WHY DO CHILDREN REVERSE LETTERS?

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Abstract
When normal letters and their mirror‐image forms were presented for copying and matching, school children made more reversal errors with mirror‐image forms than with normal letters. Preschool children made equally many reversal errors with both types of material. This was also true for older children when unfamiliar letter‐like symbols were presented. The results are described in terms of discriminability and response bias as derived from signal detection analysis. Keeping discriminability constant, a significant increase in response bias was shown by 5‐year‐olds as compared to 4‐year‐olds, due presumably to the effect of one year's normal school practice. It is hypothesized that children showing persistent reversal errors fail to acquire a preference for the given spatial orientation of letters as rapidly as normal readers.

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