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Primary education

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Original poster

Question for teachers regarding left handed children writing with pens.

117 replies

Myliferocks · 12/03/2013 11:15

My DS is 8, in yr 3 and left handed
He was recently given a handwriting pen by his school to use as his handwriting is now considered 'good' enough to write in pen. He came home really excited and couldn't wait to use it the next day.
When he came home the next day he said it was difficult to use and he kept smudging his writing with his left hand as he was writing.
I suggested he spoke to his teacher the next day to see if she had any suggestions to help him not smudge his work as I was sure she has taught left handed children before.
He came home after having spoken to her with the result being that she couldn't help him therefore she said he had to go back to writing in pencil.

Do any of you teachers out there have any tips for helping a left handed child write without smudging as his teacher didn't have any?

OP posts:
MrsLHofstadter · 12/03/2013 11:26

I had this all the way through school, those red hand writing pens, fountain pens, special 'left handed' pens. Smudged them all and took to writing with my paper on an angle resulting in backwards slanted writing.

Eventually I was given a biro by my left handed teacher who had to fight the headteacher as he didn't approve.

HumphreyCobbler · 12/03/2013 11:27

I was going to say he should use a biro.

Original poster
Myliferocks · 12/03/2013 11:31

When I asked my older DD who is left handed she said that all she did was tilt the paper as well but she did say that that resulted in her being cramped when she was sat at a full table.
When DS writes at home he uses a biro rather than a handwriting pen and now I think about it he never complains about smudging then.
I had just hoped that the teacher would have some magic helpful tip rather than taking his pen off him! Grin

OP posts:
Labro · 12/03/2013 11:42

go for something like the pilot 'frixion'range for him to use at school, because they are roller balls they dry quicker but still looks like ink on he page. Was recommended these by ds teacher as though he is right handed his grip is terrible and ink pen made it look like a massacre had occurred. I use them too as a left hander, but teacher should have been able to advise to tilt the paper!

Eskino · 12/03/2013 11:48

I developed a style of writing with my left hand below my pen, rather than to the left of it. Imagine writing on a wall or board, I'm resting my little finger and edge of my hand on the page below the writing and moving just the pen, rather than my whole hand (iyswim).

It stopped smudging and really helped me have consistent, neat handwriting which I was proud of (as a schoolgirl).

I hope your ds can get to grips with his new pen and start enjoying writing!

Sympathique · 12/03/2013 12:20

"Do any of you teachers out there have any tips for helping a left handed child write without smudging as his teacher didn't have any?"

But it's a special need. Ask to see the school's policy for left handers. If there isn't one, there should be and teachers should know how to teach left handers (sports teachers invariably do, so why not classroom teachers - gap in training there).

I'm sorry, you asked for advice not outrage! One DC was left-handed and we worked very hard to get her to write underneath (not over the top - brings another set of problems) so she didn't smudge - and could also see what she'd written. Her hand and arm were very cramped when she wrote so we had an additional task of uncramping her.

She was trying to write with paper dead in front of her (small tables, 2 kids to each side) and until we asked for her to be swapped, she was sat on the right-hand side so her left writing arm bumped into the right-hander next to her. Try it - complete nightmare!

Trouble is, I can't remember what we did! Slanting the paper was certainly part of it, and also moving the paper away (left and up) a bit from her body. Can you experiment and see what works? Also look at what DD does now? We also found school didn't have knowledge

Sympathique · 12/03/2013 12:22

Oops, crossed with Eskino's more useful advice!

AllBellyandBoobs · 12/03/2013 12:29

I'm left handed and write in the way Eskino describes and have fairly neat writing. I also tilt my paper very slightly. I found at school that it really helped me to sit on the left side of the desk so I wasn't always bumping elbows with the right handed person next to me.

AllBellyandBoobs · 12/03/2013 12:31

Sorry, x-posted with Sympathique there

manchestermummy · 12/03/2013 12:32

Not a teacher but a leftie here - yes, a biro is the way forward. I always have ink marks on my left hand but I don't smudge my work. Unlike when I was at school in the 1990s and fountain pens were all the rage. I've never even attempted to adapt my pen-holding to my handedness - biro all the way!

StickEmWithThePointyEnd · 12/03/2013 12:33

I'm left handed and learned to write with the page at a 90 degree angle from my body, so I write up the page instead of across it. It always gets comments when people see me do it but it was the only way I could stop the school pens smudging as they wouldn't let me use a biro.

I would fight for his right to use a biro having been through the exact same thing myself.

manchestermummy · 12/03/2013 12:37

Oddly we were given biros at the very start. I can't use those handwriting pens if they've been used by a right-handed person - it's hard to explain but I think the nib gets worn and I just cannot se them.

It saddens me that lefties are still treated shoddily at school. I wasn't permitted to use left-handed scissors and was forever being told off for my rubbish cutting skills.

Actually StickEM I have just realised I do this too.

