Left-handedness, what do I need to know?

[MinnieMummy]

DS (3.8) is, I think, left-handed. He's not that keen on drawing or colouring but will always defer to using his left hand, and he throws left-handed. So I'm going to go out on a limb and assume he'll probably carry on that way and be left-handed!

Does anyone have any useful info/things I should get?? I'm aware of left-handed scissors but other than that...

Watching with interest. DS is the same- 3.2 and clearly left handed. He seems to get easily discouraged with drawing etc.

Only left-handed people are in their right minds

My dd is left handed ..never really caused her any bother ...I never bought anything special for her ..she figured things out for herself ..she has beautiful handwriting

Us lefties are highly intelligent - I'll have you know.I do however have completely unreadable handwriting.

Scissors are a nightmare for me. Can't cut straight with RH ones, but never saw LH ones until I started teaching in 1998. By that time they had become commonplace.

Have a look at www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk if you think it might be useful. Ooh, when your dc gets old enough, a LH ruler (numbered from r to l) might be handy and if they decide that they like a fountain pen, that website sells them with a LH nib. Stops it sounding so scratchy.

Try, gently, to encourage your dc to write with their hand going under the text of their writing, it vastly reduces the amount of smudged work, and cuts down on the RSI in the wrist as a result of wrapping the whole hand around the top of the work.

Finally, try to crack down on any LH prejudice that you hear. My husband sometimes refers to me as kack-handed and wonders why I get upset at being referred to as shit!! Admittedly, he does appear to have got the idea.

LOL at the handwriting.

I'm a leftie and I have the neatest handwriting ever. It is, however, totally illegible to anyone other than me!!

hahahaha!!

I think (In answer to the OP) it depends on the level of 'left handedness' - I never needed anything switched for me (though I do write sidewards!) but my sister has left handed alsorts...

I would talk to any school about the issue though - Lefties need more 'room' to write (I still have to turn books sidewards to write normally)... I did and do need more workspace.

HTH!

DS1 (7) is left handed and apart from LH scissors he can pretty much use everything for RH people.

He reverses a few letters at school, apparently normal for LHers.

Oh, and I get compliments on my handwriting all the time, but it can be quite irregular. More depends on how tired I am rather than the fact I'm LH.

my son is left handed too, they really don't need any extra help

Don't assume he will be left handed for everything - my mum did and bought me all sorts of things which I then proceeded to use with my right hand! Many people are only left handed for some things.

Be patient when he is learning to write - it can be really frustrating until they find the right way to hold the pen and paper. I disagree with meow - don't try to tell him how to do it, just bear with him while he figures it out (fwiw, my hand is over the text but I old the paper at 90 degrees and write upwards, so no rsi or smudging)

I do the same as ib - hold the page at 90Deg and write sidewards / upwards so no smudging.

As a lefty, the things I found difficult were:

• cutting (made my hand hurt from forcing the blades together). Lefthanded scissors are great.

That's pretty much it from a child's point of view. As an adult:

• bread knives that are only serated on one side
• ladles with a pouring lip on one side only
• potato peelers with fixed blade, and only one side sharpened
• cake forks (but hey, I can live without cake forks

I suppose I'm going through a similar thing being a parent of a child who's almost certainly right handed. I'm conscious that if I'm showing him how to write something that I'm doing it differently to how he would, and I find myself often handing him a pencil to his left hand - he immediately changes it over though.

If he's ever clumsier than you would expect at doing a particular thing just check that it isn't because the implement he's using makes it harder for a lefty. My mum used to think I was trying to get out of peeling the potatoes because I did it so badly!

I'm left-handed, along with OH and DD. DS is right-handed, though, so I might be asking for advice later on right-handedness!

He'll probably be very good at mirror writing - a problem we're having with DD at the moment (she's 5)...we frequently have to remind her where to start writing!

Also, I'd watch and see how he gets on with using right-handed items as you may find he gets on OK. An example is the scissors...I remember school buying left-handed scissors specially for me to use. I never did, as I had learned to use 'normal' ones at home.

HTH

My DD (nearly 4) is left-handed. Apart from left-handed scissors, she doesn't need any other help so far.

Only problem is, her (name) writing is a bit behind her classmates (she is just finishing her nursery year at school) - and she reverses letters (mirror-image) and writes upside down.

Teacher says this is totally normal.

I could write in mirror image before I could write my name 'normally'.

It's quite common with lefties, I believe.

Hello,

I'm a lefty and proud.

