Hello Hotsey,

Yes, it's perfectly normal for a preschooler to print letters and words backwards.

Letters and words are really just squiggles on a page, to a preschooler.  Your child is learning that certain squiggles on paper match his name.  It doesn't really matter to him if there's a specific order to those letters.  He hasn't learned that this is important yet.  

His brain is getting trained to learn that letters have to be made in certain ways, that they need to be printed in certain sequences, and that those sequences make certain sounds.

You could play a silly game with him if you'd like.  You could pronounce his name as he's printed it to show him that the letters need to be in a particular order.  For example, if his name is "Glen" and he spells his name as "nelG", then you could pronounce it as /nelg/, and show him how to make his printing say /glen/.  

You could put a green star, or green mark, on the page to show him where to start printing the first letter of his name.  And you could put a red star at the end of his name.  Or, you could draw an arrow on the page to show him which way to print his letters.

Usually, children learn the correct way to print and spell through many repetitions of printing letters and words in specific ways.  These repetitions will happen at home and in preschool, kindergarten, and grade one.  Gradually you'll notice fewer and fewer reversals of letters and words.

If you notice that your child continues to make a lot of reversals by the time he's in grade two, you can ask to have his reading, spelling, and writing development assessed by a reading specialist in your school system.

Sylvia HS
Reading Specialist, Author