How to help a left-handed 3 year old?

[WhereIsBlueRabbit]

We are starting to think that DS (aged 3) might be left-handed. It's difficult to tell, and he does seem fairly ambidextrous in some ways (he will colour with both hands, for example), but we (and childcare) think he is showing a preference for the left.

Is there anything we should be aware of? Anything that may be useful to know about further down the line? DP and I are both right-handed, as is everyone in our immediate family, so no experience of this! I know about left-handed scissors but is there anything else it would be useful to know about?

We just did left handed scissors for ds as he's left handed in a family of right handers.

I have a little leftie, he's 6 now.

Right, first of all don't tell him which hand to hold things in - let him lead this until he starts proper writing at school age. When he starts to learn letters, if he is still leftie then, you can then encourage him to write and draw with his left hand.

with anything other than writing let him choose - you will probably find he will use different hands/feet for different things - My DS is a left handed batsman/bowler in cricket, but kicks right footed. he can also catch and throw happily with both hands. anything like guitar/archery etc as he grows, let him try both ways and see how he is comfortable. (DS is right handed on archery but left on guitar!)

silly things - when he gets a bike, put the bell on the left handle bar not the right!

when you are showing him how to do something be a mirror rather than next to him. its easier for lefties to compute what you;re doing with your right into them doing it with their left if you are opposite them. when helping with writing, if you can, use your left hand to show him. i can manage individual letters ok enough this way.

great website:www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/childrens_products.html
Lefties often find writing/pencil grip harder, its to do with the fact they are more ambidexterious than their right handed counterparts. Get him pen grips to help. this website do a kit for kids at different ages - left handed pen grips, pencils with grooves, rulers, scissors, pencil sharpeners. DS has the kit and it helps him no end.

hope that helps!!

oh and when he starts school tell his teacher - he will need to sit so his left arm is at the edge of the desk - otherwise he will keep bashing elbows if he's sat next to a right handed person!

you may also find it helpful to put his drink on his left side at meals rather than the traditional right so he can reach it with his dominant hand.

shirt buttons/trouser flies! he may find these harder to learn too, so be a bit more patient with him when he starts learning to dress himself for school. DS still struggles with the top button!

if you are doing cooking/craft keep in mind that your DS will want to pass/stir/ladle things with the opposite hand to you. it will be awkward for you but you will need to adjust where you stand - for example if your DS is scooping something from one bowl to another he will want the bowls the opposite way to you, otherwise he will be trying to tip the spoon backwards to do it! (i learnt this the hard way when he was helping me dish up bolognese!!)

couple more! beware of notebooks that have a spiral binding - a leftie will not be able to write in these as the binding will be sticking up into their wrist when they try and write.

and when he starts to write, teach him to tilt his page which will make it easier for him to write without smudging it.

Some really good advice above, definitely agree on letting him lead the way as to which hand he prefers. My DD showed a strong preference for her left hand from tiny but it sounds like your DS is more ambidextrous.

Lots of patience is the important thing as if he decides he prefers to write left handed it is much more awkward. DD has just begun in reception and is finding letter formation quite challenging, and dies still try to write from right to left sometimes. Her school provide left handed grips etc, but any extra time you can spend supporting will definitely be worthwhile.

I have a young adult who is a leftie. The biggest issue was always physically showing them how to do stuff as we could never achieve the mirror image to demonstrate. Despite many people making many attempts mine could not tie their shoe laces until 12/13yo when a leftie showed them. They could never manage it when shown by right handers but when a leftie demonstrated they got it straight away. That’s one of many examples where stuff took a lot longer for them.

They are best seated on the left at school or with another leftie or they will forever be bumping arms with their desk buddy. Definitely get left handed scissors.

Apart from this it’s all business as usual with them.

hopping is right, its so hard to demonstrate properly for them - do you know any adult lefties? luckily my dad is (if was him who pointed out about the bike bell!) and he is great at teaching my DS things. Ask around your friends and see if you can find a helpful leftie!

