Left handed 5yo - what to expect from school

[PyjamaFiend]

Just that really. My DS2 is 5 and in year 1. He is very definitely left handed and always has been. His writing is coming on and is legible but is clearly weaker than his contemporaries.

The biggest issue is with spelling tests, we religiously learn his spellings each week. I know he can spell the words (we learn them on squeebles and then tackle the writing later), but he often scores pretty low marks on his test. It’s getting to the point where his confidence is crushed. He has just cried his little heart out over his writing and I’m at a bit of a loss.

School are being pretty inflexible and I know that they will be wanting his writing to improve, but it seems reasonable to adjust their methods when it comes to him proving that he can spell. There really is such a massive difference between his writing ability and his knowledge and understanding.

I guess part of me wonders if this will eventually show as dyslexia, but I also guess the mechanics of writing might make it entirely normal for a child who is left handed to take much longer to get the hang of good pencil control and letter formation.

My biggest worry is that neither of his class teachers seem to have any strategies to help. Surely being left handed is not that unusual!

I'm very left-handed and struggled with penmanship skills, just took a lot longer and needed more support. I'm generally okay academics-wise other than that. My kid is the same age as yours and a leftie and definitely finds writing hard. I think it's common in general across both hand orientations these days as our tech led lives mean we have less time using and strengthening our hands. Maybe he could do some crafting and drawing /tracing to practice the skills.
Get the school to dial down the pressure. I wouldn't worry about his spelling at all, it's quite an old fashioned approach to learning. Just make he's acquiring the necessary phonics and enjoying his learning and reading,the rest will follow.

I’m left handed and never had any problems. I don’t understand why his spelling / writing would be affected by it. It sounds like there may be other issues at play.

Also a 5 year old crying and calling themselves stupid is a bigger worry for me. Where has this come from? Are you making a big deal of the spelling tests - and if so why if you know he can spell them in other ways

Oh for goodness sake - of course I’m not making a big deal of the spelling tests. But school are. And he’s not stupid, he can see that everyone else around him finds it much easier than he does. If it were up to me he would not do spelling tests at all as it appears to be a completely pointless endeavour for him. And I’m not convinced it serves any purpose other than some school record keeping.

but my main concern is how do I keep him interested and motivated to learn, and keep his self esteem up, if he actually learns in a different way to the majority. Fun fact - he once actually got all of his words correct only they were written as perfect mirror images. So obviously he scored 0 🙄

Me, my DD my eldest DS and my eldest GD are all left handed....we all have nice hand writing ...its never been a problem. My youngest DS is right handed...his hand writing is awful

My DS is left handed and early on in school his writing was quite poor. When he was 6 he got obsessed with the Beano. He would spend hours tracing the comics. They were quite small pictures and it was amazing how it improved his pencil control. Is your little boy keen on something particular that he could trace. It was just something he decided to do himself but it improved his handwriting no end.

Oooh tracing is a brilliant idea, thank you!!

This honestly sounds much less like a handedness issue and far more like a dyslexia issue. Can you get him assessed? If he does have dyslexia there are interventions that can help, plus of course extra time accommodations etc.

As somebody said upthread, this will sort itself out as he gets older and moves away from handwriting onto typing.

There are variables - it could be because he's left handed, it could be because he has a problem with pencil control just like some right handed people do or it could be something else. I would work on pencil control daily at home and see if it helps. Very left handed DD didn't have any issues but as I said this may or may not be a left handed issue.

I think your new thread about this issue, as @PeppermintyPatty, is why your old thread has been resurrected, courtesy of the ludicrous new selection of links to old similar threads that MN gives you at the bottom of the page.

Have you tried the yoropen pencil for children? It might be helpful.

I think the OP means it is speed.

If we both sat a spelling test but I get to write with pen and paper and you have to write on a beach with a stick and we are given the same time, I will beat you because what you are doing is harder for you.

OP I'm right handed but have lefties in the family and I do somethings left handed or with both hands, like brushing my teeth, right hand for left side of the mouth and left for the right.

Anyway, moving the paper 90 degrees can help with writing, also using a pencil rather than a pen can also be useful. It might also be worth him having his own pen, a better quality one, school pens are sometimes dreadful.

At home it might be worth getting a writing tablet for him to play with.

