Should I speak to yr1 teacher about potentially left handed child?

[WibbleWob]

Hello, I’m wondering what is the best course of action here. I was convinced my child was left handed before reception, but they started writing with their right hand. They were “expecting” at handwriting in their end of term report. I did explain to their reception teacher I thought my child was left handed but they were of the wait and see approach.

Over the summer I’ve noticed that when writing/drawing for fun they will use their left hand again, but if writing with me they will use their right. It does look in incredibly awkward and letters are often back to front.

I will say that the school has an incredibly rigid/one size fits all approach so I doubt my child would have felt comfortable using their left hand if the teacher demonstrated with their right, and just automatically followed what others were doing. (State, non faith school, for what it’s worth.)

I’m wondering if I should contact the school early doors or perhaps seek a private OT appt? My child is adamant they should use their right hand. We do have a large number of family members who are left handed but it emerged towards the end of infants- I suppose things were less pressured then.

As someone who works in a year 1/2 class I'd encourage you to mention this to their new teacher. I'd want to hear concerns a parent has about their child in the school setting. Either email or speak to the teacher at drop off when you go back to school.

Mirror writing is actually developmentally normal at this age.
Lots of Reception children do this and it’s nothing to worry about until they get to age 7.

How does your left hand become more tired than your right?? Like saying I need to hop today because my left foot is tired. The reason it is more difficult for children and even adults to write is because they can't see what there wrighting as hand/wrist covers it which makes for messy wrighting.

We do all the things mentioned, and have done since a young age- as I said in my OP I was convinced they were left handed. Their fine motor skills for Lego, threading etc I feel are good. I also said when they are writing with me nearby they use their right hand.

My child broke up for the summer using their right hand to write with which as I said surprised me.

They are now writing their name (I suspect as doing it independently and no longer copying) with letters reversed. Clearly they are attempting to write independently. Other posters have said that using both hands while they settled on which hand is dominant.

Well grandparents etc are attempting to correct the spelling (I had previously been relaxed) and with September approaching I am concerned that the teacher will think they are doing this deliberately and treat it as bad behaviour.

I am reassured by this thread that that is unlikely to be the case.

The mentions of dots etc are helpful- I am right handed so it would not have occurred to me. As I said family members are lefties but they are 30s. The expectation now at my school is that year 1 will write in cursive. Surely you can see that a child who possibly has not yet settled on a hand is at more of a disadvantage under the current system.

Their year 1 teacher had previously taught year 4, so now that you mention it. I’m not sure she will be used to dealing with year 1s who have not settled on a dominant hand!

I said the same about mine before they started school- that’s why I was surprised!

Both my girls used both hands till they reached around 7. My eldest I thought would be left handed but eventually settled on her right. My second is left handed. Oddily they do lots of things right handed - play tennis for example. It’s often she is copying the person showing her so just uses the same hand - over time she switches.

I would let it play out a bit longer till it’s settles. If they are a left handed the teachers will support - my younger one struggled with writing for a while smudging work etc but they helped her repositioning her work book and all ok!

Sorry that was to bluebobble, I forgot to tag you.

I’ve done all the things mentioned, thought I had a lefty, then got a right handed child who could spell their name, now have one who can’t.

My concern is that the new teacher will treat it as a bad behaviour issue if my child insists on their approach.

Thank you thats reassuring

Only a teacher would understand just how true the second part of this post is!

You are assuming the teacher is right handed.

In a class of 30 we once had 10 students who were left handed and not enough different coloured scissors for them. Yes, they have different coloured scissors for the lefties. I was physically forced to be right handed but I am 50. Times have changed. My eldest son uses both hands but writes right handed. No one made him do it, he just felt more comfortable doing it.

In reception they were given a laminated sheet of letters and how to write them, again they had right and left handed ones. The children are observed writing over several weeks to see if they show a strong preference.

Maybe you should know the huge problems that come with forcing a child to use their non-dominant hand to write and why they don't push that anymore. No teacher is going to push that. You seem set against the school, if you are unhappy then move your child or work with the school.

I do things both left and right handed, Ds1 is the same, Ds2 is right handed. I can ride a scooter with either foot, my children use different feet. But they both write right handed.

As a leftie, I’d probably mention you’ve observed them switching and wondered if there was any specific support you or they could offer.

I write solely with my left, and always have, but find anything else difficult verging on impossible so do everything right handed. Im sure I wouldn’t if the world was more adaptable - but everything you see or are shown to do is shown right handed…!

Missed your scissor post, we have lots of leftie wannabes for those exclusive green and yellow scissors, but they soon realise they can't use them, they are very disappointed

DS mainly used his left hand to do things at home before he started school. At school he used both hands. Towards the end of Reception his teacher said, “He needs to pick one, he might as well be right handed as it’s easier”. She then encouraged him to use his right.
His hand writing is terrible. He still uses his left hand to throw/ do Lego/do jenga. I think he is ambidextrous. He is also dyslexic.
I do wonder sometimes if he is actually left handed though.

