General Chat

https://www.familiesonline.co.uk/locations/national/education-childcare/education-and-schools/support-your-left-handed-child

from a left whale

Her left side is the more predominant and stronger than the right,,,,,,trying to change to a right handed user will confuse it even more,,,,,,,,,I am one of two others within our family who is a lefthand writer and of many other things,,,,and to me watching someone write using their left hand looks odd...... :-D.

Having the paper slanted so that the top right tilts to the right for me works fine for presentable neat writing.

Trying to alter her natural use is like trying to make a dog moo.......she is only 6,,,,,,,,, and will need time to have total control of her style of use of a pen/pencil..

Well I am right handed and most people (including me at times) find it impossible to read!
I really should have been a Doctor! :-D

i can write with either hand , but my right hand is slightly better...

When I went to school
we where forced to write with our right hand

today I write with my right hand
But do everything else with my left hand

My ex is dyslexic - I also think he was left handed - but was 'encouraged' to write with his right hand. He still managed to be a mechanic in the RAF.
Our relationship was probably based on the fact that I could spell a word even if I'd never used it, he knew 'big' words - but couldn't spell them!!
HIs handwriting embarrassed him, and he does a sort of joined up 'print'

As a mature student, he got a MA in maths, and teaches special needs adults at college :-D

As Sharron says - big up the maths. :-D :-D :-D

Polly

As others have said make sure the activities are fun.
Any craft activity will improve her dexterity. She is not too young to sew or weave.

Also painting is a good activity especially painting patterns, filling in areas etc.

Experiment with using different implements not just pens and pencils by that I mean paint with fingers,sticks etc.

Lots of drawing but make it fun. Drawing with your eyes closed which you should try as well, Great fun and amazing what you can do.

This may sound as if it's along way from her writing but each activity will improve her dexterity and ultimately her handwriting.

She is very young just yet and has plenty of time to improve. She should certainly not be worrying about it.
Good luck
Von

Looks like she may have a mathematical bent.

Maybe the writing will never be up to much.

I can do words but can barely count never mind grasp any kind of mathematical concept.

Big up the maths, that is her strong point.

I am left handed...in fact I used to get the strap at school until my mum went to see the headmaster and complained. .
She was told that I would never get a job in the post office...whatever that had to do with it!.
However,I still write with my left hand,eat with knife and fork correctly,though have spoon in left hand.would play tennis with left hand,but golf right handed,,,oh my mother taught me to knit right handed,but crochet left handed...bit of a mixture really,
It never stopped me being successful at school,or getting qualifications.
They say that left handed people are very intelligent and artistic.....lol. :-S

I have never had any special implements and have coped without many problems.
I would say,don't make a big thing of it,a lot of famous people are left handed.

Thank you all very much, you have all been so helpful. I have got some useful and fun resources to start her off with. The first thing I have noticed with these printed exercices is every one explains how to position the paper on the table, how to sit the child at the table, how to hold the pen, all seems to be extremely basic, but obviously a vital component in the initial teaching technique. She also seems to have a problem with her concentration, but I guess that could be because she isn't enjoying writing. I am going out now, but will read through your comments again before I pick her up.

Maggie, that's so interesting, one of the first exercises in this pack is Dot to Dot .

She has been tested and is not dyslexic. She loves reading, and is good at Math.

I have a voluntary job as a one-to-one reading mentor, and I can see the value and benefit one-to-one can bring.

Hopefully I will be able to help J <3 <3

I am left-handed, as is my neice. Knowing the struggles I had, I have bought her every left handed school stationery item shevmayvneed. From pens to ruler, pencil sharpeners and scissors, and other bits.

Most left-handed people struggle to learn to write as we do it totally differently to how it is shown. And as a result our handwriting is often quite poor. Mine was so poor when at school I had to use a pencil and print everything!

But the best thing is notbyo jake a big deal out of it, it does not help, just stresses them out more.

She will get on fine. Just remember left handed people are supposed yo be more artistic.

We had problems as our son is ambidextrous and we had to find out which was his best writing hand. It was his right but he didn't like writing and his schoolwork was suffering.

I got him to write a list of who he wanted to send Christmas cards to and bought him a couple of boxes of cards. He then happily wrote them out.

I also went to a local stationers and bought some card, small book calendars and some postcard pictures of our town we lived in at that time. Son made the calendars and he wrote who to and wished them a happy Christmas on the back of the card. All fun through the dark evenings of late November early December.

He volunteered to do it the following years and well into his teens. He just saw it as preparation for Christmas and really enjoyed it. The children also wrote thank you notes for Christmas and birthday presents.

