Question for parents of lefties:

[Kay in Cal]

My 4yo ds is just learning to read and write... he just is starting to blend words, but he has been writing letters on his own (just by eyeballing and copying) for over a year now. He seems to have excellent eye/hand coordination for his age, particularly compared to my writing challenged 6yo. He is also a lefty, the only one we know of in our extended family.

 

When he writes in a workbook (like HWT) he does just fine copying the model. BUT when he writes himself, he writes mirror writing... from right to left, with each letter printed correctly, but completely backwards. He just wrote his name and his brother's name on opposite sides of a piece of paper, and holding it up to the light it is written just perfectly on the other side!

 

Is there some magic to helping him remember the left to right, or which way letters go, or something... I like that he enjoys writing words for fun, he spends a lot of his free time "writing", but I also don't want him to write backwards forever. Even though part of me thinks it's kind of cool that he does it so well. ;)

[Brindee]

I have a lefty dd. She used to write perfect mirror writing too. The older they get, and the more they read, the more they do it the "right" way. I have heard some people say they worked and worked with their kids to do it right. I'd tell her if she asked, but honestly, they work through it and get past it! My dd was through it by the time she was 8yo.

[Pink Fairy]

My ds is a lefty. Handwriting does not come easy to him. With a 4yo, I wouldn't make too much of it. So many times kids will grow out of things without any fuss (not that you're fussing), and your son sounds like he's doing well for being (1) a boy, (2) a lefty, and (3) so young.

 

It's only been in the last few months that our lefty began writing in an acceptably legible manner (he's almost 8). Like your ds, he loves writing, and he's actually very creative and his stories are interesting--maybe that's part of being a lefty too.

[JudoMom]

My 4yo ds is just learning to read and write... he just is starting to blend words, but he has been writing letters on his own (just by eyeballing and copying) for over a year now. He seems to have excellent eye/hand coordination for his age, particularly compared to my writing challenged 6yo. He is also a lefty, the only one we know of in our extended family.

 

When he writes in a workbook (like HWT) he does just fine copying the model. BUT when he writes himself, he writes mirror writing... from right to left, with each letter printed correctly, but completely backwards. He just wrote his name and his brother's name on opposite sides of a piece of paper, and holding it up to the light it is written just perfectly on the other side!

 

Is there some magic to helping him remember the left to right, or which way letters go, or something... I like that he enjoys writing words for fun, he spends a lot of his free time "writing", but I also don't want him to write backwards forever. Even though part of me thinks it's kind of cool that he does it so well. ;)

 

My oldest 2 are confirmed lefties. My oldest lefty has never done this. He's a very logical, by the book kind of guy, has fabulous coordination and fine motor skills and beautiful handwriting. My second lefty is a more creative, has poorer fine motor skills and coordination, and poor handwriting (he's even figured out how to reverse some cursive letters by throwing in extra loops). He still reverses several numbers and letters (although I have seen improvement in the last 2 years) and still writes mirror image at times (he just did this the other day on a SOTW map--he was supposed to write 'European goods' at a point in the triangle, instead of writing outside of the triangle he wrote it mirror image to keep it inside the triangle).

 

I try to point it out, but to do so every time would crush his spirit, and since I've seen improvement I'm hoping it will continue to work itself out. FWIW, both of my lefties are spectacular readers, but the one with the handwriting issues picked up on reading more quickly than his older brother and enjoys it more. I think it's just a quirk and since I'm seeing improvement I don't think he'll go to college and write his papers in mirror image (he can be a bit cantankerous, though, so he might do it just to annoy his professor).

[Ellie]

Writing Road to Reading is particularly good for children who are lefties :-)

 

I know you didn't ask about reading/spelling specifically, but WRTR has such good suggestions for doing things even pre-reading that help with writing and reading.

 

You would want to model the left-to-write thing all the time. And say things like, "We write this in the direction that we read and write," instead of using "left" and "right."