My left hander is 5 now. He writes and eats left handed but uses computers/tablets etc right handed. He seems to find the way that is easiest for him.

Raspberry, my DS2 is now in year 1. He found writing difficult in reception, but was at expected standards by the end of the year thanks to lots of practise and a lovely, patient teacher. I think that writing might become trickier again in a couple of years once he earns his 'pen licence' and ends up smudging his work.

Thank you very much for all of the advice "Canopen*, that is really useful. I had never thought about spiral bound notebooks before.

Thanks to me and his Nana wanting to help DS2 and make sure he has everything he needs, our house is now full of left handed scissors. When a right handed person is searching for a pair of scissors, and can only find left handed ones, they work if you turn them upside down.

Knife and fork, etc. the 'correct' way round, ie as for right handers. Tables are always set this way and he will find it an embarrassment if he has to fumble around with his cutlery later when dining out.

My daughter and I are left handed and my son is right-handed. I've never felt that I've had to pay any particular attention to either of their handedness (apart from ticking the left handed scissors box for my daughter's holiday club).

I'm a lefty. Don't do like my family did and tease them for being uncoordinated/unable to pick dexterous things up from right-handed demonstrations.

There are channels on youtube that teach things like tying shoelaces from a left-handed view.

I completely agree with teaching a leftie to use knife and fork the correct way.
You can pick up a spoon and use it with your left, tho without creating a social faux pas, but knives and forks? NO.
I know your child is little but it's worth saying.

Both my dd's are left handed (everyone else in the family right handed) We didn't do anything in particular, mainly observed what they had trouble with and stepped in as required.

They both had left handed scissors from an early age. Dd1 was fine with handwriting, dd2 struggled a bit more. I got her some pencil grips and did some work with her on angling paper and letter formation. School were useless, weren't interesting in helping in any way.

They do use knives and forks the right way round but they did take a bit longer than their peers to become proficient with them.

I'm left handed and in my experience it is right handed people that are likely to use cutlery incorrectly. I don't put the fork in my right hand, whereas right handed people do.

I think the only time it's ever been confusing at all is when being taught something technical by a right handed person, eg with certain sports.

I don't think left hadned scissors existed when I waas little so I just learned to use right handed ones.

Me and my Dd are left handed, I wouldn't say there's anything to be aware of. We can both use spiral notepads never needed any special pens or scissors. It's easy not to smudge your writing, just tilt the page 😅

My sister is left handed and we found useful items from Anything Left handed. Things she found useful were scissors, ruler, potato peeler (although many are ambidextrous now). Her biggest gripe was with cheque books (similar to spiral bound notebooks mentioned above) but probably a non issue as who writes cheques now.

d's is ambidextrous with a slight preference towards left hand now he is 16. in primary he wrote pencil in right and go to with left. now he only uses left hand for writing. he cuts with right hand did not get on with left handed sissors but loved grips and pens for left hand hold..

he kicks with right foot but throws equally (a huge benefit as a rugby player) we were advised to let him lead and have. only thing he ever moaned about was fountain pens. the rest he just got on with

I'm a lefty.
When you are cutting with him using scissors remember that he will need to cut in the opposite direction to you.
Example - if he's cutting out a circle he will need to cut clockwise whereas you will naturally cut anti clockwise. I teach preschool and after pen control this seems to be the biggest hurdle.
Btw I can't use left handed scissors I prefare the neutral ones.

Left handed fountain pen, hated having to write with a fountain pen at school because the ink just doesn't flow probably (not sure they still have to use fountain pens these days)

Seating plan - heads up to teachers because there is nothing worse than sitting the wrong side of a right handed person.

Potato peeler, you need a y-shaped one as the other type just won't be sharp for a left handed person.

If he is fairly ambidextrous then please teach him the correct way around for cutlery, might be more messy to start with but he'll thank you in the future.

I personally found left handed scissors impossible to use as a child because I'd learnt to adapt to righthanded, so maybe have both available.

Notebooks/diaries all difficult due to the binding being on the left. Lie flat, top bound or thinner exercise books are better, or refill notebooks with a binder/wallet to store.

