Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

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:

MyChildDoesntNeedSleepAtXmas · 09/12/2011 21:48

Has anybody even read the OP?

Where did she say LH-edness was a disability?

She just said that her child is 9 and she has just realised that she may need a bit of help due to her being left-handed.

I'm going to leave this thread now because some people obviously just want to have the last word and I give up.

TalkinPeace2 · 09/12/2011 21:54

MyChildDoesntNeedSleepAtXmas

the OP asked for help with her childs "lefthandedness"
that to me as an LH who was nearly forcilby altered by my school
is like asking about deafness, CP and other such issues that are mostly in the mind of the parent not the child

ouryve · 09/12/2011 21:55

They're perfectly placed at our M&S, exoticfruits - I can stay with the bags I'm packing at the end of the checkout and reach over and type in my PIN with my left hand without having to cross my body. Very handy when someone impatient is standing with a trolley up my backside.

One thing i do agree with you about is the cutlery issue. DH and I are both left handers and DS1 is very right handed. He uses his fork in his right hand.

One thing that has only really got better for us in the past decade is little things like the position of water gauges on kettles and things like that. Most kettles at least have them on both sides, now.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 22:04

I have actually apologised to OP for not being a help, and belatedly gave her the website. I do not apologise to other right handers who will persist in seeing it as a handicap and expecting an answer for all lefthanders when they are all different, what suits one doesn't suit all.
Things have come a long way ouryve-at one time ironing was difficult due to the flex coming out of the 'wrong' side-now that was a good excuse....'I can't iron because I am left handed'

TalkinPeace2 · 09/12/2011 22:16

ouryve
where did your son learn to do that?
I eat mostly with my left hand and often do not use a knife - I use the side of my fork in my left hand - as do my family

you are right that most "kit" is now ambi
shame the minds of some parents are not

bruffin · 09/12/2011 22:27

The only people going on about lefthandedness being a disability areTalkinpeace2,exoticfruits and folkgirl!
If parents see lefthandedness as a problem, it is because it is causing a problem for their child, not because they have anticipated a problem, which is what the OP has come up against.
It's alright saying that banging elbows is a problem for RH as well. But there are only 10% left handers in the class and 90% rh, so the problem only comes up when a minority of children which are lh are sat in the wrong place.
My DD is not the only lefthander in the family, both my sister and my niece are. I suspect my mum was as she eats left handed and so does my son. I do some odd things left handed ie open bottles and lift pans.

ouryve · 09/12/2011 22:28

He just started doing it naturally, TalkinPeace2. He has coordination difficulties of his own and for a long time just used a spoon or a fork on its own, then progressed to putting it down to use his knife and then to using both together when he could manage it (he often resorts to fork and fingers!) - only the fork stayed in his right hand where it was more comfortable for him.

Iron flexes used to be quite awful before they developed the ones that could move around!

I know one left handed item I wish existed. Left handed thread. When i sew with my left hand, it twists up on me. I have to stop quite frequently to let it spin back straight again. I sew very crudely with my right hand, but don't have the same twisting problem.

exoticfruits · 09/12/2011 22:33

Has it not crossed your mind that we bang on about it because we are lefthanded and are fed up with the attitude of righthanders?
The one thing that right handers can do for their lefthanded DCs is to be positive, celebrate lefthandedness. My mother still tells me that 'I look awkward' and I am not in the least awkward! (or only to right handers)
How many righthanders have been pleased to have a lefthander? Not many is my guess. I have both-I was relaxed about it and didn't even think it worth more than a passing comment.

TalkinPeace2 · 09/12/2011 22:41

ouryve
my great grandmother was both a painter and embroidress
my great grandfather (they both have wikipedia pages BTW) was a sculptor
they were both lefthanded
PLEASE stop blaming other problems on which hand the pen is held in
its as simple as that

both my children grew up in a house where EVERTHING is set up for the left - from sink to drawers to the mouse as both DH and I are lefthanded.
We even had reverse cheque books for many years

BUT
when we had right handed children (for the predicted and well known medical reasons that cause it)

we did not feel the need to call for "help"

UnexpectedOrangeInMyStocking · 10/12/2011 10:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mrz · 10/12/2011 10:41

MyChildDoesntNeedSleepAtXmas The OP said in the first post 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! now if the OP had said my daughter may need help with handwriting or motor skills or maths ... other posters might have been able to offer more constructive advice

bruffin · 10/12/2011 11:56

"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"

The only proper response needed was "what are the problems she is having?" rather than the long diatribes about lefthandedness not being a disability and the "I'm all right Jack" "Hard cheese" "it's only a problem if you let it be " type comments!

