Left handers and pens

[basildonbond]

Dd (9) is very strongly left-handed and has beautiful cursive handwriting - with a pencil ... Now she's in Y4 at some point they will start using pens. Dd has a perfect tripod pencil grip which is exactly the same as a right-hander would use but just swapped overe to the other side. I am very keen for her to avoid developing that awkward curved wrist position you see lots of left-handers use, but of course when she uses a pen her hand smudges everything she's just weritten. Dd is a bit of a perfectionist and gets v distressed by this as she wants her work to look beautiful. How do left-handed children manage pens? Presumably fountain pens are out, but do schools accept biros and are they any better?

[exoticfruits]

I am left handed and you just get used to holding your hand up a bit, I hate that curved wrist thing. Have you see the Left Handed shop here

[exoticfruits]

They do mail order.

[missnevermind]

I an left handed and have not smudged pen since learning to hold it. She will get it with a little practice

[exoticfruits]

It is only right handers who think we are awkward.

[IShallWearMidnight]

tilt the paper/book to about 10 to 4, see if that helps.

[sarahfreck]

You could try a roller ball/fibre tip with a very quick drying ink. The Stabilo easy gel and the griffix ink writer fibre tip are both available from the anything left handed shop mentioned above and they have a grip designed for left-handers. The standard handwriting pens often used by schools www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=21069819 are also low smudge and you may find that she is fine with these.

[stealthsquiggle]

I am of the perfect handwriting, as somewhere DS's incredibly awkward grip slipped through the net (at least partly my fault as I can never work out how he should be holding it with his left hand) and his writing is awful.

However, pens I can help with. Once his dumb-ass mother had worked out why he was coming home covered in ink (r.handed fountain pen + l.handed boy = ink explosion) we bought some of these and they are wonderful (and the school, which mandates fountain pens, appear to be happy with them)

[Joyn]

I'm another leftie, never had any problems with pens & smudging. My pen grip is normal, I just hold my wrist lower, than a righty would! I used a fountain pen quite happily all through junior school, so don't feel you have to restrict her choice, just because she's left handed.

[dizzyday07]

I too am a leftie that was picked at school as having beautiful handwriting even using a fountain pen

I've never had problem with smudging and I can't see why a left handed grip should be any different from a right handed one as both should have their hands below the lines - but yes turning the top of the paper slightly clockwise does help keep your hand off the written ink

[exoticfruits]

It is a big mistake to tell them they might have difficulties. I had to use ink pens in the juniors and had no difficulty at all, no one made me a special case or suggested that I would smudge it. A special pen helps, other than that I'm sure she will sort it out.

[Velvetcu]

Another leftie here who had no problem with smudging unless I used a left handed fountain pen! Not sure why.

[exoticfruits]

It is right handers who cause the problems. As a teacher I had a lot of DCs who rolled it out as an excuse 'I'm left handed'. I was the first person they had come across to say 'so am I and it is perfectly possible'.

[exoticfruits]

If a parent keeps telling they will have problems they surely will!

[Theas18]

I'm left handed and the answer to not developing a hooked grip is to turn the paper! Keeps the hand below the point you are writing at (apart from my year in Mrs Newtons class at the age of 9 when she forbid turning of books- Mrs Newton YOU traumatised me!).

Even now as a very left handed typist I have my keyboard on a tilt!

[4madboys]

i am left handed and dont do the hook handed thing and so is my dp and he doesnt either. my ds3 who is 6 also is left handed and doesnt do it yet. he is generally fine apart from the fact that school have little white boards they use to write on, hand held ones and when he writes on that he wipes his writing away/smudges it as he goes along, he ends up holding the board at a funny angle to compensate but still holds his pen normally.

i also write with the paper sideways on, so i am writing downwards? but dont have any issues with smuding.

she how she gets on, she can always try a special pen, but most pens dry quickly and dont smudge nowadays :)

[4madboys]

and does anyone know if being left handed is genetic or just one of those quirks? my eldest two are both right handed, ds3 is left handed and the other 2 are too little to tell yet. will be interesting to see if we only end up with one left handed child when both dp and i are left handed!

[Twunk]

Another leftie with good writing and a normal pen grip. I also used a fountain pen throughout school. I don't think bad writing is inevitable with lefties, similarly good writing isn't with right handers.

[catnet]

my ds(18) has never had 'left hand' anythings.

[sarahfreck]

"my ds(18) has never had 'left hand' anythings."

