
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 11:23pm | IP Logged
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I think it is normal as well. My 7 1/2 year old still does it. He reverses some numbers, and usually in the same scenario - he's concentrating on the answer, not writing it correctly. I usually remind him and ask him to correct it (in a light way, not making a big deal out of it and he usually laughs a little at himself). I figure it will work itself out eventually.
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Claire
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 11:58pm | IP Logged
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If you think of a number as a person.. if you see that person from the back.. it's still the same person right? So if you think of the number as being 3 dimensional instead of 2 dimentional you'll see why some kids will "write backwards" occationally without it being a problem. They'll get that you need to write numbers only one way relatively quickly.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: Aug 16 2012 at 12:18am | IP Logged
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My daughter does this too, all the time. She often has to check the clock in the room to see which way the numbers go.  I don't consider it a problem at all, and I don't want her to worry about it either because I think it can be really distracting to be working on a math problem and have to stop and think about how the number should be written. For this reason, I often have her give me the answers orally so as not to slow her down. She has asked me to make her extra copywork pages for numbers practice because she doesn't want to think about it during math, and I think that's a great idea; I think practicing it as part of copywork time, when she can just focus on forming the letters, is much better than practicing during math work, when it might be distracting to the concepts she is learning.
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jawgee
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| Posted: Aug 16 2012 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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Normal. My 6YO does excellent in math but he still writes his numbers backwards sometimes, too.
I still remember lots of my classmates in first grade did that when I was little.
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AmandaV
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| Posted: Aug 16 2012 at 12:53pm | IP Logged
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My son has done this as well, and is (mostly ) grown out of it. My husband was concerned too. So what I did every few days was twofold: One, make numbers part of copy work every few weeks, and also write the numerals along the side of his math page ( we use MEP and there is a bit of margin) and have him trace and copy each one once. the only problematic ones were 5, 7 and 6 but I had him do all of them for good measure). Then they were there on the side of his page for him to look at to check he was writing them correctly. I know its normal but it was an issue for dh and I also didn't want him to create the habit of writing them backwards and then thinking that was correct subconsciously.  Not sure if it was the right tactic, but it seemed to gently work around here.
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 7:54am | IP Logged
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Very normal. My ds did this all the time, even until he was about 8 or 9) and managed to graduate college with two engineering degrees in four years! So, I'd say his long-term math skills weren't adversely affected by it . If you are concerned, draw his attention to the reversals when they occur and have him practice writing the number correctly a few times. He'll get it straight!
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mommy4ever
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| Posted: Aug 17 2012 at 8:14am | IP Logged
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My 8.5 yo still does this on occasion, but most times she catches herself and corrects it. Just something they go through.
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Writing numbers backward
