writing name backwards

[stellata]

my 4 year old son has just started reception and comes back every day with a lovely picture with his name written backwards. He has been able to write his name for a while and at nursery tho he got some of the letters the wrong way round. my father is very dyslexic and so i feel sensitive about it my inclination is to say nothing any opinions gratefully received

IME this is quite normal for his age, and will probably improve over the year. If you are concerned, have a word with his teacher. It is possible that at nursery he may have had a name card and that he is just doing it from memory in reception. Or is he left-handed? If you are it can be natural to write right-to-left.

I agree with Omicron- perfectly normal, nothing to worry about; will probably naturally correct itself over time. Quite a talent, actually!

dd2 did this in Receptin.

I was rather impressed!

She id left handed and i presume this is why she did it.

Is he left handed? I am, and when I was that age I started on the right and wrote to the left with every word and letter back to front. I think we should all write like that!! Unfortunately I was the one who had to change. Don't worry, even if right handed-he is very young.

I kept a sample of DD1s 4year old writing. It was so perfectly backwards you could read it in the mirror!

She isn't left handed either. Very common at this age.

it is perfectly normal for left handed children to do this. it can also happen with right handers if they start on the left side of the page. even children who are quite confident at writing do funny things - ive seen a child (example- Chloe) write their name starting at the very left hand side. C then found they had no space so put the next letter next to the first but on the other side hC and continue until you have eolhC (correctly formed, just backwards)

Mirror writing is also something that left handers do. (and is perfectly nrmal)

basically, dont worry. so long as you encourage writing practice, and always write his name properly when you do write it, he will sort it out at some point.

as far as im aware, this has no link with dyslexia whatsoever so dont stress over it

my ds is 5.5 and often gets his Z, R and B backwards but hopefully it clicks soon as he occasionally gets them right.

My brother did this for AGES.

(He's 34 now and it seems to have sorted itself out )

Writing from left to right is a learnt skill -in some written languages right to left is the correct direction of text. Chinese is written vertically on the page.

I suggest that you help him get the correct direction for our particular written language by putting a dot on the paper followed by a line for him to place the first letter until the correct habit is set in place.

My brother did this- he is now a professor and can write at least 15 different languages (and in different scripts too!). So it was clearly not a major cause for concern in his case

My DC both did/do that and I have known many other DC who did this too. Seems to be very common.

Does anyone know why they do this?

My Ds does this too. I thought it was because he was bored of writing it correctly - after all it is all he has been writing for a few months. He did the same with some of his games - you had to match an animals head with it's body and once he was good at it he would do funny pairings on purpose, and put them upside down. It is also probably to get a reaction from you!!