Left handed child

[tabletops123]

Hi all
My 5 year old has been using her left hand as her dominate hand for about a year now eg cutting, writing etc

I've bought her some left handed scissors which she says feel much more comfortable. I'm right handed and so is everyone I know. Are there any lefties out there or parents of lefties that can give me any general tips or good buys for my daughter as I understand most things are made with right handed people in mind.

Thanks

Half my family are lefties and apart from golf clubs, we’ve never had to source left handed items. We do have lefty scissors but once used to using normal ones, they actually make it tricker. A better tip is to teach them to cut properly, moving the paper and keeping the scissors still. Will never forget my textiles teacher for teaching us that - best thing ever yet no one else seems to know it.

Anyway the only problem I ever had was ringbinders and wire bound notepads. They make it much harder to write close to the margin if you can’t get your hand in place, but I think they’re mainly a thing of the past for students now.

Oh and @Swimmum1206 our Brabantia peelers are ambidextrous and brilliant

I think there’s a huge difference between left handers. I write with my left hand but hold scissors in my right hand. I hold a needle with my right hand and also a tennis racquet and golf club. If I throw a dart, I hold it with my left hand. I’m conventional with a knife and fork but hold a spoon in my left hand. I turn the pages of a book with my Left hand and tend to start at the back of magazines. So we are all slightly different and I recognise I’m confused.

I used to have a few issues with fountain pens at a school but gel pens without knibs are fine. You do need a bit of room on your left and I’ve had to sit in chairs with built in tables before now. The tables are universally on the right and utterly impossible for me.

I’ve never had anything special bought for me. Generally life has been straightforward. My writing is ok and I always formed letters properly. Tracing letters and making sure starting points and direction are adhered to worked for me (so says DM). But I think trying to encourage using the right hand for some things makes sense.

For later but the things that annoy me the most:
Check the holes of those slotted spoons for getting veg out the saucepan.
Cake slices are so annoying!
Check the lip of a milk pan

Yes TizerorFizz would agree all are different

My headmaster at primary was a leftie so he used to take us all off for handwriting practice

Left handed Scissors are useful, tin openers I just break them all the time so get ring pulls …

Most other things are fine - I did have a left-handed hockey stick as a kid but had nearly forgotten that

Knife and fork I eat right handed, spoon in my left

At uni they had the silly built-in desks which were annoying but you just go on the left and grab a spare

I'm a leftie with a leftie DS who is now 6.5 He has taken a bit longer than rightie DD did to get to grips with writing his letters the correct way round, but he's okay now.
Only thing I got him is LH scissors as I've always found these handy. Otherwise you might as well get used to everything else - it's a right handed world!

These threads really irk me.

She doesn't need any special equipment. The way people go on it's as tho this is a disability of some kind. Really please don't make a big deal of it - I remember being heartbroken when my grandmother used to fuss over me being left handed.

Well my father called me “kack handed”. That was normal back then. Anything that wasn’t the same as others was commented on and you were labelled. I can honestly say after 65 years plus, it has made no difference to me at all. I can type. My brain is reasonably sharp and I learnt to play musical instruments and I would like to think I’m normal. I’m not sporty but I’m a good cook! It wasn’t mentioned at school and no one cared.

Only thing I can add is that for the lefties in my class (Year1), if they forget finger spaces when they are writing, we give them a lollipop stick. They can rest their hand on it. The right handers often use their left index finger but putting your right index finger down and then trying to get a finger space round it is hard. Lolly pop sticks are much flatter and easier. Although lots of the right handers like them too - they act as a visual reminder to Put A Space In!!

my 11yo is very left sided. she manages fine with almost everything - neat writing, good at bat/ball games, plays an instrument well. only adaptations are that she uses spiral pads back to front, and struggles a little with a right handed tin opener.

I'm a leftie in my 50s. I had left handed scissors as a child - I think they were a bit of a novelty then. My brother is also a leftie (both parents right handed!) and uses right handed scissors, but eats with the knife and fork reversed. I use a knife and fork the conventional way but struggle with a spoon and fork as they both naturally go on the left to me! I cannot carve at all, DH always does it! Anyway I would encourage whichever way feels easiest.

