June Orton states in her A Guide to Teaching Phonics: “Many of the consonant letters are somewhat alike and therefore may be confusing to the pupils.  Letters similar in sound, such as the voiced and unvoiced pairs (b-p, v-f, d-t) or similar in configuration (b-d, n-h, m-n), should be presented separately but later reviewed together to teach their differences.”   

Orton introduces the phonogram b and its corresponding sound /b/ early in her scope and sequence and leaves the d with corresponding sound /d/ for many weeks later.  This gives students lots of practice with this sometimes-problematic phonogram.

*What is a phonogram?  A phonogram is a letter or combination of letters that represent a sound.

I am m.