6 yr old writes name right to left unknowingly?

[Manamana]

Dd6 has struggled with letter reversals, reading and writing. She's making progress this year using PAL Reading with lots of practice, games and repetition so I haven't been too concerned.

 

Tonight she wrote out her name on a folder and wrote it from right to left as follows:

 

ettolrahC (she reversed the capital letter but all others were written correctly)

 

 

She didn't realize it was written in the wrong direction until I pointed it out to her. What do y'all make of this?

[ABQmom]

My dd did this same thing last year at age 6. Learning to read has not come easy for her. I know that reversals are very common up to the third grade for some kids. My dd doesn't write her name backward anymore, but sometimes she reads backwards still. "Was" looks like "saw" to her and vice versa. She also gets "b", "d", and "p" confused all the time still. I read or heard somewhere that reading right to left is more natural and that it takes some kids a long time to learn the left to right orientation of the English language.

 

Overall, she has made great progress and is doing much better this year now that she's 7.5. I know that she will eventually get it because my oldest was the same way and by mid to end of third grade reading was finally easier for her and she reads great now.

 

I'll be watching this thread. I'm interested to see others' experience.

[TKDmom]

My ds did this once or twice before he realized that words need to be written in certain direction. It concerned me enough that I took him in to a pediatric optometrist who specializes in vision therapy. She told me that his tracking ability was weak and gave me some exercises to do with him.

 

If you haven't had your dd's vision checked, I would get it done. And make sure that the optometrist addresses your concerns about her difficulty with reading and letter reversals. Have them check for tracking issues. I don't know if optometrists screen for dyslexia (or even if your dd is showing signs of it), but it wouldn't hurt to talk to the doctor about it, and see if she needs to be screened.

Edited September 27, 2011 by bonniebeth4

[East Coast Sue]

My oldest dd had reversals of numbers, words, letters, at times entire paragraphs were written with mirror image reversals! We consulted a pediatric neurologist who concluded that it was normal for our daughter even until age 8 or later (especially when they are left handed, and our dd is a lefty). Of course, you might need to rule out some visual or learning difficulties if she is also having a hard time with reading. My dd was able to read very early so that wasn't a concern but it was alarming to see entire paragraphs written backwards. She even opened her journal to write from the last sheet to the front of the notebook! At age 10 she still deals with reversals but not nearly as often as she did when she was younger and she is more aware of her writing. FWIW, she is an amazing artist, pianist, and reads voraciously. She wants to be an author when she grows up!

 

Sue

dd10

dd 8

ds 6

dd 1

[PeterPan]

Vicki, it could be how her eyes are seeing things or dyslexia or both. Like the others, I would get her checked by a developmental optometrist to see if there are any issues with how the eyes converge, track, focus, etc. http://www.covd.org Then look at this thread http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=313093&highlight=davis from the SN board about the Davis method of claying and visualizing for reversals. In that thread I posted some links to youtube videos that demonstrate it.

 

BTW, I've said over the years here how MUCH my dd likes to sculpt. It's sort of funny because, for all her artisticness, she's not much of a painter or drawer. It's just SCULPTING. And I'm realizing now that maybe that working with the clay was a form of self-therapy to give her brain the chance to feel the objects they're seeing and be better able to visualize it. It's just interesting to me, because she *hasn't* had reversals beyond a modest amount in writing in K5 and 1st, which is when she got into sculpting.

 

So I definitely think Davis is onto something there with the clay and visualization. But you still want to get her eyes checked. A regular optometrist won't do, because they don't look for the deeper issues with eye teaming, focusing, convergence, tracking, etc. The developmental optometrist is what you want. They have something called a Visagraph (infrared googles hooked to a computer) that they use for tracking the eye movements while reading. Then can figure out if there are specific EYE problems and quantify them. Then they can tell you want to do about it. It's not a cure for dyslexia, but it's inaccurate to assume people only have one problem or the other. A certain percentage are going to have BOTH.

[ABQmom]

My ds did this once or twice before he realized that words need to be written in certain direction. It concerned me enough that I took him in to a pediatric optometrist who specializes in vision therapy. She told me that his tracking ability was weak and gave me some exercises to do with him.

 

If you haven't had your dd's vision checked, I would get it done. And make sure that the optometrist addresses your concerns about her difficulty with reading and letter reversals. Have them check for tracking issues. I don't know if optometrists screen for dyslexia (or even if your dd is showing signs of it), but it wouldn't hurt to talk to the doctor about it, and see if she needs to be screened.

 

I might need to do this. I did ask my optometrist about her, but he didn't seem to understand my concern. He just kept saying maybe she needed reading glasses. I didn't know to ask if they could detect a tracking problem.

Can an optometrist detect that, or would she need to see an opthamologist?

[Farrar]

I've read that this is normal up to a certain age because young kid's brains don't immediately process that something is upside down, sideways, etc. the way they will later. They can be made to see it, but if asked if c and ɔ are "the same" younger kids, especially before age 5 or 6, will say yes while older kids and adults will say no.

 

Of course, as others have pointed out, it can also be a sign of dyslexia or other issues. Don't you hate that? It's either 100% normal or an early warning sign of something serious. Like pretty much half the things young kids do.

[PeterPan]

I might need to do this. I did ask my optometrist about her, but he didn't seem to understand my concern. He just kept saying maybe she needed reading glasses. I didn't know to ask if they could detect a tracking problem.

Can an optometrist detect that, or would she need to see an opthamologist?