I play musical instruments the conventional way except guitar - I think because of the way the keys lie on, say, a clarinet, there is not really a choice, and playing a stringed instrument left handed would lead to lots of elbow banging in an orchestra!

I didn't learn to tilt the paper at school but the paper has gradually rotated over the years to almost a right angle.

I find adult things more annoying - not all sharp knives cut equally well on both sides, pouring lips on pans and cups are often on the wrong side (you can find double sided ones though), tin openers are impossible!! And yes the hole to put your card in is on the wrong side on a cash machine and worse than that, the slot for the ticket machine on the tube (and at railway stations). Commuting in my 20s, I would automatically use my left hand across my body to access the slot, and wonder why I seemed to fumble so much more than others.

My 5yo leftie does seem to struggle a bit with writing. We can’t get her grip quite right and she is one of the messiest in her class. My mum is a leftie though and has beautiful handwriting so I have some hope she’ll grow into it.

@anguauberwaldironfoundersson and other lefties struggling with knives - for my 50th birthday I treated myself to a left handed bread knife from "Anything Left handed" and it's been a revelation!!

I'm another leftie from a family of lefties and had no adaptations growing up. Just my grandad trying to teach us cricket and calling us all kackhanded!!

@Dianaofthelakeofshiningwaters that’s brought back a fond memory of my dad calling me cack handed! In a funny kind way though

@babybythesea

Only thing I can add is that for the lefties in my class (Year1), if they forget finger spaces when they are writing, we give them a lollipop stick. They can rest their hand on it. The right handers often use their left index finger but putting your right index finger down and then trying to get a finger space round it is hard. Lolly pop sticks are much flatter and easier. Although lots of the right handers like them too - they act as a visual reminder to Put A Space In!!

I was scrolling this thread to check that someone mentioned finger spaces!! I didn't know whether teachers still used dinner spaces but I struggled like HELL with this when learning to write because it didn't occur to me why I found this so SO tricky. This was a massive frustration for me as a young child and if my teacher had just taken a moment to figure out why it was so hard for me she could have come to a simple solution!

Scissors are a great start,
sitting in the left seat on the desk stops elbow bumping,
non smudging ink when it comes to pens to stop inky palms and it spreading all over the page,
Grips on pens and pencils are mainly right hand favoured so the end up kind of burning the skin so if possible left handed pens they are great!
Other than that I have had no problems I will say first thing I did as adult in my own home was get a sink with a left handed draining board! Life changing to be no longer flooding the kitchen
My handwriting is fine and never had a problem there, but I broke my left wrist at 14 and teachers forced me to write with my right which has ended up with me being quite ambidextrous.

@bigbeatmanifesto in our house we do the “ kettle dance” I turn it round to pick it up with my left hand then. Mr KN turns it round to pick it up with his right hand
I struggled with turning pages on my kindle at first but can stretch my left thumb far enough over to click in the right area now. The newer ones can be adjusted to be more compatible for left handlers I believe so when/if mine breaks I’ll get one.
I realise that over 65 years I’ve adapted very well to the right handed world! I’m typing with my right hand for instance
My handwriting if I may say so, is beautiful, but that could be the 1960’s daily exercise at school in Marian Richardson script!

[quote Knittingnanny2]@bigbeatmanifesto in our house we do the “ kettle dance” I turn it round to pick it up with my left hand then. Mr KN turns it round to pick it up with his right hand
I struggled with turning pages on my kindle at first but can stretch my left thumb far enough over to click in the right area now. The newer ones can be adjusted to be more compatible for left handlers I believe so when/if mine breaks I’ll get one.
I realise that over 65 years I’ve adapted very well to the right handed world! I’m typing with my right hand for instance
My handwriting if I may say so, is beautiful, but that could be the 1960’s daily exercise at school in Marian Richardson script![/quote]
Ahhh the good old kettle dance! Very familiar with this!
Also how do you find window handles? They just ignore my left hand completely very odd.

DS is left handed, as is DH, and we have no special equipment. I just followed DH's lead on this.

@bigbeatmanifesto, had no idea til I just tried the window. I use my right hand !
I was a musical director of a choral society for some years and used a conducting baton in my left hand but do some other things with my right hand, knit, crochet for instance. Throw and catch with left hand
I suppose it goes back to whoever taught me a particular skill
None of my 3 children or grandchildren are left handed not were parents, sister etc