5yo - pls could you look at these numbers. Should I be worried?

[Phoebefoibles]

Hi - please can you give me your honest opinions on this for my recently turned 5yo as my MIL seems to be hinting that something is wrong, and I'm not sure what to think. My dd wrote these numbers out herself in a car journey and MIL kept to show me, and asked if I could see what was going on. I'm not sure I do. Is she really behind?

It sounds like your MIL is being a pain in the arse really. Pretty much everyone would pick up on the backwards 3s; they just wouldn't say anything about it because they recognise that many, many 5 year olds reverse numbers.

Your DD sounds like a 5 year old and has written some lovely numbers there. DS2 (4 but also in reception) can't get his head round how to write 8s properly at all. He can do two circles but the figure of 8 thing really confuses him. He gets numbers and letter the wrong way round (and upside down too) and gets confused about b, d, p and q when reading. None of this worries his teacher in any way.

mrz - it was older children. Child Care. I would have thought it would involve some knowledge of child development.

You'd be surprised how crap the teaching on child development was on all sorts of professional courses for people who work with children, at all kinds of levels.

The first letters that children in my class are taught to write would be the c o a d g q family-based on anticlockwise circle. The first numbers...... go the opposite way!! Numbers and letters are "squiggles" that we give meaning to as we learn. Your DC is exploring those squiggles! I'd cut her some slack at the minute! Let her explore at her own pace.

Some people who work with older kids do not have a clue about little ones. (Disclaimer: I said some )

My 5 year old DD's numbers are similar and I asked her teacher because I'm dyslexic and get quite paranoid that DD might be too and that the signs might get missed like mine were. DD's teacher said it's perfectly normal for children that age to write their numbers backwards, she also told me to stop worrying so much because she is only 5 and I should just be glad DD's actually choosing to practice writing at home.

Do you have a family history of dyslexia? Is that why she is worried? If she is just worried because your DD is LH then that is just ridiculous. Even with a family history, as everyone says, everything she is doing is totally normal for a 5 year old, and to be honest, there is absolutely no point in worrying about it. As Xihha said, it is just lovely that your DD is enjoying her numbers and writing

As others have said - at age 5 this is a great first step.

Certain getting addition/ subtraction facts for 4 is FAB!

I think given your DD wrote this whilst on a car journey (bumpy/ may have turned paper round whilst writing/ been distracted/ etc...) - I don't see much of a problem. The first list example - 123 (upside down & backward 4 5) then maybe skipping 6 and 7 and 8 and skipping 9 and 10 looks like a great start for writing out all numbers to 10.

Certainly skipping a number or two (maybe intentionally because working out which way to write six or nine is tricky - we solved it by drawing faces in the circles - for DD2 9 was a circle with big eyelashes - a girl - and 6 was a boy with a cheeky grin (the stalk was the lid of the visor he was wearing).

Genuinely - seems absolutely normal to me. Ahead of where DD1 was at age 5 and about the same as DD2 age 5.

OH and mothers/ M-I-L's favouring first born is really natural. The novelty wears off with each successive grandchild. DD1 was first born grandchild in my family and can do no wrong to grandparents & Aunties/ Uncles. DD2 and two nephews are definitely somewhere down the pecking order for attention - one Aunt can't even remember their names.

HTH

DD will be 5 soon, she is right handed and couple of days ago she wrote her name backwards. It was like a mirror image of her name. Quick check on the internet confirmed that it was normal for that age.

Your Dd seems to be doing really well with her maths. Don't worry she has just started out and there is a lot more to writing than just making the marks on the paper.

My Dd is also 5, her class started to concentrate more on writing in Jan and she is also a lefty. Although I personally don't have any concerns about her writing (I think she has come on really well TBH) the school do, but I think that's more to do with their targets if anything.

I remember the obvious distaste in my MIL's voice when she clocked that Dd was left handed, it was weird as though Dd had suddenly grown another head, and I have had to keep a very close eye on her and intervene if she tried to change Dd's preferred hand.

My Dd sounds very similar to yours with her writing, and especially the fidgeting and not listening. In all honesty I put it down to the fact that she is a girl VERY creative and she is always trying to find ways to be just that by either dancing, singing, drawing, making or just daydreaming....hence the not listening!

We had Dd's hearing and eyes tested at a young age (and every year after) because there are varying issues in the family. I'm pretty sure school nurses preform hearing and eye tests in school around 5 yrs but it won't harm if you have this done yourself instead of waiting. I think you can contact the school nurse for this.

Half my lecturers in my first year maths degree (Cambridge) were left handed.

To go to backwards writing for this age group, is actually considered part of normal development. Something to do with a certain part of the brain / eye function beginning to engage.

Can't believe anyone still thinks like this about left-handers. My DS is delightfully left-handed and mirrored numbers occasionally until y3! Nothing wrong. About to do y6 Sats...
Ignore the MIL. Trust your own instincts. Looks to me that your child is enjoying learning. Revel in that.

My 10 year old leftie son used to write like that and your description of your dd sounded very like him- move on 5 years and he's in top groups for everything and rocking his 11+ studying.

Ask mil to chill.

When Ds started P1 we got a letter home with how to do homework etc. In it it said don't worry if kids write letters or numbers backwards- it was normal.

Op, re: the swimming class, I have a 5 and 7 yo. I sit in weekly at their swimming classes. They all don't listen. My 7yo is the best listener usually, but she was off its the fairies last sat. I think that is entirely normal behaviour!

Very reassuring to read that mirror writing is normal at this stage - DS1 (4) has just started writing his name and he writes the last letter backwards.

Really don't understand the issue with LH either. MIL used to look at DS1 and say with a sharp intake of breath "hmm looks like someone is going to be left-handed" if he happened to pick up anything with his left hand pretty much from babyhood . As it happens, he is in fact right handed but still not sure what the problem would have been if he wasn't.

My dd2 aged 8 still gets letters/numbers backwards. She even reads short words backwards sometimes.

When she started to write her name aged 5, the whole name, all 10 letters, were written in mirror. Obviously a lot of mirroring going on in her brain, and still is.

The important thing is, in my dd2's case, she is still doing very well in school. She has been slower to learn to read but now she reads every night. She is very good at maths and is doing very well in most subjects.

The main problem she is having is learning to tell the time. I suspect that it is harder for her because of the mirroring.

My right handed DS wrote 3, 5, 7 and 8 backwards until the end of year 2. The teachers were not particular worried and now he is in year 4, he has already smashed his year 6 target for maths.

I really wouldn't worry about it - although it must be really annoying to have such a picky MIL.

Keep your dd well away from MIL. She sounds poisonous. I remember my niece being written off by mil as the ditzy fat one. Turned out she was massively wrong as said neice has won scholarships into top schools and doing well.

My ds is a leftie, in year 1 and doing fine. He still does 3's backwards more often than forwards.

I'm with teenandtween :-

Of the 8 of us doing maths at my Cambridge college there were 5 lefties, one ambidextrous and 2 right handers. Our Director of Studies (who pointed this out) was also a leftie.