Teaching left-handers to write

[Bilberry]

My ds is in P1 (Scotland so no reception) and is learning to write. He has dyspraxia so finds this difficult. He is also left handed and there doesn't seem to be any consideration of this. He seems to be being Taught just like a right-handed would be. Are there any teachers here who could give me an idea of how they differentiate left from right-handers?

The sort of things I think should be happening are; holding pencil a little further back from the point so he can see what he is writing, tilting the paper so you write from beneath the line, no 'finger' spaces, not having to the words you need to copy on the left of the writing space...

the ONLY adaptation he needs is to rotate the paper clockwise

all else comes down to individual choice

being left handed is not a disability
he's unlikely to be the only one in the class
leave the teachers to do their job

if need be give him extra FUN practice at home

The letter formation for left and right handers is basically the same only for left handers the cross stroke is made right to left rather than left to right. The main difficulty is the writing hand covers what you have writing so things like finger spaces are difficult. I find using a lolly stick to physical show where the space is can help.

Also sitting left handers to the left of other children so elbows dint bump.

It's easy to say that Talkin but I have a left hander with no other issues.

She is in YR1 and she really struggled with learning to write. Everything came out in reverse. It looked fine to her. She couldn't see the difference between her perfect mirror writing and ours.

I have to really keep on top of it as she will revert to her left handed writing if left to her own devices.

She reads really well and has no issues with mixing up letters when reading. It is purely a writing problem.

And it IS the teacher's job to teach the OP's son to write. She is doing nothing wrong by asking for a few tips.

I have 2 dds who are left handed. dd1 was fine, she needed no additional support. Dd2 was a different matter, she struggled a lot and the teachers didn't really help tbh.

In your shoes I'd first of all give him a chance and see how he gets on without any help. If he does seem to be struggling have a look on the anythinglefthanded website, they have loads of things to support left handers. Pencil grips, writing guides, workbooks, finger spacers etc.

Talk are you left handed? I am and I know that some things are more difficult being left-handed. Ok, I have adapted and use the classic but bad 'left handed hook' when writing. However, while being left handed is not much of a disability as I mentioned my ds has dyspraxia and that is definitely a disability. He already has OT support, uses pencil grips and would not find any sort of practice fun.

The problem with finger spaces is a right-hander will write the first word, use their left hand for the finger space and then write away from their finger. A left handed using the same technique will find a finger and a hand in the way which they have to awkwardly reach over to write the second word.

jacla
I am left handed, as is DH.
Both our kids are right handed.
Teaching them to hold a pen and use scissors and do up shoe laces was just a thing we had to do.

For all OP knows, the teacher is left handed - statistically over 10% are

But the OP's ds is obviously having some problems so no harm to raise it with the teacher. I'm sure lots of left handers figure it out for themselves but others need a bit more support.

I realise they teach a method most suited to right handers as 90% of people are right handed but left handers do need to make adjustments. Not sure why the op's ds should be left to figure it out himself while the others are taught.

Dd's teacher was surprised at her problem with writing. She has taught lots of other left handers who had no such problem but she recognised it was an issue for dd and keeps an eye on her.

Jacia right handers are just as likely to mirror write as left handers

Watching with interest.

I'm left handed, so is ds. The problems I remember having at school were the elbows bumping, issues with smudging ink pens (no biros allowed ), having to turn my paper away from me at an angle and the school not having any left handed scissors so I had to learn to use right handed ones.

Ds is currently struggling with finger spaces and his letters and numbers are coming out backwards, he's also writing digraphs and trigraphs out backwards (so instead if "ch" he will write "hc" and instead of "igh" he writes "hgi") like the pp's daughter.

That's interesting mrz. The only people I've known to do it are my left handed sister and my dd.

Is there an explanation to why it happens? My dd's mirror writing is amazing. It is not just individual letters or words. She can write entire sentences totally in reverse.

Ah x-post so the backwards writing may not be to do with being left handed?

"
Spontaneous mirror-writing in children
As any nursery or primary teacher knows, mirror-writing is very common amongst children learning to write. These productions are not mere confusions of legal mirror-image characters (such as ‘b’ and ‘d’) but can involve the reversal of any character, and even whole words and phrases. A child may sign her name neatly but back-to-front. Interestingly, some characters are more likely to be reversed than others, particularly those such as ‘3’ or ‘J’ in which the correct form ‘faces’ leftwards. This suggests that during exposure to written language, the child implicitly extracts the statistical regularity that most characters ‘face’ to the right, then over-applies this ‘right-writing rule’ (Fischer, 2011).

Several myths surrounding mirror-writing in children should be dispelled. Most prominent is the traditionally assumed association with slow intellectual development, arising from early anecdotal literature (e.g. Orton, 1928) and studies of ‘mentally defective’ children (Gordon, 1920), and propounded as a visual motif through popular works (e.g. Winnie-the-Pooh, the Far Side cartoons). Recent studies have converged in showing that the likelihood of mirror writing does not correlate with intellectual abilities. Cubelli and Della Sala (2009), for instance, reported no significant difference in intelligence between mirror-writing and non-mirror-writing children of the same age (cf. Fischer & Tazouti, 2011). There is similarly little truth in the idea that mirror-writing is more common in left-handers. Mirror-writing in childhood does of course correlate with age, but the true underlying factor here is the stage of acquisition of writing, with occasional mirror-writing as an intermediate stage between no writing and correct writing (Della Sala & Cubelli, 2009; Fischer & Tazouti, 2011)."

Thanks for that. Interesting reading.

My daughter is dyspraxic. I would think the teachers also need to consider how to teach a dyspraxic child how to write. It involves all things that are tricky for dyspraxic children. Where I live the nHS children services hold occupational therapy groups purely on teaching hand writing. Also the dyspraxia society have handouts and the university in Wales I think do a pack for parents. I can find the exact details of you are interested. My Dd used triangular shaped pencils, pencil grips, bigger pencils - all designed to give a stronger hold and more sensory feedback. We also did finger excersise to strengthen muscles.

Oops missed your second post and looks like the dyspraxia bit is covered.

My ds is left handed. He's 5 and in Y1 and he's only fairly recently completely cracked letter formations eg 'a', 'd' starting by using a (to him) backward stroke.

His finger spaces are still somewhere between hit and miss and non-existent. I was just wondering yesterday if I should start calling them 'lolly stick' places rather than 'finger' as that might be confusing him.

School has a supporting left-handers to write policy which includes the things that OP and Mrz have mentioned.

Apparently, boys' thumb strength develops later than girls', so I think this has an effect too.

In addition to support for his dyspraxia, I would ask what procedures the school has in place to teach left handed children to write. As Talking says, there are some in every class, so there should be strategies in place.

I am Lh as is my dd - at 5 she reads a lot from right to left as makes more sense for her and writes the same as she apportions space in the same way. We have worked to make sure all written work is double spaced lined so she can see underneath her hand (not a prob for rh) and for extra patience.

TBH mirror writing and reverse skills are NOT to be discouraged

in my professional life I've found the ability to read face down documents ever so useful

compartment but do not discourage