left handed ds age 4

[jobhuntersrus]

Ds is 4 yrs 3 months. He loves drawing and has really good pencil control. He is just beginning to try and write letters, particularly his name. I have noticed he is left handed. He uses left hand when eating and playing too. Neither dh or I are left handed so really don't know if it is going to cause him any problems? Sorry I probably sound really dim. Any left handed people out there able to let me know any potential issues he might encounter?
Many thanks

Left obviously.

Naturally. Let's get onto MNHQ to get that sorted. And if the don't we shall accuse them of leftism!

Both my ds1 and dh are lefties. They both look 'uncomfortable' when they write and ds1 turns the paper on it's side so he's literally writing uphill'. No issues. Both have very neat writing. ds2 told me off as I kept setting the dinner table the other way round for him .. he announced that he puts his knife and fork in the same hand as righties - took him 4 years to let me know ... bless! Did buy him left handed pens, but he never got on with them.

I'm a leftie. The only thing I ever had trouble with was learning to knit- right handers just couldn't get their heads around doing things with the opposite hand.

I'm left handed and my mom always taught me things in fromt of me so that she was mirror image (knitting etc) and it was a really easy way to teach me things. My mom was always like you nd bothered to try to alter things and so I think it is really lovely of you.
I struggled with writing becuase of how books were so had to put my page on a slant but it didn't effect my writing and I still do it now!
Make sure there is always space to the left of things. When I set anything up I lways give plenty of room to the left for elbow room were as right handed generally do it to the right.
Generally though us lefties are adaptable people and it is a right handed world so some things you wont be able to help.
Most banks have cottened on but it used to really annoy me when the pen was always stuck down on the other side and wouldn't stretch long enough! And cake forks/fish knives don't work because you have to hold them the wrong way but I doubt that will affect him in anyway!

eeyore actually I think it should be a potato emoticon!

Good news on the potato peeler front

Ikea sell them to, almost the same as the lakeland ones but with a stronger handle for even more peeling joy. You can use them for carrots too.

I have 2 lefthanded Dd's. Dd1 had a few prblems with kitchen gadgets[namely potato peelers] when she was younger but copes well now.

Dd3 has motor issues so we are not sure how many of her difficulties are due to this or her left handedness.

Bloody hell! A tad harsh ladies? 3 out of 4 of my ds are lefties and I had questions when they were smaller and we haven't all been mumsnet members ling enough to read past threads you miserable, belittling sods.

Previous comment aimed at some rather harsh comments left earlier.

I didn't think we were being miserable or belittling. I thought the OP was given good advice and then we had a bit of a laugh.

Eh? I thought I wrote some stuff that was helpful. Then had a joke about veg. Have a potato.

Stop being miserable, KenDodds!

I think it's a valid point to ask about actually, as there are a few things that can be done to assist left-handed children with writing etc. My 5 1/2 yo dd is left-handed. She has been slowish at learning to write and tends to write backwards a lot (although I'm not sure this is entirely due to lefthandedness). One thing that I find helps is if I draw a dot, or a smiley face in the top left corner of the page so that she knows where to start and is less likely to go backwards iyswim?

In her Christmas stocking she had a Stabilo ergonomic left-handed pencil (as it was half price in Sainsburys just before Christmas!) which she really loves writing with. We have left-handed scissors but she also uses right-handed ones in her right hand. I asked her and she said at school she knows which ones are LH and she usually uses those.

Otherwise, I really don't think about it much, even though she is the only 'leftie' in the family. I find that I now instinctively pass things like cutlery to her left hand - but absentmindedly do that to 3yo ds too, so he is the one who always has to swap hands. She has always shown a preference for her left hand and when she was a tiny baby she always slept with her head facing the left, I remember wondering if she would turn out to be left-handed, and she did!

I'm miserable because I can't get out of carrot duty

My DS is the same age and left-handed (and left-footed). The only things we sometimes struggle with are a) when I am trying to show him something like e.g. putting butter on toast - I find it quite hard to do left-handed, and obviously he finds it hard to do it right-handed and b) he did at first have difficulties with using a mouse. He'd be using his left index finger and so right-clicking effectively (yes, I know you can change the buttons around but then they'd be wrong for everyone else). I think he has it sussed now.

My ds (5) is left-handed and the only problem we've ever had was at his nursery parent's evening at then end of his 2 pre-school years there when his teacher sat in front of dh and I and told us he was RIGHT handed...would have laughed in her face if I hadn't been so flabbergasted!! A more left handed child you could not get...he used a spoon with his left hand from 6mths, plays guitar LH, plays wii LH, plays cricket, tennis etc LH. He even cried when I asked him to draw a picture with his right hand!!

Unbelievable that in 2 years the nursery had failed to register this (although I did tell them he was left handed when he started there aged 3)

Minnie, I use the mouse with my right hand, and so does DS. I think it's through laziness because that's where it is

my son finds sharpening pencils difficult, and measuring with a ruler. Im waiting for a math set and a sharpener from the lefty shop.

In his infant school, he was the only lefty. Now he in a class with 8 other lefties, and they have a leftie TA who helps them with their writing and other general lefthanded issues - like ties, shoelaces, some letter formation (the cross on a T and an F should be right to left,rather than left to right, for example. Often his rounded letters - a, o - start too far to the left, meaning he goes round and doubles back.)

Finger spaces were a nightmare (try it) until TA told them to use an imaginary finger.

He still, in year 3, transposes letters and numbers - s, j, P, 9...

I'm a leftie with rightie children - I think they are the weird ones!

Interesting that people have mentioned laying cutlery incorrectly. I place cutlery the right way round but my kids do it the wrong way?! Do you mean that lefties normally use a fork in their right hand?

My ds is a leftie so much so you may aswell cut his right hand off. We got him left handed scissors for at home and one of those left handed pencils as he was having trouble with the pincer grip.

The biggest problem we have found is that he does taekwon-do and everything starts with the right. He has really struggled with this.

My 15yr old is a leftie and really struggles with scissors. No great concern unless they want to be a barber or tailor!

Have to use fountain pen in school we opted for a Pelikan fountain pen, writing isn't the best but is still legible.