It's not as unusual as you'd think for children to have still not settled on a dominant hand yet in Reception.

I've had several children over the years who were ambidextrous at that age and some children who started the year appearing to have a preference for one hand, only to finish the year preferring the other. I had one of each last year, one boy who started out appearing to be left-handed but finished the year firmly right-handed, and one boy who seemed to be right-handed back in September but switched his preference half way through the year to left-handed.

I doubt your child has picked up any vibe that right-handed is the 'right' way, despite the teacher likely modeling this. At that age, I don't think children pay much attention to which hand other people are using, they generally just pick up equipment in whichever hand feels most comfortable to them.

Your child will figure out for themselves which hand feels right over the next year or so. You could mention it at parents evening but I really wouldn't bother bringing it up sooner.

No you don’t always. My son used his left for most things at home but at school used both to write with. At the end of Reception his teacher said he had to choose and he might as well be right handed. He is late teens now so this wasn’t that long ago.

I was going to say the same, they get plenty of use here as the righties are constantly selecting them despite daily reminders that they're not designed for them! 😂

I assume it's the two colours which make them seem more appealing. That or the fact there's only a few pairs in the box so they seem like 'special' scissors. I only ever put out as many as we need as it's pointless having 10 lefty scissors in the box if you only have 2 or 3 left-handed children. Maybe if I did put the full set in they'd seem less exciting?! 😂

This. I switched hands when I was young before settling on my left. My children are both right handed and still did backwards letters sometimes, I don’t think it’s just a left handed thing.

Got four DC - three are right handed, one is left handed. You just leave them to use which one is most comfortable.

I’m aware of the problems thank you which is why I asked for advice. I don’t want to force my child to use either hand, and was asking for views on if/how to raise it with the teacher.

Views vary, as seen by this post.

Im obviously willing to work with the school, which is why I asked whether to raise it with them. I am right handed myself and while I have lefties in the family they are all 30/40 and can’t remember when they first realised. The handwriting sheets I have been given by the school so far are right handed.

About 10% of the population is left handed, so by the law of averages there’ll be 2-3 in every class and nothing the teacher can’t deal with. I am left handed, and so is my DD. You have nothing to worry about and there are lots of benefits to being a ‘south paw’ (that’s probably racist or ableist or something these days 😁). It’s associated with greater creativity and innovation, probably because our brains are more ‘plastic’ as we work out ways to cope in a right handed world. We’re also overrepresented at high levels in sports such as tennis or fencing - mostly because we’re used to playing right handers, but right handers are not used to playing left handers. He will learn on his own way (I’m 56 and can still easily do mirror writing). Handedness is mostly a fun curio rather than any cause for concern.

"Cuddy pawed" as was the saying years ago🤣

I think it's because holding up said hand in order to see, or in order not to smudge, means using different muscles to right-handers. Not sure if pushing rather than pulling is also part of it?

@WibbleWob No you seem to believe that because your child is adamant they must use their right hand to write this comes from the teacher and not the other children she is sat with on her table. Depending on how they are sat you could have a right handed child bumping hands with your DD if she has her pencil in her left hand. She might look around the table and see that they are all holding their pencil in the other hand to her. Yes contact the school but they are the ones observing her in the classroom environment.

Ds writes right handed but was still eating yoghurt with his spoon in his left hand at 7 as we have photos of it. Schools are very accepting of lefties and you would describe my children's primary as incredibly pushy and fast paced but everyone fights to get in it because they get incredible results. It is also nurturing and about the individual child.

@MayaPinion we got the year 5s to work out how many of them should be left handed given the 10% rule and then surprised them all with the 10 left handed students and the teacher who was a leftie and technically me too.

@BoleynMemories13 it is definitely the two colours and the small number making them appear special and exclusive.

Thank you for your post. To reiterate I have said that if something was demonstrated by the teacher, they would copy, particularly if the majority of other children were using their right hand.

Nowhere have I said that the teacher is forcing them to use their right hand or that it is coming from the teacher. There is a new year one teacher in any event who I was considering mentioning my thoughts to.

I was concerned that they would view a child who previously could write their name and who now insists on a new spelling as being badly behaved. I am reassured from this thread that will not be the case.

It is a pushy school (I wasn’t aware of this as I am not local.) Year 1s are taught cursive. The examples in the planners given are right handed. Surely you can understand my concerns that a child who varies hands might struggle?

I have received may helpful posts- hopefully they will also be useful to other parents!

Someone upthread expressed doubt at the thought that the left hand gets more tired, when writing, than the right does. And so I wondered if any other lefties have the same experience as I do of getting a very achy and uncomfortable hand if I write more than a paragraph or so? Or does everyone develop that ache, regardless of being left or right handed?
My speculation is that the pain is the result of having to push rather than pull your hand across the page. But perhaps that is baloney and there is no difference.
I've been keeping a diary recently and doing a lot more writing by hand, so I am noticing it a lot more. I'm also finding it hard to find a notebook that doesn't worsen the challenges of writing left-handedly, though spiral notebooks are a bit less uncomfortable because they lay flatter.