left handed but born with no left hand

[jbl2312]

hi all we have just been informed by our limb clinic that our daughter (4) was ment to be left handed, however she was born with no left hand and part of her forearm missing. we have had talks with her nursery teacher regarding her pencil skills as she just dosent seem able to hold a pencil correctly always in her fist and the movements are very erratic, is this normal for her age or is it because she is left handed but using her right..

Might be a mixture of both, between the ages of three and five children usually make fast progress in developing their fine motor skills and dexterity. Maybe you could try some fine motor skills at home to help her. for example tracing lines, dot to dot, cutting, also using playdough/clay etc to strengthen hand mucles. Sorting small items (paperclips by colour, sweeties by shape) and finger pupets are some ideas. google fine motor skll activities and there is a wealth of activities online.

sometimes using an easle (drawing on a blackboard etc) can help as it forces your hand to grip the drawing instrument a differnt way. also try "fat" tems such as chubby chalks, fat crayons and broad markers, pencil grips might also help.

very normal. dd2 was meant to be right handed but her pattern of brain damage means that side is much weaker, so she has had to learn to be left handed.

your ot should be more than capable of dealing with this situation - search for the fine motor threads on here, mrz has a great list of activities to promote fine motor skilss, and they are pretty much what the ot would do anyway. usually about 5 or 6 the ot will start a more formalised handwriting programme (write from the start or whatever) but there's lots ot be done.

we know dd2 will keyboard eventually (there are some great single handed keyboards too), but obv school and the ot have been working towards imporoving pencil skills as far as poss.

dd2 is 8 btw.

if you don't have an ot, get your paed or gp to refer.