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Original poster

Left handed children

92 replies

FebreezeYourJeans · 08/02/2012 22:38

I am a teacher undertaking some school based research into our provision for left handed children. Before I begin I would like to find out as much as I can about the experiences of left handed children in schools nationally.

If you have a left handed child, currently in primary school, I would love it if you could take 5 minutes to answer some questions for me. Thank you very much
ahort survey here

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4madboys · 08/02/2012 22:48

have done this! my ds3 is left handed, as am i and his dad, so far all our other children are right handed, (little two too young to tell)

tbh our son is getting on fine at school and it doesnt appear to be a problem tho he was expected to write on a little handheld whiteboard and really struggled as he smudgedt he writing off as he wrote! after much insistence from me he now has a clipboard and paper, but it has taken until yr 2 to get this in place!

he doesnt seem to struggle in any way at all tho with anything else and he is very predominantly left handed, unlike my partner and myself who can chop and change for sports, using tin openers, scissors etc.

Original poster
FebreezeYourJeans · 08/02/2012 22:53

Thank you madboys and to the other respondents. Whiteboards are a huge issue, we use them daily at school and they are a nightmare for our left handed children, using them encourages the horrible hooked (from above) writing style that many left handed children have.

What about ict? does he simply move the mouse across?

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HippyHippopotamus · 08/02/2012 22:56

Watching this with interest. Mine are too young for school yet but both seem to be favouring their left hand

4madboys · 08/02/2012 22:58

i have no idea! they tend to use laptops and so it has the little pad thing in the middle of the keyboard i think? i shall have to ask him! he never complains about any problems and is doing fine academically, it was parents evening tonight actually :)

we did have an issue as he has started learning to play the ukuleyle (sp) and they tried to teach him to play right handed, which was awful for him, i made them re-string it and he is now learning left handed, but again i had to insist, they seemed to think he should 'have a go' at learning to play it right handed! why i dont know, we bought him one for his bday in dec and he automatically picked it up and went to play it left handed as that obviously feels normal for him. they seemed to thinkt hat children are flexible and can 'adapt' hence wanting him to have a go right handed Hmm

i use my mouse with the right hand, as does dp, ds3 hasnt used the home pc much, i will find something on the bbc website for him to have a go on and see what he does with the mouse!

Original poster
FebreezeYourJeans · 09/02/2012 11:15

Shamelessly bumping - I've had 15 responses so far, thank you all very much. Some really interesting comments and showing really patchy provision. I think I should have asked if your school is state or independent to see if that makes a difference and also where in the country you are.

You live and learn.

Would love to hear from some more, I promise it's quick and anonymous.

OP posts:
redskyatnight · 09/02/2012 11:35

Just replied. One point that occurred to me after I'd done it (this is a really minor niggle) is that on e..g the spelling sheets they are expected to "look, say, cover, write, check" . The column of "correct" words is on the left - it's significantly trickier for a left hander to use this method than a right hander as you are writing over the correct words and therefore can't just whizz down the column.

Original poster
FebreezeYourJeans · 09/02/2012 11:37

Oh excellent point redsky My ds (right handed) covers the word with his left hand whilst writing it with his right, that would be impossible for a LH. Lots of schools use those sheets too.

That is exactly the type of comment I'm hoping for.

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shellye · 09/02/2012 12:15

Have filled in for you. Have year 3 DD! Not a problem too much for her!Plays the violin too. Only thing she hates is smudging her work! Neither parent is left handed and although we have provided left handed helps, she can use both! Very dominant left hand from early as 6 months, grabbing at toys.

Knittedslippers · 09/02/2012 12:24

Have not done survey as dd now 16. When she was at primary school we had a bit of a battle with her teacher who insisted that when she was writing her book had to be straight in front of her and dd found it far more comfortable if it was at an almost right-angle to her. Must admit I caused a fuss because I rally didn't see why there should be an issue in how her book was positioned!

chrisrobin · 09/02/2012 12:26

I've filled it in. The school have been very dismissive about DS being left-handed and make no allowances for it when teaching him to write. His school is Independent and in Wales if that helps- my responses are the ones which include that his teacher told us he was right-handed because his writing was so scruffy and they expect him for finger space, hence writing over his right hand.

WowOoo · 09/02/2012 12:53

Filled it in.

Forgot to say that at home he uses a left handed scissors because he makes a hash of things with a rh one. I would be vice versa as a right hander.

