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Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

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Original poster

Raising a left handed child - do you need to do anything differently?

27 replies

KitKat1985 · 19/09/2015 09:59

Hi. This is possibly a really silly question but DD (aged 1) seems to be left handed (although it might be too early to know for sure - I've had conflicting information on when you can 'tell'). But she for example always eats with her left hand, and uses her left hand to hold a crayon etc. Do other people with left handed children buy specialist left-handed items to make it easier for them (e.g, left handed scissors etc) or do you just let your child get used to more 'standard' right-handed products? Are they any things that are harder for children when they are left-handed?

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Original poster

KitKat1985 · 19/09/2015 10:01

Sorry, last line should read 'are there any things that are harder for children when they are left-handed'?

OP posts:

iamanintrovert · 19/09/2015 10:03

No. I think you get scissors you can use with either hand. It's just a case when they get older of when you demonstrate things eg writing letters, you use your left hand. Luckily I'm ambidextrous :)

fusspot66 · 19/09/2015 10:04

I have a leftie and I've always respected her difference, handed spoons and toothbrush to her left etc. It's no big deal.

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slicedfinger · 19/09/2015 10:06

Scissors definitely. DD is 11 and is much more confident with left handed ones (and they are readily available now).

Other than that, when she starts to write, some pens are terribly smudgy. DD has ended up with a really uncomfortable pen holding position. She is happy with it though, and writes beautifully.

We did get a left handed writing pack, with a sheet marked up for the best direction to hold the paper in. I'm not sure how much it helped other helping her feel special rather than odd IYSWIM.

I think she was about 3 when we decided she definitely was LH, and I think they can switch till that time, but she was definitely showing a strong preference at about 18months.

She loves being a little different, and will often work out how many left handed girls there are likely to be in any given situation. It is hilarious.

slicedfinger · 19/09/2015 10:07

I've never figured out how to teach her to knit though.

TheMasterNotMargarita · 19/09/2015 10:11

I would be guided by her.
I am a leftie and the only things I have problems with are tin-openers and some types of scissors (but I still usually find a way to use them comfortably enough).
I had a parent of each handed ness so perhaps that helped? I'm Quite ambidextrous, although obviously favour my left.
I think she will adapt to what she has...it certainly hasn't disadvantaged me in any way!

SeraOfeliaFalfurrias · 19/09/2015 10:14

We got her a pair of left-handed scissors and decent handwriting pens. That's about it!

Original poster

KitKat1985 · 19/09/2015 10:14

Okay thank you all for your responses. I guess I'm curious as much as anything. Both me and DH are right-handed and come from right-handed families, so I'm a bit ignorant I guess on what things are more challenging for lefties.

OP posts:

Snossidge · 19/09/2015 10:17

Writing is harder. Haven't bothered with left handed scissors or anything though.

blibblobblub · 19/09/2015 10:18

Just don't treat her like a freak and you'll be fine

In all seriousness though... I'm left handed and so are my mum and sister. We never had any special left handed products. I do remember struggling a bit with scissors at school, and I think they did have left handed ones there actually. And when I got into cartridge/fountain pens when I was about 10 it was smudge city. Aside from that though it's generally fine.

Oh actually - when she's old enough to cook get a tin opener that's either left handed or opens on the top!

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 19/09/2015 10:22

Tin opener ... lefties break mine!! Scissors are a must ... try it!
Knitting not worked that put either!
Smudgefree pens are.good.

There is a left handed day in august to celerbrate.

senua · 19/09/2015 10:23

It's a bit early to decide at 1 y.o. that she is left-handed! It's not set until they are about age seven.
I always presented things (spoons, pens, etc) to my kids dead-centre i.e. I didn't present to either left nor right hand. Give her time to make up her own mind, especially since not many people are totally left handed. eg DD writes with left but throws with right.

zzzzz · 19/09/2015 10:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LooseSeal · 19/09/2015 10:23

I got DD left handed scissors, but she seems just as happy using regular ones.

We're a right handed couple with a surprise lefty, when I first realised I wondered if there was anything I should do differently for her, but she's 7 now and mostly I don't even notice anymore.

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 19/09/2015 10:27

DD was clearly left at 3 months.

Note do not watch them iron, its annoying!!