 

Spalding gives specific instructions on writing letters which make it almost impossible to reverse letters. It uses a clock face to begin with. Letters that begin with circles start at 2 on the clock, go down to 6, over to 9, up to 12, and back to 2. Letters that begin with lines start at the top and go down. Horizontal lines are written in the direction that we read and write.

 

So some people will draw a big clock on a piece of construction paper, outline the clock with glue, and sprinkle sand on the glue. Their dc practice writing their letters by first tracing them on the clock with their fingers.

 

Reinforcing the correct direction for writing and reading, even at this age, really does help.

[readwithem]

I'm a leftie -

make sure his paper is tilted correctly - with the top left corner pointed to the top of his desk - this will help in his writing.

 

Agreeing with Ellie... good habits developed now will help him to have legible writing in the future (not to mention helping to prevent his hand from hurting :)

[Raders Fan]

Ds18, the only leftie in the family of five dc, also wrote in a perfect mirror image. That didn't go away until he was 7 or 8, but it did disappear without any effort or tears on our part or his. His penmanship is still horrid, and we did work on that a bit, after we started hsing (and with lots of tears from everyone!). But, ds taught himself to read sometime around the age of 4, could read upside down, and learns languages really easily. I don't know if any of that is related, but I know I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Jennifer

[mcconnellboys]

He's very young, so this is pretty typical. He's a Leonardo! You might interest him with some stories of that other famous leftie's mirror writing. I'm a lefty, too.

[Philothea]

I have a lefty. But we used 100EL for teaching reading and they have arrows at the bottom of each line so the left to right thing was straightened out early on.

[lighthouseacademy]

My ds is a lefty. He did this some but cursive has really helped him. We used cursive first which is clockface letters. He still reverses some of his numbers though. If he prints, he will still reverse things- yesterday he wrote his name backwards with the letters in jumbled mess with some above and some below other letters.

His cursive is beautiful though. He just turned 6. It also helped him to use sandpaper letters to trace with his finger.

[Maria/ME]

I love Regena's idea of reinforcing the positive aspects of the way he is writing. Pretty cool for a four yr old if you ask me! I think it's early, I think he'll grow out of it as others have said. I also wanted to add my positive thoughts and experiences with Writing Road to Reading...excellent reading/writing system!

[hose]

Are you sure it's a lefty thing? My lefty child never did it, but my righty son wrote in mirror image when he was younger. I thought it was adorable. He grew out of it.

[jfallon]

My dd is also a lefty and did the same thing. She grew out of it on her own by 7 and actually has better handwriting than I do now.

[Mom2boys]

My ds6 is also a lefty and did the same thing. He stopped all on his own, I think in part because as we have done more and more school work, and he has done more reading and writing, he figured out that his mirror writing was backward. I never really said anything to him about it.

 

One thing about my lefty is that we recently discovered he has "mixed dominance", meaning his dominant hand is his left, but his dominant eye is his right. I wonder if this had something to do with his mirror writing. (If you want to informally test your child, hand them a paper towel tube to look through, and see which eye they hold it up to. They should hold it to their dominant eye).

[Sugarfoot]

but I'm a very dominant lefty and so are 2 of our 4 kids. (not sure about the youngest yet!) At that age, I just found it more comfortable to write in a "pushing out" motion like right-handers do. It's hard to explain! When you're left-handed and writing from left to write, you're using a "pulling in" toward the body motion that just feels different than writing "away" from you. At that age, the act of writing is more about imitating than communicating, and it was easier to do it "backward." I will always cross my t's and f's , underline, etc. from right to left. My kindergarten teacher always "reminded" me nicely that in English, people read what is written from left to write. That's when I realized that what I had written needed to be in a form that "anyone" could decipher.

 

All this to say that I wouldn't worry about it.:)

[Lenora in MD]

My son is a lefty and had some similar issues. I think it will work itself out in time. One thing that did really help his handwriting, however, was using handwriting without tears. It helps to reinforce proper letter formation in a way that helps lefties. It also has a lefty friendly workbook format.