He has some chunkier than normal pencils with grips for L hand that he says are the best pencils for best handwriting and drawing.

At home he moves the mouse to other side or just uses the central touch pad.

SarahSlaughter · 09/02/2012 13:13

My kids are right handed but as a leftie I wanted to make a point regarding mouse use.

When I was at school I reset my home pc mouse so I could use it on the left hand side and of couese found it much easier however on reaching uni I had to use computer labs set up the 'normal' way. There wasn't enough space between the pcs to move the mouse over. It was a nightmare and I had to retrain myself to using the mouse in my right hand.

Similarly once reaching work our desks had to be available to others to use when we weren't there so I had to use the mouse right handed in work too.

I personally find it extremely difficult to switch back and forth between hands between work and home and now always use the mouse right handed.
It might be worth considering this point when teaching children to move the mouse to the other side, it can be confusing later on.

Original poster
FebreezeYourJeans · 09/02/2012 13:55

Great comments everyone, thank you so much. Please keep adding any issues or comments that you think of - very interesting re mouse Sarah

I am preparing an anonymous paper questionnaire for all our school staff teachers/LSAs/TAs because I believe that the majority lack even basic knowledge of teaching left handed children. I'm not sure that they could even name all the lefties in their class. Positioning is vital Chrisrobin and this needs to be modelled effectively.

I'll keep you posted and thanks again.

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EquestrianStatue · 09/02/2012 14:00

I've done it - DS is only in Reception though so I don't know how much use my answers will be!

Sarah I'm lefthanded and although I use the mouse with my left hand, I haven't reconfigured the buttons, so I left-click with my middle finger.

Tin-openers are another thread Grin

5inthebed · 09/02/2012 14:06

Done.

Ds1 doesn't change the mouse over, he has managed to use a computer with the mouse on the right hand side.

EldonAve · 09/02/2012 14:13

done

bizzieb33 · 09/02/2012 14:13

My dd has never even been taught at school how to position her hand correctly so she doesn't smudge her writing despite me asking from yr2. All the teachers said it was too early, now in yr5 & starting to use a pen & smudging all her work they say it is an 'ingrained' habit and will be really hard to stop Angry
This is state school btw.

skirmish · 09/02/2012 14:15

Done Smile

daenerysstormborn · 09/02/2012 14:19

filled it in for ds. it has only now occurred to me how little the school do with regards to left handers. we have got him some pens, pencils and scissors from the left handed shop dh found when he was in san francisco once. i did speak to another parent about the guitar lessons, she said her ds was being taught to play right handed. dh has restrung ds's guitar so it's left handed.

i remember my brother being forced to write with his right hand when we were in primary in the 70's.

Asinine · 09/02/2012 14:27

The school has never even mentioned her left handedness. I am a leftie too, and never had any extra support with it, so I just presumed that was normal.

Asinine · 09/02/2012 14:28

And good luck with your research, will you send a copy to mumsnet so we can read it?

alanyoung1000 · 09/02/2012 14:35

Just to say that being left handed is not the great problem that many people think when considering writing. There are millions of people in the world who write a right-to-left language such as Arabic or Farsi with their right hand and don't seem to have any problems, so writing English left-to-right shouldn't really be a problem for a left handed person, especially as we no longer use fountain pens with sloping nibs.
I was born left handed and changed over at the age of about seven or eight. I didn't like it at the time, but soon got over it. What I noticed some years ago was that the things I have been taught to do such as write or use tools, I do left handed, and things I do naturally such as deal cards, I do left handed. So there you have it!

alanyoung1000 · 09/02/2012 14:36

The other indisputable fact, of course, is that left handed people are more sensitive.

pantaloons · 09/02/2012 14:44

DD2 is 4, she writes with her left hand, but always uses scissors in her right. Her cutting out is really neat which surprises me and her left handed writing is clear enough to read (just about). I assumed when she was younger that she would develop a preference and use one hand as dominant, but this hasn't happened.

auntevil · 09/02/2012 14:54

Had real issues at first primary with DS as they insisted he was right handed, even though OT and us were convinced he was showing LH dominance. One weekend, he sat on his left hand and told me that he had been told not to use it. The school had obviously become annoyed that he had not established hand dominance, so decided it for him. Unfortunately this still happens - I thought it had stopped being an issue in Victorian times. DS1 is now 9