Mirror writing

[RosaMosqueta]

Does anyone have any experience of their child mirror writing?

My ds (5) is learning to write and has recently taken to mirror writing although he can write in the correct direction as well. He says that he just 'felt like doing it' but knew it was back to front.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why he does it.

Because he can?

I'm dyslexic, I can read and write mirror writing as easily as propper writing. I find it odd that other people can't.

Is he/was he writing left handed?

I can write fairly easily with either hand (although prefer my right). But if I'm writien left handed it's even easier to write mirror. I can even write (the same thing) normal with the right hand and mirror with the left at the same time.

My left handed dd used to do this a lot when she first started reception last year and she couldn't really see it - to her it looked normal.

Now she doesn't do it so often in her writing, but I notice she will often read things backwards too, eg, halfway through a sentence that she is reading fluently, she will see "saw" as "was" or "now" as "won". Her (left-handed) class teacher advised me that it's not uncommon and children usually just grow out of it.

My left handed ds does this sometimes too - sometimes the letters are the right way round but he writes them right to left and sometimes they were backward. He can also write the 'correct' way. All part of experimenting and very common at this stage. He also reads letters from right to left sometimes too, like Washedup's dc above.

He is right handed and wrote with his right hand.

DD is right handed and does this from time to time (just 6, Year 1). She appears to be able to read equally well the standard way round or in a mirror, too. Her Reception teacher told me it was perfectly normal and most children just grow out of it.

Thank you everyone.

I was a bit perplexed why he did it and where it came from. My older ds used to do it but he was profoundly left handed so it made sense.

Ds2 says he quite likes writing back to front and forwards.