Learning the alphabet is one of the first important steps toward reading and writing. But for a child with dyslexia or persistent reading difficulties, learning, remembering and recognizing letters can take more time and require more repetition.

Why does a child sometimes recognize a letter one day but struggle with it again the next? Why do certain letters seem particularly difficult to remember? And what can parents do at home without turning every afternoon into another school lesson?

The answer is not simply to use more worksheets.

For children with dyslexia, literacy instruction benefits from being explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative, interactive and multimodal, with sufficient opportunities for practice. The International Dyslexia Association's current Structured Literacy framework emphasizes, among other things, phoneme–grapheme relationships, explicit instruction and sufficient practice.

Games and hands-on activities can complement this approach by giving children additional opportunities to recognize, compare, match and retrieve letters in a less repetitive context.

In this article, we'll look at:

• why learning letters can be difficult for some children with dyslexia;
• how letter recognition and memory develop;
• why some letters are easily confused;
• how to practice letters at home;
• why games and hands-on activities can be useful;
• and which types of alphabet games can support letter recognition and early reading skills.

Important: Educational games do not treat dyslexia and should not replace specialized support or structured literacy instruction. They can, however, provide useful additional practice.

Why Can a Dyslexic Child Struggle to Remember Letters?

Before looking at strategies, it is important to understand that “knowing a letter” actually involves several different skills.

When a child learns the letter M, for example, they gradually need to be able to:

• recognize its shape;
• distinguish it from other letters;
• know its letter name;
• connect it with its sound;
• recognize it in words;
• write it;
• and eventually use this knowledge when reading and spelling.

So learning the alphabet is not simply about memorizing 26 visual shapes.

The child is building a network of connections between letters, sounds, words, reading and writing.

This is particularly important for children with dyslexia. Structured Literacy explicitly connects phonemes and graphemes and emphasizes direct, systematic instruction rather than expecting children to discover these relationships independently.

What Does Memory Have to Do With Learning Letters?

It can be tempting to think that showing a letter often enough will automatically make it stick.

But learning becomes more meaningful when a child builds multiple connections around the same piece of information.

Take the letter F.

A child may gradually learn:

F → letter name → /f/ sound → word → handwriting → recognition in text

The more these elements become connected, the easier it becomes to retrieve the information.

This is one reason structured literacy integrates phonology, phoneme–grapheme relationships, reading and writing rather than treating them as completely separate skills.

Why Repetition Matters for Children With Dyslexia

Some children need considerably more practice before letter–sound associations become automatic.

Research and professional standards around dyslexia therefore emphasize systematic progression and sufficient practice, rather than introducing large amounts of new information at once. The International Dyslexia Association specifically describes Structured Literacy as sequential, cumulative, highly interactive and mastery-oriented, with sufficient practice and targeted feedback.

This is an important distinction:

repetition does not mean doing the same worksheet over and over again.

Instead, the same knowledge can be practiced through different activities.

For example:

see the letter → say its name → hear its sound → match it → find it → write it → recognize it in a word

The learning target stays the same while the activity changes.

Should You Teach All 26 Letters at Once?

Not necessarily.

For a child who is struggling, presenting the entire alphabet together can create unnecessary cognitive demands.

A more manageable approach is to work with a small group of letters, consolidate them and then gradually introduce new ones.

This is consistent with the sequential and cumulative principles of Structured Literacy, where new learning builds on previously taught knowledge.

For example:

m – a – s – t

can later become:

m – a – s – t – l – i

The goal is not to rush through the alphabet.

The goal is to help the child develop stable, retrievable knowledge.

What About Letters That Look Similar?

Some letters can be particularly confusing because their shapes are visually similar.

Common examples include:

b / d

p / q

m / n

Young children can also need time to recognize that:

A / a

B / b

G / g

represent the same letters despite looking different.

If your child regularly confuses b and d, this does not automatically mean that they have dyslexia. Letter reversals can occur during normal early literacy development.

For more information about why children confuse b and d and what you can do about it, see our article:

Why Does My Child Confuse the Letters b and d?

The key is to give children repeated opportunities to compare, identify and distinguish letters, rather than simply telling them to “look more carefully.”

Why Can Hands-On Activities Be Helpful?

Looking at a letter is one thing.

Finding it, matching it, comparing it and physically manipulating it requires the child to actively engage with the information.

For example:

see → name → listen → find → match → manipulate → repeat

This type of active practice can be particularly useful when a child needs repeated exposure before a letter becomes familiar.