DoloresLandingham · 19/09/2015 10:27

I'm a leftie. Never had a problem with scissors etc, and in fact find left-handed scissors impossible.

However, although I have always had good handwriting and always been comfortable writing long texts, I have an incredibly awkward way of gripping a pen which has caused me a lot of frustration of smudged ink etc; if you've ever seen a pic of Obama writing, that's how I write. I wish someone had spent more time with me in the early years with a pen grip, encouraging me to find a more conventional writing style. The rubbery triangular prism style which fits over a pencil is good.

Oh, and start to ban spiral-bound notebooks from your house now! They are the devil's work for a leftie.

WendyTorrance · 19/09/2015 10:30

DD1 is left-handed. I bought a book called 'Your Left Handed Child' which was full of useful tips like sitting opposite rather than beside the child to teach them to tie their laces etc. so that they can 'mirror' you IYKWIM.

LeChien · 19/09/2015 10:35

Dd was clearly left handed from when she started reaching for things as a baby.
She finds her own strategies and doesn't have any issues.
The thing that made the biggest difference to her was when she moved to a better primary in yr 2, up to then her writing was dreadful. At the new school they gave her a left handed letter formation chart which really helped and her writing is beautiful.

Original poster

KitKat1985 · 19/09/2015 10:42

Some good advice here. Obviously I'm aware that DD's hand preference may change as she's still young, but her hand preference is fairly obvious right now (people other than me and DH have commented on it) as we always hand things to her 'centre on' IYSWIM and she always takes it with her left hand, and has done for several months. And as she's getting older and trying to use a spoon, crayon, etc she always reaches with her left hand from her own volition. And as she toddles around she is always trying to grab things with her left hand (normally for things she shouldn't have)! zzzzz I have to see my health visitor next week anyway for something else, I might just mention it and see if they have any concerns about her early preference.

OP posts:

zzzzz · 19/09/2015 10:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 19/09/2015 10:59

I'm a leftie and for most asymmetrical tasks (eating with knife and fork, knitting, playing a musical instrument, driving) I just learned the right-handed way and it was never a problem.

I only feel like I "need" to be left-handed when it's something where there's clearly one hand that's clearly more dominant than the other in the action. So I write, sew and use scissors with my left hand.

I don't know if this varies from leftie to leftie, but you might find that for some tasks she's just as comfortable with the "right-handed" way as the "left-handed" way - which makes it easier for right-handers to teach the skills.

A useless but interesting bit of information: apparently, left-handed people are enormously more likely to be attracted to other left-handed people than to right-handers. Looking back on it, absolutely all of the men in my life have been left-handed. Might be an interesting thing to watch for in the teenage years!

GrrrreenEyedMonster · 19/09/2015 11:06

I'd second the advice on sitting opposite to teach laces, my DC are right-handed and I am left-handed so the mirroring was helpful. Also useful when they were learning to use cutlery.

My parents are both right-handed, somehow my 2 siblings and I are lefties! I'm not even sure how that works out genetically!
None of us ever used any special resources at school, I don't even think left-handed scissors were common in schools in the 70s! In fact, some schools still tried to 'train' lefties to use their right hands for handwriting.

As an adult, the most useful left-handed item I own is my cheque book, which has the cheques bound at the right side to allow for easier completion. I used to love the confused looks people gave me when they saw me using it, they couldn't work out what was different!

Kennington · 19/09/2015 11:11

I am left handed.
Really important not to bug them about handwriting. My is really bad but it isn't a pathology and I was able to just about do written exams. at primary school a huge fuss was made about my writing and I felt terrible. My parents didn't care and just kept saying all medics have notoriously bad handwriting so it isn't something that will hold me back.

Amummyatlast · 19/09/2015 20:37

I'm a leftie and the only piece of kit I have are left-handed scissors. I'm very strongly left-handed and right-handed scissors hurt. When she gets to writing she'll need to have the paper positioned properly, otherwise she might end up with that curled hand writing approach which I personally hate. And don't be worried if she writes back to front at first - I did and I write normally now. Plus being able to read upside down or back to front writing can be a useful skill.

I'm slightly sad that DD appears to be right-handed, as I had hopes of teaching her all the things I know how to do in a left-handed way.

Amummyatlast · 19/09/2015 20:38

oops, didn't mean to put that in bold. I don't hate it that much!

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