Original poster
Myliferocks · 12/03/2013 12:40

Thank you to everybody for all the advice.
I'm going to sit down with DS tonight and have a word about where he sits in class and watch how he writes with his handwriting pen.
I'm also going to get his older sister to show him how she writes being left handed herself.
It's parents evening in a couple of weeks but I'm going to go in after school one day this week and have a word with his teacher now and push for him to use a biro because as I've said earlier I think he finds it easier to write with a biro.
Hopefully if she agrees to this my DS might be a bit happier during handwriting lessons at school!

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RaisinBoys · 12/03/2013 14:57

Left handed DS aged 9. Uses a biro. No more smudging.

Can't understand schools obsession with those blooming "handwriting pens". My DS would do great work, super content and the smudges would detract from the quality.

Writing is a means to an end. The 'end' is presumably to have legible handwriting that makes sense and conveys meaning. The 'means' for many lefties is a biro.

To be frank I think you need to get him a couple of biros and tell his teacher that they are what he is going to use in future. If she has a problem with this then she really is being an idiot.

I have raging toothache so am feeling particulary spiky at present.

Incidentally besides a birthday card and a shopping list, I cannot remember the last time I wrote anything. But that's a whole other thread...

GrandPoohBah · 12/03/2013 15:12

YY, biro all the way. I also turn the paper so I'm writing down it, rather than across it - my handwriting is good, I've been told, but I had to find my own way.

Original poster
Myliferocks · 12/03/2013 16:08

Managed to speak to his teacher after school today.
She said that she would let him use a biro if it was up to her but the literacy coordinator has said that all children have to use handwriting pens.
DS's teacher agrees that it's better for him to be legible using a biro than it being a mess using another type of pen.
Apparently she has been banging her head against a brick wall for the past year about this issue for left handed children.
I asked if the literacy coordinator was left handed and his teacher smiled and said exactly!
His teacher has said that she will pass on my complaint to the Head and Deputy as well as the Coordinator.
By the sounds of it his teacher has been dying for a parent of a 'lefties' to complain to back up what she has been saying.
I've told her that DS is the last of my 5 to go through the school so I will be quite happy to make waves about this!

I'll have another word with her tomorrow after school and if she hasn't got anywhere I'll make an appointment to see the Literacy Coordinator to tell them that my DS will be using a biro from now on.

OP posts:
trinity0097 · 12/03/2013 17:23

You can buy left handed handwriting pens!

RaisinBoys · 12/03/2013 19:28

"You can buy left handed handwriting pens!"

They're just pens!!!

It is the content and the legibility of the handwriting that should be paramount.

Stick to your guns. Go biro!

Talkinpeace · 12/03/2013 19:41

turn the paper so you are writing vertically towards yourself then no problem with any pen at all
I love my fountain pens to this day
shame my kids came out right handed !

storynanny · 12/03/2013 21:32

Left handed teacher here, this should have been given attention by teachers in yr r, I and 2. Left handed writers should always sit on the left side of desk, tilt their paper so that they write down and towards their body so that they can always see what they are writing. Also, for some reason, left handlers press heavier so a softer lead is required when writing with pencil, so going with a Biro is a much better idea. Hope you get a good result for your son.

Original poster
Myliferocks · 12/03/2013 21:53

I've spoken to DP and decided that I'll speak to DS's teacher tomorrow after school and if she got nowhere with the biro approach then I'll make an appointment to see the Literacy Coordinator.
I was wobbling a bit over whether I was making a mountain out of a molehill but DS was so deflated when he came home and said he was back to using a pencil.
storynanny I think the problem in earlier years was that he wrote in pencil so didn't seem to smudge his work so it wasn't noticed how he was writing.
I've just spoken to DD1 (17) who is left handed and she has said that she holds a pen completely different to how she was taught to when she was learning to write so she doesn't smudge.
I didn't realise that as she just adapted her writing style as she got older which seems to be something that DS can't do.

OP posts:
StickEmWithThePointyEnd · 12/03/2013 22:08

RE: hearing that the paper should be tilted so we write down the page. As I said earlier, I write up the page and sort of curve my hand around so I can still see what I'm writing. Funny how people adapt to this in different ways.

Talkinpeace · 12/03/2013 22:10

both my parents are left handed - my dad has hook grip, my mum does not - so I never had hook grip and never smudged

agree with a biro rather than a pencil if it will help him want to write neatly

exoticfruits · 12/03/2013 22:12

I am left handed and a teacher - it is perfectly possible to write in ink without tilting the paper at silly angles. If I use a pen I use one for a left hander this shop has products for everything and does mail order.

UniqueAndAmazing · 12/03/2013 22:14

maybe a left handed fountain pen?
it's because of the shape of the nib that makes using a handwriting pen so hard.
even a normal fountain pen would be good because he cancgeck the angle of the nib as he writes. (and if he is the sole user of that pen it will mould to his angle too)

gold the paper at diagonals - theangle of the page will need to be adjusted till he gets it right - mine is almost perpendicular.(actually probably about 70degrees)
it's really more about paper angle than pen.