The International Dyslexia Association describes Structured Literacy as highly interactive and multimodal, alongside explicit, sequential and cumulative instruction.

This does not mean that every activity needs to involve every possible sense.

Rather, the important point is that the child is actively practicing the target skill.

Letter Bingo: Practice Recognition Through Play

A simple bingo or lotto-style game can turn letter recognition into an active search task.

Instead of simply looking at a letter on a worksheet, the child needs to:

1. look at the card;
2. identify the letter;
3. compare it with the letters on their board;
4. find the matching letter;
5. place it on the board.

This creates repeated opportunities to recognize the same information.

The Uppercase, Lowercase & Cursive Letter Bingo Game is particularly useful for working with different forms of the same letter.

For example, a child may need to recognize that:

A = a = cursive a

This can help develop flexibility in letter recognition rather than learning one visual form in isolation.

The game also combines visual discrimination, attention, matching, memory and hands-on practice.

You can explore more printable learning games in the educational bingo games collection.

Letter Memory Games: Strengthening Recognition and Recall

Memory games provide another way to practice letters without relying on traditional worksheets.

A simple version can involve matching:

A ↔ A

A more challenging version can use:

A ↔ a

The child must recognize that the two visual forms represent the same letter.

The Uppercase, Lowercase & Cursive Alphabet Memory Game can therefore be used to practice recognition of different letter forms while also engaging working memory and attention.

The game mechanic itself encourages repetition: children repeatedly look at, identify and remember the cards they have already seen.

Matching Letter Forms: From Uppercase to Lowercase and Cursive

One challenge in early literacy is that children don't encounter letters in only one visual form.

A child may learn:

A

but later encounter:

a

and eventually a cursive or handwritten version.

Being able to recognize these as the same letter is an important part of flexible letter recognition.

This is where a matching or domino activity can be particularly useful.

The Uppercase & Cursive Letter Domino Game can be used to practice matching different representations of letters while keeping the activity hands-on.

Instead of simply asking:

“What letter is this?”

the child has to actively search for the corresponding form and continue the domino chain.

That small difference matters: the child is retrieving and applying the information rather than simply looking at it.

Connecting Letters and Sounds

Recognizing a letter visually is not enough to become a successful reader.

Children also need to understand the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent.

This progression can be thought of as:

letter → letter name → sound → syllable → word

Structured Literacy places phoneme–grapheme relationships at the center of word recognition and explicitly links phonological awareness with letter knowledge.

The Complete Alphabet Learning Pack – Letter Sounds, Uppercase, Lowercase & Cursive Letters can support this progression because it combines different aspects of alphabet learning rather than focusing only on visual recognition.

For English-speaking children, it is particularly important to remember that letter names and letter sounds are not the same thing.

For example:

B has the letter name bee, but represents the /b/ sound in words such as ball.

The child therefore needs opportunities to practice both the visual symbol and the sound–symbol relationship.

Why Writing Letters Can Reinforce Learning

Letter recognition can also be connected with handwriting.

A child can:

1. look at the letter;
2. name it;
3. say its sound;
4. trace or observe its formation;
5. write it;
6. recognize it again.

The Animal Alphabet Handwriting Worksheets can provide a simple way to add handwriting practice to other alphabet activities.

The goal isn't to make a child write page after page.

Short, focused practice can be enough to give them another opportunity to retrieve and reproduce the letter.

Why Is It Useful to Vary Alphabet Activities?

A child may recognize a letter perfectly on a flashcard but hesitate when encountering it in a book.

That does not necessarily mean that the previous learning was useless.

It may simply mean that the child needs more opportunities to recognize the same information in different contexts.

You can therefore alternate:

letter bingo → memory → domino → handwriting → reading → matching

The Alphabet Learning Activity Pack – Letter Recognition & Handwriting Worksheets is useful for this reason: it brings together different activities around letter recognition and early handwriting, giving children several ways to practice the alphabet while keeping the learning goal consistent.

Varying the format can also help reduce the feeling of doing the same exercise repeatedly.

What About Visual Overload?

There is no single “dyslexia-friendly” layout that works for every child.

However, a clear and well-organized activity can make it easier for a child to focus on the information they actually need to process.

When choosing activities, you can look for:

• short instructions;
• clear organization;
• sufficient spacing;
• limited unnecessary information;
• one clearly identifiable task;
• a predictable format.

This is also consistent with the broader principle of making instruction clear, explicit and structured.

Small cards and hands-on games can sometimes be useful because they naturally limit the amount of information presented at once.