UnexpectedOrangeInMyStocking has summed things up perfectly

alison222 · 10/12/2011 12:30

Read this with interest. I am left handed and both the DC's re RH. I had never event thought about the way I form letters like T with the cross stroke - but yes I do it the left handed way as described here. I tilt my paper sideways - always have done as far as I can remember. The things that are more difficult are RH scissors - cutting using a serrated knife - oddly I had not realised until a few years ago that it was the serrations on the side that might be an issue - Just that I preferred non serrated sharp knives on the whole. Tin openers need to be held in my RH, I peel away from me using a RH peeler and when I was bought a LH one couldn't get the hang of it. Hold a pencil sharpener in the other hand to use it as they turn the other way. then its position of things like toilet handles are always on the wrong side of the toilet and I have to stretch over or use the wrong hand ( I now notice things like that as I have a back problem) cheque book stubs are on the wrong side if you get a standard cheque book.
I always use my mouse in the LH but have learnt to use the keyboard on the computer with my RH and am pretty fast with it. - I think that there is something to be said for adaptability of LHers as they do things in slightly less convenient ways without thinking as that is how lots of tools are - it means that they are slightly more ampidextrous than the majority of RH people.
The OP's DC sounds like she needs help with writing and holding a pencil which may or not be connected to being LH

ouryve · 10/12/2011 15:26

"ouryve
my great grandmother was both a painter and embroidress
my great grandfather (they both have wikipedia pages BTW) was a sculptor
they were both lefthanded
PLEASE stop blaming other problems on which hand the pen is held in
its as simple as that"

Um, where did I do that?

ouryve · 10/12/2011 15:30

And talkinpeace2 - my right handed children's problems are down to Dyspraxia. One of them has only just "decided" he's right handed because of said dyspraxia. So they do actually need quite a lot of help.

saintlyjimjams · 10/12/2011 15:39

Talkinpeace2 - please can you explain what you mean about deafness and CP being in the mind of the parents? Not sure I understand that.

Ds2 is left handed. As is DH. I was trying ti teach him to tie a knot the other day but handed him over to DH in the end as I couldn't do it the right way round for him.

Ds2 has terrible handwriting and smudges. I don't think it would be great if he was Ruhr handed although he does try to use his left handedness as an excuse. I point out the teacher with the neatest writing in the school is left handed. She has tried to give him some strategies.

exoticfruits · 10/12/2011 16:07

However, RH'd parents presented with a LH'd child can and do have more difficulty in guiding and helping their children to cope.. and this is where the schools ought to be able to step in to provide help and guidance and encouragement for a LH'd child before the small hiccups grow into huge monsters.

I can't remember anyone helping me to cope, I don't recall doing anything to help my DS cope. It is something that lefthanders work out for themselves. Right handers will persist with the assumption that life is difficult when we merely favour a different hand.
I agree with mrz and I know lots of righthanders who have problems e.g. holding their pencil in a fist.
Some lefthanders have problems with motor skills, as do some righthanders, and if they do they need help. In the case of lefthanders it may be different in that a special grip might help or a special pen, it may not.

Righthanded parents give the DC the idea that any problems are due to the hand they use. I then might make a comment to the lefthanded DC about messy work or slowness or similar and they say 'I'm left handed' to which I say 'yes?' and wait. This floors them completely and they have nothing to follow it up, so I say 'so...........' We have never got as far as a reason-they just trot out what they hear their parent say.

I will give strategies if I think they need them. I don't give them simply because they are lefthanded. I wouldn't want someone giving me strategies-they probably wouldn't suit. We are not all the same!

mrz · 10/12/2011 16:12

However, LH'd parents presented with a RH'd child can and do have more difficulty in guiding and helping their children to cope

exoticfruits · 10/12/2011 16:28

Exactly! How am I supposed to give my righthander DSs strategies? I don't moan that I can't cope with teaching him to sew, peel potatoes etc.

When I have taught a DC to sew at school I find out which hand they use and show them the appropriate way. I do tend to say 'oh goody' if they are left handed because it is easier for me but I can help the righthander and set them off.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6