mirror writing at 5 - should I be concerned?

[binkie]

Me about ds again. He's five & can read anything & everything, including newspapers upside down. He's a bit obsessive about text, in fact. This isn't a boast, as it gives me a bit of a chill sometimes (though I've looked at hyperlexia & he doesn't have the whole range of problems that can come with). I was doing some writing with him yesterday, and although a bit of letter reversal is of course no concern at all this time he wrote "knee" and "ear" in perfect mirror writing -not only each letter reversed, but whole word backwards too. I asked him why and he said he wanted to make sure the words didn't bang into some lines he'd drawn (so he started from the right instead of the left). Is this: just evidence of him being a visual-spatial person, so stop worrying; or: weird? Does anyone else's 5-year-old do this (or, has anyone's now older child done this, and what happened next)?

I work in a primary school & have worked mainly in the reception class.
Mirror writing is very common in children of this age & children commonly write their names mirrored ( but other than that perfect) on their pieces of work.
I really would not worry about it atall, as it is very normall in children of this age & will correct itself with age.

It is an intriguing phenomenon, though isn't it? I've noticed that when they are first starting to read they can read upside down as easily as the right way up. My dss are 5 and 7, both superb readers for their age, but the older one has no lost this odd ability to read upside down. Why should this be?!

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Thank you, all - blueteddy, haven't seen you around before, welcome if you are new - it was the whole-word-reversed thing that was bothering me, so view of a teacher who's seen it all is really helpful.

secur, that sounds right - he was very matter-of-fact about why he wanted to do it that way.

roisin, I sometimes wonder if my ds and your(ses) are quite alike!

Binkie, my 17yo dd is left-handed and sometimes mirror writes. It's weird because she doesn't actually see it has been written backwards until you point it out!! But it's had no negative effect on her schooling.

yes dd used to do this when she was young too - nothing to get freaked about I dont think