Mirror Writing and Dyslexia

[Luna9]

I have noticed that my dd who is nearly 5 sometimes writes her name from right to left; she also write it from left to right; she has also a bit of a delay speech; nothing severe but has word finding difficulties sometimes. She has very good memory and seems to know all the phonics and can say them all now; there is no history of dyslexia in the family; she is also growing bilingual; however I have an older children who didn't have any of these problems? could she be dyslexic? when can I test her. ? I have mentioned to Dr and paediatrician because of the speech delay but they have never made any attention of it.. Thank you.

It's really quite common in young children, I think. Dd3, who is 6, used to do it quite alot in year R and even year 1. She'd reverse letters, whole words beautifully formed but completely mirrored. She does it rarely, now, but still sometimes reverses 7s and 3s.

Thank you; I suppose there is no much point in worrying now as only time will tell.

I did perfect mirror writing before I wrote normally. My DM put it down to me being lefthanded and using the other side of my brain (sorry don't know if there is any scientific evidence to back this up). Would this be the case with your dd Luna9?

I did read that lots of children who are left handed do that; however she uses her right hand to write; until a few months ago she was still using both for eating and writing and swaping them. I have always felt there has been an issue but it is not very obvious or serious. An ostheopath told me that she suffered from glue ear in the past and that's the reason for the speech delay. Who knows.......

Mirror writing actually isn't any more common in left handers, dyslexic people than any other group. It's just one of those things that has become an accepted "fact" that its a sign of "dyslexia" (using term to mean someone who has difficulty with reading/writing).

My left handed daughter did this until end of year 4 (about age 8). My dyslexic son didn't do it.

My nephew did beautiful, perfectly correct, mirror writing when he first started writing. I was quite impressed when I saw him doing it; I don't think I could do it so easily and accurately as he was. As it happens, he is left handed. AFAIK it sorted itself out quite quickly and he has never had any problems reading or writing.

Sorry, I meant to add that I had absolutely no problems with reading or spelling either.

I have one child who did it loads and another who didn't. The one who did (and she made a whole book completely backwards once, it was amazing) is left handed, but I think what's more relevant is she is much closer to ambidextrous than DS and she was late to develop a preference. I reckon right and left, this way or that way are much much easier to tell apart if you have a strong handedness preference. And many children do, even from babyhood.

DD still reverses numbers regularly, in Y4. She is a very capable reader. I just think she is ambidextrous enough that left and right are fundamentally not that different to her. Driving might be fun when she's older... :)