How Long Should a Child Practice Letters Each Day?

There is no universal number of minutes that every child with dyslexia should practice.

What matters is that practice is appropriate, targeted and sustainable.

For a child who becomes tired quickly, shorter activities can be easier to manage.

For example:

5 minutes: review previously taught letters

5 minutes: play a letter memory or bingo game

5 minutes: practice letter–sound relationships

Then stop before frustration takes over.

The goal is not to make the child work for as long as possible.

It is to provide regular opportunities to retrieve and consolidate what they have already been taught.

What If My Child Keeps Forgetting the Same Letters?

If a letter seems mastered and then becomes difficult again a few days later, it does not necessarily mean that your child “didn't learn anything.”

The information may simply not yet be automatic or easy to retrieve.

In that situation, go back to a simpler sequence:

see → name → match → manipulate → find → use

You can also temporarily reduce the number of letters you are practicing.

It is often more productive to help a child experience repeated success with four or five carefully selected letters than to present all 26 letters at once.

Once those letters become more secure, additional letters can gradually be introduced.

Should You Practice Letter Sounds Separately?

Yes, when this matches the child's current literacy instruction.

Phonological and phonemic awareness are important components of structured literacy, and instruction should progressively connect phoneme knowledge with grapheme knowledge.

You can therefore separate the tasks at first:

What sound do you hear?

then:

Which letter represents that sound?

and later:

What sound does this letter represent?

The important thing is to keep the target clear.

For children with dyslexia, the International Dyslexia Association recommends systematic phonological and phonemic-awareness instruction and explicitly linking phoneme knowledge with letter knowledge as development progresses.

Why Can Learning Through Games Help With Motivation?

Learning to read can be exhausting for a child who has to work much harder than their peers to decode the same information.

Repeated difficulty can sometimes lead to:

• frustration;
• avoidance;
• fear of making mistakes;
• reduced confidence;
• reluctance to practice reading.

A game does not remove these difficulties.

But it can change the context in which practice takes place.

Instead of:

“You need to memorize these letters again.”

the child may hear:

“Can you find the matching card?”

The learning objective can remain the same while the experience feels different.

This is one reason hands-on activities can complement structured literacy: they can provide additional opportunities for interactive practice while keeping the underlying learning goal clear. Structured Literacy itself emphasizes highly interactive instruction, sufficient practice, targeted feedback and scaffolding.

Are 10 Minutes of Games Better Than a Long Worksheet?

Not automatically.

A short activity is not inherently more effective than a longer one.

The important question is what the child is actually practicing during that time.

However, breaking practice into smaller sessions can be useful for a child who becomes tired or frustrated easily.

For example:

structured reading instruction

↓

short letter game

↓

break

↓

brief review

This can provide additional practice without asking the child to maintain intense attention for a long period.

Which Alphabet Activities Are Best for a Dyslexic Child?

There is no single “best” game for every child with dyslexia.

The right choice depends on:

• the child's age;
• current reading level;
• letters they already know;
• specific confusions;
• letter–sound relationships being taught;
• attention and fatigue;
• and the goals established by their teachers or specialists.

As a general rule, look for activities that offer:

✔ Clear presentation

✔ Short, focused tasks

✔ Repetition

✔ Active participation

✔ Matching and recognition

✔ Letter–sound connections

✔ Hands-on manipulation

✔ Opportunities for success

✔ Gradual progression

This is where printable educational games can be useful: they can provide additional practice without requiring every practice session to look like a worksheet.

Learning Letters Takes Time — and That's OK

For some children with dyslexia, learning the alphabet will require more repetition, more explicit teaching and more opportunities to practice than it does for their peers.

The goal is not simply to memorize 26 symbols.

Children gradually need to build reliable connections between:

letters → sounds → syllables → words → reading and spelling

Structured Literacy provides the explicit, systematic framework needed to build these foundations, while games and hands-on activities can provide additional opportunities to practice and retrieve what has already been taught.

A bingo game can support recognition.

A memory game can encourage recall.

A domino can help children match different letter forms.

Handwriting practice can reinforce letter formation.

Alphabet activities can provide varied practice.

And short, repeated sessions can make it easier to revisit the same knowledge without creating unnecessary frustration.

The goal isn't to make a child do more work. It's to give them more opportunities to practice, succeed, repeat and gradually build automaticity.

Most importantly, a child who needs more time to remember a letter is not a child who cannot learn.

They may simply need the right level of explicit teaching, repetition, support and practice.

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