My 6-year-old keeps mixing up ب, ت and ث. How do I fix it?

At age 5 to 7 this is one of the most common reading mistakes. It is not a sign of a problem: the letters genuinely look the same apart from the dots, and children are still learning to notice small details.

The only difference: the dots

A 2-week fix (3 minutes a day)

1. Days 1–3: colour the dots. Write the three letters large, and colour ب’s dot blue, ت’s dots red and ث’s dots green. Your child says the letter while touching the dots.
2. Days 4–7: the rhyme. “One below says ba, two up says ta, three up says tha.” Say it before each practice.
3. Days 8–10: mixed cards. Shuffle 9 cards (3 of each). Your child sorts them into three piles, then reads them.
4. Days 11–14: inside words. Find them in Qaida words, such as بَيْت (house), which has both ب and ت.

If it is still happening after 2 weeks

• Check whether your child is guessing from the first letter of the word rather than reading every letter.
• Slow down: point under each letter and say “dots first”.
• Tell the teacher so they can add a short dot check to each lesson.

The same trick works for

• ج ح خ: dot inside, no dot, dot above.
• ن and ي in the middle of a word: one dot above vs two below.

Related: My child confuses ج, ح and خ.