need help with left-handed daughter -any advice welcome

[dragonflygirl]

my daughter is 7 now and has done fairly well at school up to now. She's in top groups for maths and spelling and is an avid independent reader. The problem is her writing and presentation. She's always had spidery writing and it hasn't shown much improvement over the years. She's left-handed and has an odd pencil grip. Her work is difficult to read - all over the place with either massive letters or scrunched up ones. She also leaves letters out, although she can spell well. Also, she tires quickly so doesn't write as much as is expected of her. I felt really down after our last parents evening - the teacher said he'd asked her to re-do work but it looked the same second time as first time. He asked if I thought she was being deliberately difficult. She hates being told off and I know she'd never look deliberately for trouble at school, it really worries me that her poor writing is going to start holding her back. Where can I go for help, would pay for it if necessary? Any advice..?

she is 7 this seems quite mad to me. is it really incomprehensible or just messy?

The way she slants the paper when writing will affect the way it looks. Ensure she slopes the paper with the top of the paper to the right rather than to the left.(does that make sense?)

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I would ask the teacher to back off and let her get on with it. Her writing should improve as she gets older. I would also encourage her to do things which will strengthen her for writing. Something like
Write from the Start could help although my dd got bored of it near the end of the first book. That type of thing though. Colouring, tracing etc. Not necessarily letter formation. I'm not sure this is just a left-handed thing as my left-handed son has been okay with his writing. He was a bit blodgey for a couple of years but it got better. He's now at university with no problems. Some of my other children who are right-handed have or have had similar writing to that described by you. It did seem to improve as they got older.

I have twins, both left handed aged 8. One has fantastic handwriting and the other has exactly as you describe. They have both been taught to write in exactly the same way but each have their own style

Don't worry, 7 is very young to worry about it.

I'm left handed and have never had probs with handwriting. DH is right handed and I had to marry him to find out what he was writing to me!

Dd2 (right handed) had handwriting difficulties and she had special help at school - there was a small group of them being helped - and now her writing is much better. So I'd ask what special help is available.

slanting the paper, holding the pen "normally" (as a right-handed person would) and not over-the-top as per most lefties helps presentation

as for the quality - if she feels pressured by her teacher, it may be making her stress about it and miss letters or rush?

Does she use a handwriting pen (rollerball) or another sort because I find, as a fellow lefty that it needs to be a decent quality and free-flow ink sort (as per rollerball types)

my brother and are both lh. he has always had appalling handwriting while mine is fairly neat. he has got three degrees (haha) while i left school at 16. as they say, go figure.

I found my appalling handwriting improved when I had to learn how to print in a particular way for Tech Drawing -up until then, I had no idea that I was forming letters like a Righthander, so backwards for a lefty. As soon as I started writing in the right direction, it improved no end - DS1 is right handed but forms letters the same way as me, so he goes backwards too!
Lisa X

I am left handed also, as is my son - I agree with the poster who said look at the angle of the paper - this does help. I think also that the grip you mention makes a difference - I hold my pen as per a right handed person - but with a slightly different paper angle - I have a left handed son - he also grips as my right handed daughter does - I wonder if this would help - that aside she is clearly very bright and doing very well which is fantastic congrats to her- this is (in my opinion) just something that she will work out as suits her best over time - it took me many years not to feel that being left handed was not in some way a hinderence (it was a few years since I was in education I admit) I hope she will not feel that it is an issue in the grander scheme of things it really is not....

I can recommend the anything lefthanded website as well. I would also recommend signing up for their newsletter as it emails you LOTS of useful info, as well as any offers they have on.

They do have a number of pens to help with handwriting. At 7 she is still very young though. Your teacher should have more tolerance given she is left-handed. It is more difficult for a left-hander to write from left to right than a right-hander.

When I was learning to write, they had special exercise books, where there was a double line, and the lower half of the letter had to fill the gap between the two lines. Anyone remember those, and can you still get them? Really good for letter formation.

