Build sequencing skills by having students arrange letters to spell words correctly. Have young readers unscramble words, identify correct spellings from groups of scrambled words and find smaller words embedded in larger ones (like seeing 'in' in the word 'spin'). Provide proofreading exercises that require the reader to find words with mixed up letters. Use word search puzzles to help young readers focus on letter order.
Review the common position words used to describe the differences between letters such as p, b, d, n, u, h and r. Have students practice following oral directions that involve words such as above, below, under, beside, left, right and near. Play following directions games that instruct players to place items in specific spots relative to other items. Begin by having students place concrete items in the correct place relative to the reference point, such as "Put the pencil to the left of the chair." Continue with paper and pencil activities like "Draw a line under the letter W." When the student has mastered those skills, have him match confusing letters to models, choosing a 'b' to match a 'b' from choices that include 'd' and 'p,' for example. Find and highlight or circle specific confusing letters within words, as well.
Use a tachistoscope or computer program to display confusing letters such as b/d/p, n/u/h/r or g/q for the student to identify in decreasing amounts of time to help build fluency with recognition and discrimination. Apply the same technique to confusing words such as saw/was, no/on, from/form and eat/tea. Encourage the student to scan lines or sections of text to find specific words. Embed incorrect words into text and challenge the student to find and correct them.
Use a mask to cover most of the text on the page and focus attention on a single line, phrase or word. Place a colored plastic overlay on top of text to help some students see letters more clearly than standard black text on a white background. Encourage students to copy words to improve focus on letter sequence and thus improve reading accuracy.