I'm dyslexic so when I am writing I have to sound out the letters in my head, so I can think say, 'cat' but as I write it I think C - write letter c, A-write the letter a etc I'm much quicker with a keyboard.

Tip for your DS when he tries to open a bottle with a screw top (this also works with a corkscrew but he's a bit young to be opening wine) hold the lid still and twist the bottle.

DH and DD (3) are lefties. DH said he’s only had problems with smudging. DD’s nursery teachers have encouraged us to just focus on pencil grip and fine motor skills, granted she’s very little. Maybe working on fine motor skills will help him a bit? Like beading etc.

She also does tracing regularly and her accuracy has really improved in the last few months.

I teach year 1 and we don't do spelling tests as we have enough going on with phonics and what that does to spelling words!!! I would test him yourself at home. Write a note with the date you do it and write that it is under test conditions with no help and sign it. Give it to the teacher and say you are happy for him to do the test in class with his peers but can they consider how he performs when given more time.

Of course they could just give him more time which is what I used to do in year 2 but if they are not receptive to that you need to find ways around it for your child.

They only block what they are writing if their paper and pen position is wrong. The teacher should be encouraging them to tilt the paper 45 degrees to the right and to place their hand below the line as the write.

Also, if pen grip is a problem then the school should be providing a rubber grip on their pencil which forces them to hold it using a tripod grip.

There is plenty the teacher should be doing to help. They also shouldn’t be marking them down in a spelling test just because it isn’t neat enough. If they can’t read it they shouldn’t assume it’s incorrectly spelled, they should do something to help them write more neatly.

@Herejustforthisone i think you must be right. It’s not actually completely unhelpful though as I have a meeting with the SENCo today (one of many) and this helps me to reflect on the journey we’ve been on with him. Funny because the new thread has very few responses.

school have a policy of ‘not screening’ for dyslexia, which doesn’t help. He is going to need to be tested, but if we are paying (and it seems to cost around £600), then we need to get the timing right. But diagnosis will be important for eg extra time.

regarding the left handedness, I have tried many things. Stabilo make a bunch of different writing implements and the easiest of all for him seems to be the handwriting pen (but at school he needs to use a pencil). These really do seem to make a difference but we supplied left handed pencils for him last year and they very promptly became lost (and they are not cheap). Which I guess comes back to my original ask - what expectations are reasonable? If I provide items at my own expense is it reasonable to expect School to ensure they are available to the child? Especially when the items make a very obvious difference?

Lots and lots of drawing/colouring/dot to dots/ things to strengthen the bones in the hands.

My year two leftie was like this in year one but has massively improved now she’s in year two.

We didn’t focus on the writing more on control and then the writing followed.

@TumbleFryer thank you for getting it. We’ve had none of that support from the last teacher.

In fact all we got from his last teacher was a whole ream of paper photocopying with sentence practice and a suggestion that he should come home from school and do an extra half hour daily. Impossible for a child who can’t even form the letters

I suggest you have a polite but strong word with teacher OP. There's loads they could do. As pp's have listed. They always put ds2 on the end of a table so he can write left handed more easily.

This and it’s pretty offensive to suggest it.

The handwriting smudge is a simple fix. Just rotate the page to the right slightly. It’s not that hard.

Ask for him to be put on the left of other kids at tables so he’s not knocking elbows with a right hander.

I don’t understand why you are attributing his issues to being left handed? If you are left handed it’s your dominant hand so it’s not ‘weaker’ than the right hand it’s stronger. Left handed here and don’t remember it even being discussed in school as it doesn’t make any difference bar getting ink on your hand sometimes - not an issue with a pencil. I would look into what else is going on

@sashh If we both sat a spelling test but I get to write with pen and paper and you have to write on a beach with a stick and we are given the same time, I will beat you because what you are doing is harder for you

sorry but are you saying this example compares someone writing with their left hand to their right hand? Are you serious? I’ve never heard something so ridiculous.

A triangular pencil helped DS.

Haven’t RTFT, sorry, so you may already have covered this but could he have either longer to do the tests (maybe do them in break) or some learning support sessions?

the wrong end of the desk! For god sake why can't teachers realise this is so annoying to deal with both the the left handed child and the right handed classmate. Worse for the lefty as shoving is in the direction of writing. I had this problem 25 years ago at school and I can't believe some teachers still don't think about it. It's a simple fix! It was so.