Just a quirk, or needs to be addressed?

[mgl]

Dd who is four constantly points with her middle finger. She has done this pretty much since she started pointing. I find myself always correcting her. Usually I say something like, "which finger do you point with?" Half of the time she immediately switches to her pointer finger, the other half of the time she struggles and tries to point with her ring finger. I was just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this, and if so, what did you do? Thanks.

[Sarah CB]

My ds (8) does this and always have. I didn't correct him but then he was visiting friends and they told him it was rude to use his middle finger. He actually got into a big argument with them because he didn't mean anything by it and he was upset that they were reading meaning into which finger he chose to point with.

 

We had a big discussion about perception vs. intention. He makes somewhat of an effort not to use that finger now and I make somewhat of an effort to correct him when he does. I'm sure that eventually he'll stop using it.

[Lolly]

:lol:Oh yes! I dealt with that long ago with my firstborn. She holds her pencil funky too. Drove me nuts. What finally solved our pointing problem was a friend at the age of 10 who informed her that pointing your middle finger at someone meant something really, really bad. It meant that you hated them. (Boy, was I glad to hear that explanation. I thought she was going to be told what it really meant!!!) Dd just wouldn't listen to me. (She still holds her pencil funny. Doesn't seem to matter much. She can draw fantastic things. Seems most artists hold their pencils a bit funky.):D

 

 

I'd keep up the gentle reminders. But, if she keeps it up, someone whose opinion she cares about will let her know when she is older.

[clementine]

My oldest did this too! My dh and I would get a little laugh out of it, but we did end up reminding her that we point with our pointer finger. It took a little while, but it finally stuck.

[texasmama]

I would correct it since it is a socially unacceptable issue, even though it is done in complete innocence.

[MariannNOVA]

:lol: What finally solved our pointing problem was a friend at the age of 10 who informed her that pointing your middle finger at someone meant something really, really bad. It meant that you hated them. (Boy, was I glad to hear that explanation. I thought she was going to be told what it really meant!!!)

 

I'd keep up the gentle reminders. But, if she keeps it up, someone whose opinion she cares about will let her know when she is older.

 

Yup - I heard my oldest and her bf give that same explanation to ds (who once in awhile would point with the middle finger.) :lol: THAT was enough for him to become mindful of it and not use THAT finger anymore.

 

I know that I had the issue of pointing with the middle finger with one of the children - just cannot remember which one -- they were kind of young. If I was close enough, I would say in a very kind voice while i took their little hand, "sweetie, let's use this finger instead." I would fold middle finger in and extend pointer. I would remind her (it must have been a her :001_huh:) that 'pointer' finger's job was to point and we wanted pointer finger to do her job. Didn't take long - the 'sensory' component of touching and having them use the appropriate finger had to have helped, I think.

[Sonshine]

For social reasons, I would have her use her pointer finger. To reinforce the use of the proper finger, you could use pointing in her homeschool lessons - i.e. point to the A, etc. I would do about 10 - 20 pointing exercises at a time.

[celticmom]

Would it be easier to transition her to using both her index and middle fingers to point with and then eventually drop the middle finger? Just a thought.