Left-Handed Kids

[itsnotso]

Make me feel better about having a left-handed child! She is 7 and is feeling incredibly different to the other children. I partly feel her teacher is to blame, holding her back after lessons whilst the others go out to play to practice writing in a straight line.

It's the little things: scissors, tying shoe laces, writing neatly in cards...she finds it all such a struggle.

She constantly asks me why I made her so different, and I don't know what to say 😢

I'm left handed and it has never really been an issue but I can imagine it would have become one had I been singled out at school because of it.
I'm not sure why being left handed would make it harder to write in straight lines. With things like shoe laces, maybe she would have struggled even if she was right handed as lots of children do.
As you said, I'd be worrying her teacher is inadvertently making her expect to struggle because she isn't right handed.

Ds is left handed but it hasn't really hindered him. Primary school had left handed scissors he could use and we have some at home too. You can get other left handed equipment too but we're haven't really needed anything else

My right handed dd didn't learn to do laces until she was due to go to high school (age 11ish). Before that she had velcro shoes as they had to change in and out of them all day as they changed in and out of indoor shoes/ outdoor shoes

I'm a leftie, As is my DD :-) When I show her how to do something she sits beside me. If she's with a rightie, she sits opposite and mirrors.
Why is she losing her play time? If she needs to practise writing in a straight line, you can do that at home? I'm not impressed with her being isolated from her peers, especially if she's feeling sensitive about being different already.id be in touch with the teacher!

Thanks for replying. I think she's struggling because despite it being a year group of 64, there is only her who is left handed. She doesn't have much patience so I suspect she's rushing her work and then going off the line as she tries to get it done.

They didn't have any left handed scissors so I've supplied those for her. I just feel so bad for her, she blames me for her being left handed but she's literally the only left-handed person in our family, so I can't blame the genetics!

@Ihatesandwiches her writing to me seems ok. It's by no means as neat as her sisters, but she's older and if I'm honest, I can't remember if that's how it looked at that age. She takes great care writing in birthday cards, and she loves practising her joined up writing. So I'm not sure what the problem is at school other than she's maybe rushing to get outside with her friends.

I’m left handed and struggled (and still do) with scissors and neatness. I really wanted to be arty and I hated that everything I did was a complete dogs dinner. I think it probably was around 7-9ish that I was most aware of it - I really just wanted to fit in and make pretty stuff with my friends and I couldn’t. I never struggled with lace tying though, I’m not sure why that would be affected by being left handed.

Have a word with her teacher. Being held in to practice handwriting isn’t fair. Ask her to send work home if she feels it’s needed instead.

My handwriting still looks like a spider has crawled over the page and I always get dh to write cards. But I don’t care I’m the least anymore. I know it’s hard at that age when it seems such a big thing but it really isn’t.

She’s only in reception currently, but my DD1 is a lefty. Never had any negative comments about it and she likes it, thinks it makes her special! I think your daughters school need fo get into the 21st century.

My daughter is also 7 and left handed and she doesn’t have any of these issues. It sounds like her teacher is making an issue out of it and giving her a complex about it. I would not have her missing any playtime for writing practice!

Same here!! My DD is a leftie and finds everything trickie! School wrote to me with concerns about her using scissors as she had poor control etc. They didn’t notice she was a leftie! So was using right handed scissors. She now has her own pair. Writing is harder as their hand is on top of what they write so it can slow them down as they have to lift their hand to see what they have written.

2 of mine are left handed, I am too. I don't remember it ever being an issue for me and it's barely been mentioned for my children since they started school. It must be awful to be singled out because of it.
The only real adjustments made for my children was for them to sit on the left of others when working.

I'm not sure what to suggest about the laces and writing in straight lines, I'm fortunate that mine haven't struggled with that but lots of children do whether they're right or left handed, so again not fair to single her out.

I'd go and speak to the teacher personally, as singling her out and keeping her behind seems really unfair!

Think I'm going to have a word with the teacher. It's hard for me to understand my daughters POV because I've never come across a lefty - I didn't realise they couldn't see their own writing, so makes no wonder she's struggling. The only think I've really studied is her eating, and whether she uses the knife and fork in the same combination as I do, which she does. I do have to remember however to put her drink to the left, or else she goes to grab it with the right and ends up dropping it 90% of the time.

Aha! Maybe check with the teacher if the problem.is that she is rushing and not paying enough attention to how her work is presented? Thrn the two of you can have a chat about how being left handed is not the issue here.
I remember being really frsutrated as a child - and even as an adult! - about living in a right handed world, lol. Ring binders are a nightmare, and learning to use a mouse, even my electric mixer has the power cord on the "wrong" side, and don't get me started on irons! But she will develop strategies as she gets older.

I'm a lefty and a primary teacher. Found it really useful in that it helps me to support lefty pupils ☺

Oh god @Ihatesandwiches I'd not even thought about those kind of things! It's a different world being a lefty, but threads like this allow me now to think about it and plan ahead. She already loves to cook (her hands on mine) and I've had to switch which way I do things, such as stirring with my left hand, but ironing??? I've a lot to learn!

I think I need to say to the teacher that her writing isn't going to be neat at this stage, it will take practice. Making her sit behind will make her rush even more, making it worse, not better. I think a patience is required on both sides.

That's great @Ella1980 come to our school please 😁

You can get left handed pencils/ pens/ rulers, etc.

@dementedpixie problem being, if it's not Smiggle, it's not going in the pencil case. Might have to put in a request with them 😁

Lots of lefty's start to stutter at school due to it being a right hand world. My Dd was lucky as in a household of 5, 3 were lefty's at the time she started writing. But she did start to stutter when they got into writing at school. Something to do with trying to be righty's.

ihatesandwiches I’d forgotten the horror of ring binder or spiral spines notebooks. My homework diary at secondary was a spiral spine and I could only write in one side of it. And the joy of coming home at the end of each day with the entire side of my left hand black with ink.

My ds is left handed, or at least he is for writing, but he's only 5 so has only been writing for a short time. I've noticed that he struggles with scissors too and still seems behind with things like cutting uo food. In reception they have these laminated clouds that they write their names on with markers and he comes home covered in marker pen,it just rubs off onto his hands and sleeves as he's writing.
My niece and nephew (who are 19 and 20)are both left handed, my niece writes with her left hand but does everything else right handed. My nephew does everything (except pull pints weirdly!)left handed and says it's a pain in the arse.

Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! I was the first leftie in my family, so it was all new. There are some great websites out there about being left handed. I looked at them when it was obvious DD was following me into left handed ness.
Definitely speak to the teacher - and make sure, as some one else mentioned, that she is sitting where she and the person next to her aren't going to bump elbows all the time as that will not help her presentation at all!

My dd is a lefty in primary and has had no issues. She he writes beautifully, holds knife and fork properly, can tie laces.
My son is right handed, a year older. His writing is quite poor, he doesn't' hold a knife and fork properly and can't to his laces yet.

I am right handed and still struggle to write in a straight line, cut accurately and have barely legible script, huge sympathy for your DD. her problems may not only due to her being a lefty but maybe due to her having different skills which are still to be discovered.

Myself, my partner & 2 of my 3 kids are left handed.
No issues at school, they have left handed sissors.
Only issue I had was smudging as I dragged my hand across the page.
Have a word with the teacher, your child shouldn't be missing out on play time!