Dot Patterns are the first step to reading. They help the students isolate the individual lines that make up a letter and are a great thinking skill exercise.

I can't stress enough how important these dot patterns are to the creating of a successful student especially for those that reverse their letters.

Most students see letters like 'b', 'd', 'p', 'q' as separate individual letters. However, some children appear to see 'b', 'd', 'p', 'q' as the same single letter.
I like to compare letters like 'b', 'd', 'p', 'q' to a chair.
They see a chair as a chair, whether the chair 'front' is facing them or the 'back' of the chair is facing them -- the chair, no matter what position it is in, is still a chair.
Somehow, their brain doesn't seem to see the separate lines and curves that make up each individual letter. Yet, we expect them to know that if the chair is facing one direction it is a 'b' and if it is facing the same direction but is upside down, it is a 'p'.
In order to help students see the letters of the alphabet as a series of lines and curves that form different letters, have the students do dot patterns. I can stress enough how important these dot patterns are for all students and could be very useful for students with dyslexia and ADHD.

You can create your own or you can use the ones available on this website.
Have your students copy the dot patterns onto their blank dots.
(example of a dot pattern)

• Prebeginner's dots start with just two line and progress to 6 lines.
• Beginner's dots start with six lines and increase to eight lines.
• Intermediate dots are from eight lines to 10 lines.
• Advanced start at 10 lines and go up.

If a student is struggling, highlight each line in a different color. I used to tell my son, he was making a road map and would let him run his toy car over the lines he drew.

For some students it is hard to master alphabet letters.
They don't seem to recognize letters and they have great difficulties printing them.

Learning to print the letters of the alphabet in the correct order is essential for putting words in alphabetic order. Playing games where you sing the alphabet and then say a nursery rhyme or math fact is probably the easiest way to learn the alphabet. Other effective tools include cute flash cards, Alphabet books, and tracing Alphabet worksheets.

Use worksheets with missing letters that the student has to fill-in. Since there is no logic to the order of the letters, it will require repetition and lots of practice.

See our Teaching Resources for Dot Patterns with worksheets, lesson plans, etc.