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Primary education

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Original poster

Lefthanded Children in School

144 replies

Robins · 06/12/2011 23:36

Just a bit of a general query really at this stage as I have only just started to think that my just turned 9 year old daughter may need some help in the classroom with her lefthandedness!

Do any of you have lefthanded children that have struggled with anything in the classroom but with particular reference to handwriting? I have done a little research on the net and know there can be difficulties if the proper support/teaching methods are not used and I now want to bring this up with the school. (I have done tentatively after listening to one or two moans from my little girl!)

OP posts:
2BoysTooLoud · 09/12/2011 07:35

I don't know - I feel it has been a slight issue for my ds being left handed with his writing. [6 now]. Won't tilt paper/ hooking hand/ slow awkward writing and no acknowledgement/help at school. He would listen to his teacher too but not me re writing!
NOT saying should be seen as long term issue but YES some left handers like my ds probably do need a little more support in the early years to make their writing easier/ not pick up bad habits.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 07:44

I never like being sexist but lots of boys, in particular, are very slow writers and it has nothing to do with them being left handed, they are just as likely to be slow if they are right handed. Bumping elbows is a problem-but also for the right hander they are bumping elbows with.

2BoysTooLoud · 09/12/2011 07:49

I agree exotic fruits re boys handwriting being not generally as developed in the early years- obvious in my ds class!
I do feel his left handedness has slowed him down further. I think he will muddle through and do fine - but with no school support..

Luminescence · 09/12/2011 07:50

I adapted my pen grip at school so I wouldnt smudge my work and my teachers would make me hold my pen like a righthander.Angry
I have lovely handwriting and still hold my pen in my adapted way.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 07:55

My real beef is that, even if you think it, you shouldn't say to the DC 'you are slow because you are left handeded' or 'your work is messy because you are left handed' or 'you can't cut out because you are left handed' etc etc because they believe it and trot it out as an excuse and they are amazed when they meet me-the very first person who doesn't see it as a handicap- and says 'rubbish-I'm left handed and I'm not...........'
I like being left handed and different from the herd!

FaverollesWithBoughsOfHolly · 09/12/2011 08:19

Dd is LH. At her first school (reception to year 2), she became progressively quieter, we were told she had mild learning difficulties, she had very little confidence and could barely write.

Unhappy with the school, we moved to another school.
As soon as they found out she was LH, they gave her left handed pencils and letter formation chart. (previous school told us there was no such thing). Within a week, her writing had improved dramatically. Within 6 months, she had caught up with her year group.

Obviously, the change of surroundings will have played a major role in the change in dd, but her teacher tackled her problems brought about by left-handedness immediately, and from that point on, she had no more issues with writing.

I think it's a bit simplistic to say that it's not a disability and with a bit of support in certain areas it will be fine.
Of course it's not a disability, but if the support isn't given in a left handed way (LH pens, letter formation charts etc), some LH children will continue to struggle.
Being LH isn't a "one size fits all" scenario. Some dc will adapt, others will struggle to.
It's a bit unfair on the op, who's dd is struggling, that many of you have come on slating her saying shes making the issue.

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:11

LH pencil?

LH letter formation charts?

Ha ha Faverolles, almost fell for that!

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:13

exotic Me too. I'm also a bit Shock by the number of people who say

"You're left handed??!!!"

"I never realised you were left handed!"

Perhaps I just haven't realised how special (or affiliated with the anti Christ!) I am!

bruffin · 09/12/2011 09:17

Nobody is treating it as a disability, but some children have more than others, and this "I'm all right Jack" attitude from some people on this board is not helpful. especially comments like "it's only an issue if you let it be"Hmm

DD is doing very well in school, but somethings she copes with ie she can use a right handed scissors but a left handed one is easier for her to use. We deliberated quite a while about getting a left handed or right handed guitar, went for the righthanded but she sometimes struggled and she is persevering but has asked for it to be restrung.
Her handwriting is now almost neat, but it took her until she was yr5 to be legible (teachers refused to mark her work) and now in yr9 she proudly showed me her biology book last week, because it was finally neat Grin.
I have noticed she has actually gone back to printing rather than cursive.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:24

Well it is the sinister hand FolkGirl!
Apparently -
In the Middle Ages it was believed that when a person was writing with their left hand they were possessed by the Devil. (This was uncommon, particularly as there were fewer literate people). Left-handed people were therefore considered to be evil. Hence, the most common present-day meanings: 1.Threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark
2.Bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes
3.Unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable: a sinister accident

I think that she was just in a better school, Faverolles, tell an unconfident DC that a particular pencil will cure the problem and they will believe you-in the same way that they will believe you if you tell them the problem is due to being left handed.