Nor did I growing up! However having had my first pair of proper left-handed scissors and a left-handed serrated vegetable knife at the age of 40, all I can say is wow, what a difference! It has made me aware of how I learned coping strategies but also how much easier it is when you have the proper equipment!

4madboys. AS I understand it, the latest research is that there is a gene that may cause a "tendency" to left-handedness, but it is not as straightforward as a dominant or recessive gene. Because of this, it is perfectly possible for left-handed parents to produce all right-handed offspring and for right-handers to produce a left-hander. I am the only left-hander in my family.

[stealthsquiggle]

Absolutely agree there is no connection between left-handedness and lousy writing - but my DS happens to have both!

The last leftie in either my family or DH's was my grandfather, but DS was absolutely clearly left handed from early babyhood - everything new he did, he always did first and more often with his left hand. That said, he chooses to play all sports right-handed and seems to be quite good (e.g. golf, tennis, cricket) - so no expensive left-handed sports equipment needed [phew], and he was frankly baffled by left handed scissors which well-meaning SIL bought him. In pretty much everything but writing and eating, he is sufficiently ambidextrous for it make no difference.

..shame about the lousy writing, though.

[generous]

My dd1 is left-handed and I have to confess that - because it always looks strange to me - I just don't think about it what she is doing.

She writes with the page upside down - that's how she deals with smudging.

Her year 1 teacher was rather uncomfortable with this and spoke to a primary advisor who said it's best to let left-handers get on with it!

What I've noticed is that left-handers adapt in their own way. So, we once bought left-handed scissors, promptly lost them, and since then she's used right handed scissors with her right hand.

Sewing - again, showed her what to do as a right handed person and then left her to adapt. Crocheting - haven't mastered this yet!

[sarahfreck]

As a four year old my Grandmother taught me how to knit left-handed. Then she thought I wouldn't be able to follow knitting patterns very easily so she re-taught me to do it right-handed. Consequently I now get confused about which way to go and can pick up a row of knitting half-done and go back the way I've come without knowing!

I often write with the paper angled at a good 45% and can write vertically quite easily too. Not good at writing upside down though!!

"What I've noticed is that left-handers adapt in their own way." Yes they do but in my experience it takes more energy and "brain-power" than it needs to. Children often say it is fine because they haven't experienced or got used to anything else. My experience as an adult is that specifically designed left-handed equipment takes a while to get used to if you have spent your life using right-handed stuff, but is actually far more easy and fluid to use when you have got used to it.

If left-handers look "awkward" doing something then it probably is more awkward for them and they will be having to concentrate harder on it than a right-hander. They will probably also say it is fine though because they have got used to doing it and a left-handed tool feels strange at first! In the long run I am convinced it is easier though!

Industrial accidents are statistically more prevalent amongst left-handers than right-handers. So are left-handers innately more dyspraxic than right-handers or is it because they are using equipment designed for right-handers?

[generous]

Observing left-handed dd I can well believe that they experience more industrial accidents - not sure what dyspraxic means but she is rather clumsy.

I can also see that - if you have any other special needs - being left-handed could be the final straw. Dd seems to be quite able and this has gone a long way to compensate for the things she's had problems with. E.g. writing '43' as '34'. Which then makes maths confusing if you try and add '25' or '52'! But - as you say - you are using a lot more brain power.

Any ideas on the crocheting?!

[stealthsquiggle]

I was fully prepared to get DS left-handed sports kit, kitchen equipement, etc - but he naturally picks up a bat/club/racket in a right handed way, and kicks a football with his right foot - it's very strange since he has always been so clearly left handed when it comes to writing. Similarly, I thought left handed scissors would be a good idea to try - but he said he was offered those at school from YR onwards and found them harder to use than cutting right-handed. Strange boy.

[sarahfreck]

Dyspraxia means difficulty with motor (movement) skills in one way or another, so it can mean that the person is more clumsy. I had a teacher once say though that one of my students couldn't possibly be dyspraxic as he didn't bump into tables!! This is a misunderstanding as it can affect fine motor skills but not gross ones and vice versa! (This student is now 10 but still has real difficulties with writing- it looks like that produced by the average 6 year old!!) Anyway - that's all a bit of an aside!

Crocheting: I would do it with the hook in my left hand and the wool in my right. If you sit your dd opposite you, she will see what you do as a mirror image and it will be easier for her to follow!