Left handed children

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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

This is an interesting thread...I have no DC yet, but I've read with interest to compare to my experiences at school in the 80s. I was 'encouraged' to switch to my RH by DM, (she denies this now) but school were fine with it.

I didn't have any particular support that I remember, but my technique obviously did improve at school as early examples show awful smudging, that get better and technique has been fine since about the age of 7-8ish. I dont 'hook' , I'm a paper turner. I think I worked this out on my own and I don't remember any particular support.

Interesting point about whiteboards. I don't feel entirely natural writing on a whiteboard and it is a bit of an effort, however, I can write in a straight line with out smudging. I put this down to the fact I also paint and have developed wrist strength so I don't need to rest my hand on the board.

I use a mouse right handed and right handed scissors. I think that was just adapting to what was available. I don't bother swapping my mouse at home, because I just thought if I get used to it LHed, it'll be difficult to use other PCs. I think you have to bear in mind that realistically, ZERO support will be available in the workplace, so maybe better not to rely on it. I'm thinking of things like hotdesking for instance, where it will be a performance to move the mouse and change the settings every time you move.

Interesting fact - I've just finished a degree course. In my co-hort, LHers were massively over-represented, to about 50%. And it was a science course. Make of that what you will. :)

Oh yes, and I just remembered a previous posters point about finger spacing.

I didn't bother with this at all. It was taught, but I realised the futility of trying to write over the other side of your hand and abandoned it. Teacher saw my point and didn't press the issue. I think it would be a bit of a jobs worth that would make a LHer do that.

onlyboys i have wondered the opposite actually! that they suck the thumb of their dominant hand as that is the one they find easier to control from a young age! my ds4 is 3 and has been a thumb sucker since before birth! (was sucking it at the 20wk scan and did so as soon as he was born!) he only sucks his left thumb, never the other one. he is too little to tell what hand he uses the most, well 3yrs but he seems to favour the left. so i dont think only sucking the right hand thumb would make a child left handed?

and re the finger spacing it just seems to be the automatic way they are taught and no teacher i have met seems to realise/notice the problem it causes for left handed children! i will be mentioning it to my ds3's teacher after half term!

I am left handed for writing though hold a cup with my right. I don't really think it affected my education and is probably even less an issue as computers get used more and more.

What I have noticed is I am an IT/science worker and a much higher proportion in my workplace are left handed (mostly men) but maybe its co-incidence.

Sidress interesting-I could put money on my dtwin s left hander going into science.

Re finger spacing I just told ds to do a huge jump like a frog to the next word which helped.

Obviously joins will help too,just starting that with ds,thinking left handed joined writing is going to be a loooooong process.Right handed twin picked it up very easily but already I can see the challenges ahead for my left handed boy.

Wonder how other left handers managed with joins?

my dp is 34 and has never done joined up writing! i do and dont have any problems, my ds3 is only 7 so its not an issue at the moment, they dont seem to be pushing it too much at school :)

I am left-handed, although my dd is right, so can't fill in the survey for her. As a child though I remember hating the left-handed scissors. I thought that they were
a) ugly (why do lefties only get the yellow/green handles while righties got different colours to choose from?)
b) blunt and didn't really cut well. I almost felt like the people who made them expected lefties to be unable to handle scissors, so made them useless.

I never used left-handed scissors (although all my teachers tried to force me to), and I still don't to this day, even though I use my left hand to cut. I've just adapted.

WOW what an interesting thread!! Fabreezeyourjeanes, I have filled in the questioner(sp?) and like lots of others ,had more to say after i sent it. Felt like there wasn't enough room to write alot but then i am a chatterbox like leftie ds2 .But i am right handed but as a trained dancer/teacher used both equally and in fact while "mirror teaching" became predominatley left.
I can still use either /or/ for alot of chores ..ironing(!) chopping/cooking...

Lots of other peoples comments i would like to reply to but can't remember all the names so I will just carry on!!!

Yes L ds is more sensitive than other ds's......Hates yellow/green sissors ,.they dont work...struggles with spelling/cover thing and now i know why!!...white board gets smudged and so writes with elbow up...but has got alot neater in his writting since mastering joined up ??gets into a flow and not have to lift pen off paper as much ???

Not sure if all teachers realise that L/H children should sit Left end of table

ICT.. like some one else we have laptop thing.ie no external mouse so he somehow manages to play his games ok so not alot of help in that area.

Will be interested on results..keep us updated.hope i helped

I've just filled this in. DS1 and I are both left-handers. As far as I know his school haven't made any allowances, done anything, except tell him that he can use left-handed scissors. That's about all that happened for me at school too (and strangely I can only cut with my right hand - and play sports, and use a mouse). Perhaps I'm just a bit weird.

I can also write backwards.

have just completed it. I'm the one with a Y1 ds whom school thinks is dyslexic - the probable-dyslexia is far more problematic than the LHness, which (so far) has not really been an issue. Some days every single letter and number is back-to-front or transposed and we had to stop school sending reading books home because of the upsets caused by the nightly struggle.

Other than LH scissors he hasn't seemed to need any other support yet. Reception teacher was LH so he probably lucked out there with support, and Y1 teacher is also the SENCO, and they were both very child-centred in their approach.

I am RH but taught myself to use mouse LH because of RSI years ago, and was ambidextrous within a month - only with mice though, sadly it was a non-transferable skill!

Dd is in Reception and tells me she has special scissors but uses the mouse as a right hander would. Hadn't thought about finger spacing but we're having problems with writing at the minute so may mention it to teacher tomorrow as this might be becoming an issue. We have a lefty gripped pen at home , maybe she could use it at school.

DS is (11 years old) left handed; I noticed when he was a toddler because he tended to kick a football with his left foot and grab with his left hand. He was definitely left bodied, not just his hand. To my knowledge, he never received any significant extra assistance at school. (White boards = nightmare)
My main complaint is PE/Games related rather than academic. Every sport is demonstrated right handed and it's tough for little guys/gals to figure out how to copy the skills being demonstrated. DS has wound up being more ambidextrous for sports which perhaps is good (he can score with his left or right foot) but he initially struggled with skills like throwing and stick games like hockey. On sports day he'd copy everyone in front of him and attempt to throw a bean bag with his right hand. Not a successful strategy for a lefty.

He plays musical instruments; one being the violin. And I wonder if being left-handed is actually beneficial for the violin because all the complicated fingering is done with the left hand.
Good luck with your research; sounds very interesting and worthwhile. :)

Sorry, no DC in education but I am LH and I'm trying to think back to my school days. I think it's only now I'm grown up that I realise how it wasn't catered for.

My handwriting was poor, not helped my by mother telling me I was lazy and making me do calligraphy with a fountain pen. School didn't seem particularly bothered. I still tilt the paper round so I don't smudge.

Hockey was hell - I couldn't work out why my fingers were getting smashed until I realised it was because I had a left handed stick which lent the same way as everyone's right sticks.

I never used LH scissors and didn't know they existed at the time.

If I think of anything else I'll add it if that's ok?

Ps Fainche I was a violinist and then played the viola - being lefthanded definitely helped :-D