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:29

I think that she was just in a better school, Faverolles, tell an unconfident DC that a particular pencil will cure the problem and they will believe you-in the same way that they will believe you if you tell them the problem is due to being left handed.

Agree.

Bruffin but my DS is right handed and does a lot of things left handedly - he holds cutlery the 'wrong' way round and I've had to restring his guitar (don't pay for LH guitars, they soooo expensive and only really necessary for electric) the other way round.

I think it's probably left handed parents on here that are giving the OP a hard time, not because we don't understand how difficult it can be, but because it really isn't that much of an issue and is only one if you want it to be.

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:30

exoticfruits yeah the sinister side of it. Grin mwah ha ha!

Magneto · 09/12/2011 09:32

I'm left handed, in Y5 my teacher told my mum my handwriting was appalling, by Y7 I was told it was the neatest in the class, I think it was because I figured out that I HAVE to hold my hand differently to the way rh people do and that I HAVE to twist my book away from me at a right angle so I write "up" the page not across it. Until then teachers told me I was doing it wrong and so my handwriting suffered.

Magneto · 09/12/2011 09:33

And I hold cutlery the right way around despite being lh as it is easier, he other way just feels wrong. dh is rh and holds it the wrong way around, does my head in!

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:34

I maintain that knife and fork is the left handed way. When I just had a spoon I used the left so the fork went in the left so the knife was a natural in the right.

I wonder if any parent can come on here and say that they said to their DC 'Wow, you are so lucky lefthanded people are such neat writers!'

I think that it would make a huge difference rather than wringing hands and saying 'oh dear'.
My mother wasn't a lot of help-she has always said 'you do look awkward' if I am cutting bread or similar-to which I say 'then don't look!'. I don't feel awkward.

UnexpectedOrangeInMyStocking · 09/12/2011 09:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:36

Apparently the sinister bit comes from the Romans having a pocket on the left hand side of their toga!

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:36

You shouldn't form the letters differently-or you will have problems!!

Magneto · 09/12/2011 09:37

Oh and being allowed to write in biro helped too, everything else just smudged.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:39

No wonder someone's left hander has gone back to printing if they are forming letters differently. At 5 yrs I started at the right and wrote to the left, with all letters back to front-that was natural. Switching wasn't difficult. (I would still prefer the way I did it at 5 yrs but I don't think people would like reading it!)

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:39

magneto I hold my cutlery the 'right' way round too.

The thing is I think most children/people find something difficult and they just find a way to adapt themselves. Which is exactly what we all did as children. It's only when companies that can sell LH equipment realise they can make a lot of money from it that it becomes an issue.

I had a big pity chat with someone once who felt sorry for me and my fellow Left Handers because doors were clearly hung for right handed people. They sort of are if you try it! But there are people I can imagine opening doors to be more of an issue for than me!

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:41

The majority of people are right handed which is why you have to adapt. You go with the majority in most things. I enjoy being different and have no desire to be right handed, it isn't a handicap.

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:43

orange you really need to post a link then you may form your letters differently, but I know I don't.

Primarily because I didn't go to special left handed letter formation classes and because I teach people's right (and left!) handed children handwriting in schools and have not yet come across a letter that I formed differently to the current standard!

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 09:44

I am so old that we wrote with dip in pens and an inkwell!! My writing was much neater than the right handed boy that I sat next to whose work was full of blots and smudges.

TroublesomeEx · 09/12/2011 09:45

My DH is right handed. His handwriting is terrible. literally, can't read it.

I've always been complimented by people on my neat writing!

Although I am finding that (with notable exceptions on here) what I always suspected is true and that I am, in fact, just better than all of you Grin

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