 

No, she needs a developmental optometrist. http://www.covd.org'>http://www.covd.org A regular optometrist screens for these things. When they tell you she needs reading glasses, that's code for GO TO A DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRIST. It means he's seeing indications of the issues the dev. optom. will delve more deeply into (weak focusing, etc.). See we tend to think of vision as 20/20, either you have it or you don't. But it's much more complicated. My dd could pass a 20/20 acuity test, so long as she sat there straining her eyes to get rid of the blur. The regular optometrist just said she was a bit farsighted and that her "recovery" was slow and gave her reading glasses to help with the headaches.

 

Reading glasses can actually make it worse, because, by removing the straining of the eyes to focus, you also remove the straining that was causing the eyeballs to pull inward and converge. Without that, you now have double vision, blurry vision. The brain doesn't like that, so it will surpress one eye to get rid of the double. So then you might see physical manifestations (turning the head funny while reading, that sort of thing) or have only might slight signs. In our case the could show the eyes alternating with the Visagraph, those infrared tracking goggles. As the eyes would alternate, she would lose her place and skip lines of the reading.

 

So yes, you need a developmental optometrist. Opthamalogists do surgery and often poo-poo developmental optometrists. They don't do the same thing. http://www.covd.org

[jplain]

 

Tonight she wrote out her name on a folder and wrote it from right to left as follows:

 

ettolrahC (she reversed the capital letter but all others were written correctly)

 

She didn't realize it was written in the wrong direction until I pointed it out to her.

Any possibility that it had something to do with where she started or placed the word on the folder?

 

My K'er did something similar a couple days ago. At an art class she was instructed to write her name in the lower right hand corner of her piece of paper. So she put the R in the lower right hand corner, reversed, and then put the rest of the letters to the left of the R. There were no other letter reversals.

 

I think it was being asked to write on the right hand side of the paper that threw her and caused both the reversal and the backward writing. If she'd been told to write her name in the lower left corner, she'd probably have written it correctly.

Edited September 27, 2011 by jplain

[Tracy]

It may be that she just doesn't completely understand that words are supposed to go from left to write. You might try teaching her to write in cursive. She couldn't write backwards if she were writing in cursive.

[happykate]

I don't really have anything to offer, just wanted to say how interested I've been to read these responses! My ds #4 did things similar to this when he was starting to try to write. I never was really concerned because his reading and recognition were otherwise fine, but it fascinated me! An example of something he would do would be that if he started his name too close to the edge of the paper and ran out of room he would continue the word just underneath and write it backwards and with reverse letters. Like this:

 

Fra

kn

 

Well I just previewed my post and I can't get it to right justify the name, but you know what I mean. His name should be all the over to the right with the "a" at the edge of the paper and then the "n" and "k" would be reversed. He did it without pausing and I never could believe that he didn't have to think about it. He's the only one of mine who's ever done anything even remotely like this and he's my quirkiest thinker so I just chalked it up to another of his "things.". Sure enough, he never does it anymore and now that it ended up being nothing, I kind of miss it! I'm glad I saved some of his notes to me that were done like this!

 

Please don't think I'm trying to minimize your situation! I just think it's interesting to hear about other kids who do similar things! None of my friends had ever heard of anything like it when I would mention it to them.

[MeganW]

No, she needs a developmental optometrist. www.covd.org A regular optometrist screens for these things. When they tell you she needs reading glasses, that's code for GO TO A DEVELOPMENTAL OPTOMETRIST. It means he's seeing indications of the issues the dev. optom. will delve more deeply into (weak focusing, etc.). See we tend to think of vision as 20/20, either you have it or you don't. But it's much more complicated. My dd could pass a 20/20 acuity test, so long as she sat there straining her eyes to get rid of the blur. The regular optometrist just said she was a bit farsighted and that her "recovery" was slow and gave her reading glasses to help with the headaches.

 

Reading glasses can actually make it worse, because, by removing the straining of the eyes to focus, you also remove the straining that was causing the eyeballs to pull inward and converge. Without that, you now have double vision, blurry vision. The brain doesn't like that, so it will surpress one eye to get rid of the double. So then you might see physical manifestations (turning the head funny while reading, that sort of thing) or have only might slight signs. In our case the could show the eyes alternating with the Visagraph, those infrared tracking goggles. As the eyes would alternate, she would lose her place and skip lines of the reading.

 

So yes, you need a developmental optometrist. Opthamalogists do surgery and often poo-poo developmental optometrists. They don't do the same thing. www.covd.org

 

 

DITTO!! I had two kids who did this consistently. Glasses led to patching the one eye b/c their brains had quit using the bad eye and only looking through the good one, so we had to patch the good one to avoid losing vision altogether in the bad one. Both are in vision therapy, and neither ever writes from right-to-left anymore. My third triplet is on the waiting list for VT, and she still does it frequently.

 

Our opthamologist highly discouraged the VT. She patched, then basically said there wasn't anything else we could do. My kids could force their eyes to focus for a few minutes, long enough to pass an eye test, but couldn't sustain the focus. So you can guess what that does for learning to read! The opthamologist basically said there was nothing else that could be done and they would probably eventually be labeled dyslexic. Then she told me that VT was voodoo science by scam artists and a complete waste of money. Given the improvements I have seen, obviously I disagree with her!! We will keep seeing her to evaluate the health of the eye itself, but as for how the brain processes messages from the eye - I trust the developmental opthamologist.

[Running the race]

My daughter could and did write in mirror writing easily. She quit doing it on her own.

[fruitofthewomb]

My 6 y/o daughter does this sometimes too. She did it this morning. It seems to be related to where she starts writing on the page. She wrote her sister's name in middle of dry erase board then wrote hers backwards starting from middle and working right to left, looked like this ybbALyla. Weird but honestly I am not worried about it. She is still learning to work from left to right. When she counts groups of objects she doesn't go in any order. I just model it for her and move on.