The key things you need to know are:

• Make sure your child always has enough space on their left side for working. If they have a righty to their left, then elbow banging can ensue. Make sure teachers, relatives, even nursery workers are aware of this as it can be detrimental to learning pencil control. Also note that there are ways to make it easier for lefties to write from left to right, such as angling the paper. (See link below).
• They aren't "clumsy", just living in a world not designed for them. This can make picking up some practical skills slower as they have to learn while mirroring the actions taught by a righty. Long term, that will be useful. In the meantime, their self-esteem might need a bit of a boost.

I learned to use right handed scissors right handed. But if you want to have lefty ones, then buy lefty. Scissors that claim to be "either handed" are lying and its only that the handles are symmetrically moulded, the blades are pushed apart or together by the hand movement and that's the key thing. Serrated knives, when the child is older, can also be hazardous for longer until they learn to cope with the serration.

Anything Left Handed has a club and a lot of products. Most of them are not necessary, but you may find the book for parents (under the children's section) and some of the links, e.g. "why is it left handed" info useful.

Other things I have found useful, living with righties (which as your child grows could affect how soon you let them do things for safety):

• a kettle on a circular base, so that I can swivel it to my hand and then lift, and righties can do the same
• ambidextrous can openers and potato peelers
• organising drawers so handles (e.g. knife handles) point towards the person not left or right
• plenty of space on work surfaces, either side of the stove for example
• never letting anyone ever borrow my fountain pen because a righty or a lefty with a different style will damage the nib that is used to the owner

Wow, loads of info, that's really useful! DS starts in a foundation class in September so I will definitely mention it to them. In the meantime I'll check out those websites and print this off for reference - thanks all! Love the hyper-intelligent references - clearly he is...

There's a very high proportion of high flying lefties, especially in creative and scientific areas (I'm a physicist). We also gain an advantage in some sports. Our language centres are also affected - we (and our relatives) are often better at language than others. We can see things differently, so the way your child gets to an answer might not be the way you expect, encourage them to explore their own thought processes. (Can be a problem with some, less good, teachers.)

And definitely, most of the lefties I know are very intelligent (but that could just be that I know lots of intelligent people and of them some are lefty.)

I'm watching my little one carefully - he's definitely mainly using his left hand currently for eating and using pens, but at 19months he's too young to settle and I don't want to influence him too much but let him find his own balance.

It is a problem being forced to use the wrong hand for the majority of activities. Lefties forced to be righty would often develop stutters (language centres, remember) as well as coordination problems. (Traditionally the force was because the left side was seen to be the devil's side, more recently it's because parents think it will be easier - for whom though - and if it's fine for one child, who determines that and does it mean it will be fine for another?)

You might hear of correlation between dyslexia and left handedness, but research is still ongoing and there are theories that actually it's more correlated with a lack of strong indication of handedness.

I am a lefty, as is my mum, sister and gran. A couple of centuries ago, we would have been tried as a coven of witches!

Seriously, though, it has never been an issue. Personally, I don't have sloping handwriting, or hold my pen funny. I was able to read and write earlier than my peers

The only thing I have never mastered is knitting, but my mum and gran are experts. I don't really think it has hampered my life!

SLight hijack, but do any of you lefties play a musical instrument - if so , which one, and was it problematic being left-handed?

We are a very musical family, and I would love DD to learn an instrument (if she wants to). She has already started 'plinking' away on our piano, and I am interested to know whether her lefthandedness will be detrimental.

For example, I know with most instruments, they are played the same whether you are left or right-handed, and usually (dexterity-wise IYSWIM) they are designed with r-h people in mind.

I am a flute and piano teacher, and would say your DD may be a little bit disadvantaged with the piano at first (given the tendency for a lot of music to carry the tune in the right hand, and for most primers to start with the right hand notes) but this shouldn't last long, as you have to be able to make both hands work equally well to play well. I'd say hand eye coordination is more important, as is the ability to make both hands act independently from each other.

As for the flute, it wouldn't make any difference.

Not sure about instruments like trumpet, where the valves are played with the right hand, but to generalise, I'd say musicians tend to be quite dextrous in general, and so are good at controlling their bodies and making them do 'unnatural' things, so handedness is almost a moot point.

Guitars can be strung for left handers (and ukulele's are symmetrical, so can be easily tuned for either direction without restringing) so that might be an instrument to start with.

My DS is a leftie, and the only thing I think he has trouble with is neat handwriting (although that could have been the case anyway), and the fact that if you write with a pen it inevitably gets smudged. He seems to be able to use scissors reasonably well.

DD plays the piano and guitar and has no problems with the piano, however she started off right handed with guitar but asked to have her guitar restrung left handed, we never got round to it and now happy to stay right handed.

Her biggest problem has been her handwriting, which has been truely appaling over the years but finally started neatening up in year6 (now year 7)
Like Raahh she hasn't learnt to knit etc because I can't teach her.