Left handed and messy

[lisaom]

Hi, just got ds year one report and only negative issue is writing and presentation. He is left-handed and we really struggle to read his writing especially as they reintroduced cursive at the school this year. Anyone got any handy hints for helping with this..? Have just bought some of the pens etc.., but would love to be able to give him practical advice on how to make it look better as it really gets him down...he sits on a table with girls who all write beautifully...thanks

I am a lefty and had this same problem. My dad taught me a saying that used to breed respect and also acted as an ice breaker: Right handed people use the left side of their brains, so that means us lefties are in our right minds.

My Dad despaired and spent ages with me on handwriting, starting off with Victorian style so I had something elegant to aim for but took a log time so I really had to think about it and so by the end of the summer holidays My regular writing was passable. However my school work still wasn't right but then a simple visit to the school at lesson time showed the major problem was I was always being put on the right hand side of the table and wasn't allowed to twist my paper round. Once my Dad convinced my teacher to allow me to sit on the left and have my book at an angle my writing at school improved too as I finally had the room to write. I find too that those who have had issues in the past can end up the more diligent ones as they've had to put in the effort. There are also things more important than handwriting if it just doesn't happen.

Another lefty here! He needs to find a position which is comfortable for him. I write with the page at right angles and have often had comments like "how can you write like that?!" But my writing is very neat and that works best for me. As pp said, make sure he is on the left of a table of two so has enough arm room. If you see pictures of Prince William write, his hand is on top if the pen and the page is straight across - I would find this very uncomfortable but it must work for him.

Left handed pens just didn't work for me and, unfortunately us lefties live in a right handed society so he will need to adapt to "normal" pens at some point. I think it is his seating/pen/arm position.

Thanks for the advice both - will definitely speak to the teacher about where he is sitting, and holding the paper.

When our DS was learning to write we had a writewell mat that helped him into the correct position, he also yses a tri grip pen from staples that looks like a berol writer but has a nib end much longer so enables good vision without hand hooking

My left handed DS has the opposite problem. He has beautiful handwriting for his age but it take him 10 times as long as for his right handed peers. I'm write handed as is DH so we struggle to know what will help him.

write handed? right handed more like.