In fact, if you have a look on the site, you'll see me in the Eggheads competition
(note that i'm not connected with the website at all, other than I responded to an email request for competitors to take part...)

Sounds like you've got a bright daughter there. I'd slap the teacher

just tie her left hand behind her back for a few months and make her learn to be right handed like normal people

Am also left handed and agree with paper at an angle. THe teachers used to straighten my paper but i couldnt write neatly like that.

second (third?) Anything Left Handed - they had a shop in Woucester at one point - we took DD1 in there, and the chap spent 20 minutes or so with her showing her how to hold her pencil, position the paper etc.
You can get pencil grips which slide over the pencil with "finger holes", also we've found the Yo-Ro pen and pencil quite good. And once they're allowed to use pens at school, Stabilo do one called S/move (I think) which comes as RH or LH.
But tilting the paper, and making sure you/she sits on the left hand side of a table so as not to bang arms with a right hander is probably the most important. Also not gripping the pencil too tightly, let the hand relax - don't know why LHers grip so tightly, but it doesn't help

When she is writing is she sitting with another child to her left. Unless she sits next to another left hander left handed children should always sit on the left hand side of a table with and never in the middle of a group of 3.

My DS is left handed and dyspraxic so a bit of a double whammy as far as his hand writing is concerned. I have been reading recently that putting the paper at an angle helps but also using a writing slope has been found to help those who find handwriting difficult.

I am not suggesting for one moment that your DD has special needs but the attached is a link to the sort of thing I am talking about.

sloped desk top writing aid

If you are really really worried and the suggestions on the thread don't make any difference perhaps you could consider seeing an OT.

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Certainly worth trying some specific left handed tools and working on making her grip more comfortable/paper slanted correctly, but as previous posters have said, I am lh with decent handwriting, dh rh and almost indecipherable. My cousin lh and neat, my brother rh and appalling. My friend lh and dreadful ad infinitum. It might not be a left handed thing.

www.yoropen.co.uk
They do pens and pencils, they are not just for left handers, but work really well, as the end is lifted up higher than the body of the pen and you can see what you are writing as you write it and your hand doesn't cover it up. You can also buy them in large branches of W H Smith.

Relax and try not to grip/hold the pen too tight, get her to hold a pen in her usual grip, then make sure that you can pull it out of her hand easily, if you have to pull hard, she is holding it too tight. Get her to imagine it is as light as a feather.

If she presses really hard on the paper, it means that writing can't flow, this is really important for doing joined up writing.

If she is pressing too hard, put some carbon paper (yes it does still exist) between two peices of paper and then you can show her the difference between pressing hard and pressing lightly.

Is she doing joined up writing yet? Is she forming all of her letters in the correct way and doing the correct type of joiner?

7 is young, but in my experience if it is a real problem, it won't just go away. Practise does make a difference to handwriting.

She probably gets tired quickly when writing because she's gripping too tightly (stressed!) using an inefficient pen/pencil grip. School sound rather unhelpful. Depending on how serious the problem is, the 'Write from teh Start' programme mentioned above is good for developing hand-eye coordination, fluency of movement etc - it's not a 'copy the letter' type approach, IYSWIM. It was written for children aged 4 - 6 or older pupils experiencing difficulties with fine motor/handwriting skills. If you feel that she needs to have clarification of how she should be forming her letters, there's a programme specifically for lhanders called 'Left Hand Writing Skills' available from www.leftshoponline.co.uk It's not rocket science but it reminds the pupil to align the paper correctly, use a good grip etc and most handwriting schemes only have the 'target letter' on the right so that as soon as a leftie starts to write they cover up the example letter......

The advice about ensuring she doesn't sit on the right-hand-side of a right-hander is good. Bashing elbows together is a common problem, which would make her tuck her elbow in too far for comfort.

(Same problem in Chinese restaurants when using chopsticks!)