Lefty handwriting issue

[lulubelle]

I have my ds 7 doing Zaner-Bloser. He is at the end of 2M. I had him repeat 2/3 of K. He still forms his letter his way! He starts writing many of his letters backwards (some of the letters come out backwards but most look correct after writing) and he writes while crossing over his midline. It drives me nuts. Is this a big deal????

[rwjx2khsmj]

Is his writing legible? My ds7 is also a lefty and while the way he makes his letters is unorthodox, his writing is easy to read. If he's doing a handwriting lesson, I try to watch and encourage him to make the letters correctly. If he's writing for another reason I only require that the writing be easy to read. IMO, you have to pick your battles. I'd rather he communicate clearly than make the letters a certain way.

 

We've started with cursive writing and I've found this to be much easier for my ds7 than printing. He also enjoys it more.

[MamaT]

One of my lefties did that. I correctly him repeatedly to no avail. He is 16 and still does it HIS way. His writing is legible, but not pretty. This is my child who insists on doing things HIS way.

 

My other lefty, who is 21 now, has a beautiful handwriting and always has. He did do the backward writing thing for a while when he was first learning to write. He was my child who always wanted to do things the RIGHT way.

[johnandtinagilbert]

pull out the letters he repeatedly writes incorrectly and work through one at a time until mastery. if you can identify the groups (like all letters that begin with a cirle, magic c, whatever you call it) and start with o, then practice a, then g, etc.

 

make sure you are absolutely supervising his handwriting/copy work practice. each and every time he writes the letter incorrectly, give the reminder "Oops. Let's try that "a" again." "Where do you start your letters?" or "Start at 2 o'clock" The key...each and every time.

 

Old school rules says, pick a letter, say letter a, and sit with him for however long it takes and have him write out 100 of the same letter. Say the steps over and over and over again. "Start at 2 o'clock. Curve around and stop at 2 o'clock. Straight line down to the base line. Good job. Let's do it again. Start at 2 o'clock. Curve around and stop at 2 o'clock. Straight line down to the base line.Great. Let's go again. Woops. Where do you start? 2'oclock. That's right.....

 

I have 2--7yo right now and we went through about a month of Handwriting Boot Camp last fall. We're good now. If it's messy, tell him he'll re-do it as homework. Homework, as in, when I am finished as your teacher and you could be playing, instead you'll be correcting sloppy work.

 

Since I also have 4 dc older than this, I can assure you, when I wasn't tough on a 7yo boys handwriting, I really regretted it come 4th grade when he was super sloppy and I had a hard time transitioning to cursive b/c he was just plain sloppy.

 

Best wishes!

[lulubelle]

Thanks for the replies! His writing comes out pretty good, but also can be very inconsistent. When he starts to cross his midline he gets sloppy. He won't move the page over or slant it to help him. He always puts it straight after I try to move it. Why can't things just be easy!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ellie]

IMHO, yes, it's a big deal, whether he's a lefty or a rightie. Practice, practice, practice, correction, correction, correction. Oh, and be sure to turn his paper in the proper direction, e.g., the opposite way a rightie turns his paper. :-)

[SonshineLearner]

You can use Startright? to help you make copy work with the numbers and arrows that show the direction to write. They have a free test to see if you like the program enough to purchase it:-)

 

Carrie

[Tidbits of Learning]

I have my ds 7 doing Zaner-Bloser. He is at the end of 2M. I had him repeat 2/3 of K. He still forms his letter his way! He starts writing many of his letters backwards (some of the letters come out backwards but most look correct after writing) and he writes while crossing over his midline. It drives me nuts. Is this a big deal????

 

I am a lefty and we do form some letters differently than righties. We pull our letters to the left not the right. It is a natural thing for a left handed person to do as well as a right handed person will pull their letter out to the right not in to the left on certain letters. This is what I mean. http://www.lefthandedchildren.org/letter-formation.htm

Which letter in specific does her write backwards? I don't remember all of them off the top of my head that lefties tend to naturally form differently. Also, most lefties do not have a natural slant like righties. They will right more up and down in cursive without a pronounced slant. Does he turn the page to the right? What I mean is does her have the paper at a 45 degree angle to him with the bottom right corner lining up with his belly button area. This site has some great diagrams to show what I mean. http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html If he is hooking his hand, he can't see what he is writing.

I would really recommend looking into left handed writing and such by googling. You may find that he just needs some help honing his natural instincts as a lefty in the right direction to correct these issues.

It is very important to realize that lefties do not form their letters exactly like righties on all letters. I hope this helps. As a lefty, I was lucky that I had a lefty teach me to write. I have had a dickens of a time teaching my 3 righties to write.

IF he is holding the paper straight and hooking his hand, you need to correct it now. My mother does this as a lefty. It will cause hand pain and fatigue. I would really set up a reward system for doing it right and just always correct him and let him move the paper himself. I still have to gently remind my right handed daughter to "watch her grip".

I am very proud of being a lefty and sometimes it does feel like everything is made for righties. It might would help if you showed him all the cool lefty only things. There are a lot of sites for lefties. http://www.lefthandzone.com/site/684713/page/45029 http://www.beinglefthanded.com/Left-handed-writing.html

Edited January 7, 2010 by OpenMinded
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[Dinsfamily]

I am a lefty and we do form some letters differently than righties. We pull our letters to the left not the right. It is a natural thing for a left handed person to do as well as a right handed person will pull their letter out to the right not in to the left on certain letters. This is what I mean. http://www.lefthandedchildren.org/letter-formation.htm

I would really recommend looking into left handed writing and such by googling. You may find that he just needs some help honing his natural instincts as a lefty in the right direction to correct these issues.

It is very important to realize that lefties do not form their letters exactly like righties on all letters. I hope this helps. As a lefty, I was lucky that I had a lefty teach me to write. I have had a dickens of a time teaching my 3 righties to write.

IF he is holding the paper straight and hooking his hand, you need to correct it now. My mother does this as a lefty. It will cause hand pain and fatigue. I would really set up a reward system for doing it right and just always correct him and let him move the paper himself. I still have to gently remind my right handed daughter to "watch her grip".

 

 

 

I am a lefty also and write my letters as a righty would. I start all of my circle letters at the 2 then go up and around and pull (maybe push is the better word) my letters from left to right. I guess that's the way I was taught (I don't remember learning to write at all). I do know that my first grade teacher was left-handed as is my mother. I do slant my paper and do not hook my hand. I also slant my cursive letters as a righty would, but this came with years of practice. I don't know how important letter formation is, but definitely correct any hooking or wrong paper slant issues first.

 

It was fairly easy to teach my righty ds to write because I form letters the same as he does. I modeled it on the white board for him so it didn't matter which hand I was using. We'll see how cursive goes this summer. I will find out if it is difficult to teach my lefty 3yo to write in about a year. I plan on teaching him the same letter formation I taught my righty ds, but I think we'll do cursive first.

 

All that's to say that I really don't buy into the fact that lefties have to write differently. Like I said, I don't know how important proper letter formation is, but l was at least capable of learning it. Either way you teach them, I think that a lot of practice is needed to form muscle memory.

 

Funny thing is that my ds thinks righties are special. He's the only righty in our family so far (baby's still undecided, leaning toward his left hand).