DS is a lefty and has just started reception. We don't really do anything to help him (evil parents 👹) but he seems to figure most things out for himself. One thing he does struggle with is getting zips started. I'd say that was a 4yr old thing but his lefty Grandad is notorious for destroying the zips on coats so I think it might be to do with how he needs to pull the zip up.

Be very happy that many left handers are famous musicians, artists and creative people generally.

It’s very special to be a left handed person.

I’m left handed and the only things I had real trouble with were crochet, knitting and sewing.
I was still unable to do surgical knots as a junior doctor, until an ambidextrous surgeon demonstrated them for me left handed! I still can’t crochet, after only being shown by right handers, and I knit very slowly right handedly, as nobody taught me how to do it left handed and now I’m too old to swap sides.
Ink pens are a nuisance for smudging and it’s hard to keep handwriting in a straight line on unlined paper - you can’t see the bit you’ve already written as it’s hidden under your left hand.
Your child will adapt to all this with time, but it will always be a bit of a nuisance that the world is right handed. Even shop counters usually have the credit card machine fixed over on the right.

Just be patient with your ds as he learns how to do things and works out which way is best for him. Using cutlery, scissors, pen/pencil etc. Learning to do things can be frustrating at the best of times, so just encourage him to try them left-handed and right-handed and think which way is easiest as he is doing them, then he can choose.

I am a leftie, along with ds4 (8). Dh and other sons are all right-handed.

My dm is a leftie too so I grew up with left-handed scissors. We now have ambidextrous scissors, potato peeler and bread knife. (Also have a right-handed bread knife, it is only sharp on one side, the other is sharp on both sides of the blade.)

I didn't realise until I was in high school that I could use different hands for different things. I write holding the pen in my left hand, but realised in PE in high school that I have better hand-eye coordination with my right hand. Started getting rounders holding the bat in my right hand, improved my tennis, badminton etc game holding rackets etc in my right hand.

I hold cutlery with the knife in my right hand like right-hand people and wear my watch on my left wrist. But I am left-footed when it comes to kicking a ball and juggle the left-handed way.

If your ds is going to learn an instrument, if he does it left-handed his tutor will have to take that into account (I expect most would). But if he learns the guitar it would be worthwhile trying him out with a right-hand and left-handed one before buying him one - see which works best for him. Or a right-handed guitar can be restrung for a leftie.

A ruler is a ruler, it helps you draw a straight line. If you use it to measure lines with, find out which side is easier for him to start measuring from and get him the appropriate ruler if you want to. I always used a standard ruler as measure from the left, it's logical to me, but other lefties find it easier to start measuring from the right. It will just take observation over time to realise which things he does in which way, I guess some right-handed people will do some things left-handed, my dh wears his watch on his right hand!

I’m left handed and find some of the advise on this thread really unusual (never had a problem with eating in the correct hands or using a spiral notebook). I would say the best advice is to not really even acknowledge it, it really isn’t a problem. Personally I have never found left handed gadgets any good, for example with the scissors they put the blade on the oppersite side so you can’t really see how close your cutting to an edge.

For those lefties that use spiral notebooks I have an odd question- do you use them normally? If my child has had to use them they always turn them upside down so the big blank space usually at the top is at the bottom and the pre-printed margin (if there is one) is now on the right. They reckon it’s the only way they can manage with them?

I also remember when they were at school the teacher said it was hard for them to write on the whiteboard - no idea why the kids would be writing on the teachers whiteboard but anyway, as when they wrote their arm would wipe off what they had just written. Not sure if it was a problem for all lefties or just my child? Also, they can’t stand any ink that doesn’t dry instantly as it smudges all over the page AND their arm as they write. Again not sure if just my child? Irrespective they generally made it through primary school and high school just fine and don’t seem to have any issues in life with it all. They do eat with cutlery in the opposite hands to us as this is how they naturally did it and we never corrected them as we thought if it was more natural/comfortable for them then who cares?