Left handed

[ilikenoodles]

I know it's not the biggest deal but my 5 year old is left handed and struggles with writing and as there isn't anyone in the family who is left handed too I don't know whether there is anything I can do to help him... it must be fairly common so if anyone has any advice, I'd appreciated it!

It's mainly writing in straight-ish lines....I know he's only 5 so I'm so not expecting his writing to be great but it is unbelievably wonky!

He's says the only thing he doesn't like doing in school is writing sentences.

Thanks for reading!

I'm left handed and my writing only became neat when I was about 14, and I still struggle to write in a straight line if the paper isn't lined.

I do have a left handed writing pen which helps if my hand is getting tired and I angle my paper so that i don't smudge what I'm writing but I don't write with a "crabbed" hand.

Thanks very much for that. I didn't know you could get special pens so I will look into that. He has a homework book that he's required to do some writing in most week, it isn't lined so we usually do it on lined paper and stick it in but tbh, it's no better on that really. he's really trying with writing smaller ect which is good. I suspect he has to discover a way of writing that feels comfortable to him.

I use a sheet of paper that I have printed bold lines on it, double spaced as a line guide for DD2's homework book. It goes under the page she's writing on and you can see the lines through.

this is the pen

FAB idea...I might remember my teacher doing that for me at school...not left handed just dreadful handwriting.

I think most children of this age struggle to write in a straight line! But the lined paper is a great tip.

At my daughter's primary they have to write in pencil in any homework or workbook and not pen.

www.lefthandersday.com/tour7.html

Stabilo also do left handed pencils, they are also on amazon. It makes a huge amount of difference if the positioning is right for a left hander.

It's the same at our school too Paneer, in all seriousness though, I have to walk away when I've asked him to write something because it stresses me out (i know this is awful and I should get a grip) - I'm ok when he does maths/spelling and can cope perfectly rationally when he makes mistakes but there's something about writing...I guess I just feel like it's something I can't really help with maybe, like I can't get why he writes like that.

Hi ilikenoodles:

I have one of each - DD1 is the south-paw.

She also found the pen Mrs. Pnut suggested very helpful and the school supported her use of the pen and let her use it instead of their biros.

We also purchased a sort of spongy pencil grip because she complained that her grip of school pencils hurt her hand. The school again supported her using these - they're about 20p from most ordinary office supply places. She liked them because she didn't have to hold the pencil a certain way - she had the freedom to hold the pencil just how she found it comfortable.

There are some websites that might be helpful:

www.lefthandedchildren.org/

handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html

I also found this document from Surrey CC very helpful:

www.surreycc.gov.uk/learning/schools/parents-school-advice-and-support/helping-your-child-with-school/if-your-child-is-a-left-handed-writer

Our battle was persuading the school that they had to ensure DD1 wasn't sat against a wall (which ripped up her arm) - and this document helped persuade LEA to persuade school that it was their responsibility to ensure my 6 year old was seated appropriately.

I'm left handed and my writing was awful until year 3 when I had a teacher who was also left handed. He taught me to turn my books 90 degrees clockwise so that I could hold me pen normally and didn't have to twist my wrist. It also made it easier not to smudge the ink.

You can also get left handed scissors but I spent so long with only the option of right handed ones I can't use them now.

It's also better to be sat on the left side of someone who is right handed so you don't bump each others arm when writing.

Thanks so much....I also have noticed and constantly tried to change the way he wants to sit whilst writing! It just hasn't clicked that he's uncomfortable sitting how I want him to. I'll go and look at the websites now. Very helpful

We got a few of these books
And the staibio left handed pencil & pen
We got him to do a bit of practise, they are quite fun especially with rewards for doing a certain no. Of pages and suddenly his writing was much better. He is in Y1 now and has extremely neat handwriting (shh it's now better than his dr daddy's)

The books show you how to orientate the page etc.

Are left handers more common today? Because I was a bit concerned about DC1's left-handedness. Yes, I was 'that mother' raising it as a concern at parents evening. The teacher pointed out that as DC1 was one of 12 left handers in her class, the school was fully capable of dealing with the non problem.

I have no idea of the left/right-handed ratio in my subsequent children's classes.

Hi Jee:

apparently it's steadily 10 - 12% of population: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

I think the thing that really has changed is that way back when my DD's grandfather was forced to write right-handed even though he was left handed. He discovered in his 50s when taking up sports for retirement that he was left-handed. A coach spotted it. His handwriting remains atrocious but all his sports have greatly improved for switching to a left-handed stance/ left-handed equipment.

There are quite a few in DD's class. Including her class teacher, which is v helpful!

The only left handed thing I have bought is scissors, but she can use both hands for those and actually prefers cutting with her right hand.

Being a tightarse and skeptical I generally don't like forking out on 'special' stuff. But I am not a lefty so don't know if this is hindering my DD. . But tempted to get some pencils now.

I teach, and have amused myself during recent mock invigilations checking out the percentage of lefthanders. 10-15% seems about right.
It's about 20% of those taking Latin, though.

My sister and I are left handed but there was no-one else in the family. Neither of my or her kids are left handed either so it seems to be completely random.

I do almost everything left handed but cannot use left handed scissors - they weren't around when I was young and I am used to using right handed ones.

I was quite sceptical about the left handed pen but I can feel the difference when I have to write a lot. I haven't used a left handed pencil but my school did use pencil grips so perhaps that compensated for it.

Thanks for the information PastSellByDate. I guess DD's class was just very left-handed heavy!

My 70 year old Dad was left handed, and never had a problem at school. In fact, he remembers being told about George V, who stuttered as a result of being made to write with his right hand (I've not seen The King's Speech, and have no idea whether this was apocryphal), which was seen as a bad, rather old fashioned thing.

In contrast left-handed DH (mid 40s) was made to write with his right hand. He went to a catholic school.....

Left handedness became more common when eejits stopped forcing the use of right hands . I have never seen it as uncommon TBH

My Dd is left handed (so is my brother and 2 of my uncles) I never thought anything of it other than she will find things bloody awkward seeing as most things are made for right handed people.

Agree with Crazy about sitting on the left. My brother angles his paper so that he can see what he is writing otherwise he has to keep stopping and starting which he said is annoying, and he still struggles without lines too. I don't think he has ever used a different pen. Your Ds will eventually adopt his own way and everything else will fall into place.

The book sounds good though, may have to get that

I got the book and the pens for mainly my benefit. The problem wasn't that DS is left handed but that he is different to me & DH. So when he was asking for help with how to hold his pen or not smudge his writing I didn't know the answer and unlike most other things showing him how we did it just didn't quite work.
DS doesn't use the LH pens that much now but it helped him to work out how to grip a pen which he's transferred to regular biros, (his preferred pen now) rather than relying on me to show him. Same with the book, it got him used to doing it in a way that didn't frustrate him, which if he copied what I did, did (generally smudging which really upset him)

DD is also in yr1 and is left handed.

What has helped is to angle the paper so that she writes downwards iyswim and to give her lined paper.

Thanks Simpson. I will definately stop expecting him to sit straight in his chair with the paper square in front of him! - I just thought he looked akward and fidgety so I'm forever tryin to show him how he "should" be writing, which is clearly wrong.