The calendars went to older family members who really appreciated his and then his sister's efforts. He never sussed it as a writing exercise and his writing improved because he tried to do it neatly for the recipients to read.

He was about 7 when I started it. When we cleared out my OH's aunt's house she'd kept the calendars, cards and letters the children had sent her. Both were touched and divided them and took them home to keep because she'd treasured them.

Make it fun not a chore and the more she does it the easier it gets.

My youngest is left handed, and has amazingly neat handwriting - much better than her right handed sister, who, to be fair, is dyslexic - which is something to be considered with your grand daughter.
Left handed scissors are a MUST - cutting out helps with hand/eye co-ordination, which, in turn, would help with handwriting.
The way letters are formed is another problem. She's probably told where to start with the letter and where to end. My daughter rarely followed these 'rules', but she was fortunate in having a teacher who, as long as the letters were neat, and the formation wasn't too awkward, let her get away with doing it her way.

My mum was left handed and, despite being at school in the 1930's, was never made to use her right hand. Her handwriting was so good (even using a fountain pen) that she won handwriting awards.

One thing you should try to encourage is having their hand below the line they're writing on, and discouraging the awkward hand above the line.

Edit: Another fun thing to do, to encourage good hand/eye co-ordination are dot-to-dots.
When I was a LSA, I created my own for a boy who just couldn't grasp the order of numbers or the letters of the alphabet. Once he realised that, by knowing the order, he created a picture, he soon learnt how to do it - and then managed to colour his 'creation' without going over the lines :-D

SFAIK it is no longer allowed for schools to push left handed kids to write with the right hand. If that is happening get a stop put to it. There is no logic just an ancient world wide prejudice against the left hand. Ever heard of a left whale?

I am left handed. It is a sign of a creative mind.
It also sets you up fine for life's battles 'cos you know you will never get an even break but will have to fight every last yard.
.
I was forced to be right handed at school for everything but never stopped being a secret left hander.

The right hander's will never let go so encourage her to learn to write with her right hand too. That way she will become ambi dextrous which has advantages:
big advantage in some sports eg tennis, cricket
no need to hunt for left handed computer mice or be forced to use an Apple
used left handed acoustic guitars are cheaper
if you break an arm you can still write ok with the other one
It is much easier to write in Arabic and Persian 'cos they go right to left (even so you will never see an Arab writing with the left hand)
a dab on the nose from a southpaw is always a surprise.

I started learning the piano around the same time I started learning to write, five. It is ez to get a keyboard for a six year old. This couild help yr GD as she will get used to doing precise things with her right hand i.e. playing the melody line. Learning to read music from a stave is also fairly easy. As well as being fun this should help her confidence.

Can't really give advice, but my son's left handed, his handwriting is still not great...but then so much of what is done these days is on a PC so it's not quite the problem it might be. It will always look a bit awkward to a right-hander ( I am) but the way the paper is positioned is important too so she can see what she's writing as she does so. .

A good pen is important , 'Jet Stream' is the one D uses it's slightly chunkier in the middle and flows easily and doesn't smear. I think anything that is fun that teaches hand control, colouring in? would be good and just encouragement to write in general, print is easier than joined up as the way a right hander forms loops doesn't match up..

If you google "teaching a left hander' plenty comes up... also tell her that Prince William and the President of the USA are left handers ;-) as are many many very clever people. :-D

http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/childrens_products.html

I have lovely handwriting, though I says it meself as shouldn't. It is smooth and flowing with loops and curls and nothing at all like the handwriting I could not do at school.

We were taught to do round, open,plain, Marion Richardson handwriting which bore no resemblance to the loops and curls that wanted so badly to come through my pen.

Once I stopped trying to do the stuff I was made to I stopped having scruffy, untidy writing and the script flowed.

still there

Anything Left-Handed London shop


www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/shop.html

Anything Left-Handed was the first specialist left-handed shop in the world and opened for business in 1968 at 65 Beak Street, at the bottom of Carnaby Street in ...

OH was left handed and an engineer, so he had problems - we found a shop in London called "Everything lefthanded" in Beak Street - this was a great help - not sure if it still exists, but even if it doesn't I bet there are other similar shops

Our little granddaughter is left handed, she is six years old and is struggling with her handwriting. She is such a bright happy little girl, full of bounce and life, however, this seems to be affecting her confidence. I have brought some teaching resources for one-to-one tuition, hoping that I can help her, but any advice would be really appreciated.


Paula.