Teaching a Lefty....

[sweetpea3829]

This may sound silly but...

 

Is there anything I need to know about teaching a lefty?  Specifically in handwriting.  

 

It's not set in stone yet but, my 5 yr old little guy is definitely favoring his left hand.  He still switches up, but more and more, he's going for the left side first.  So I'm going to continue to have him work BOTH sides until I'm positive.

 

This is quite the surprise for us....nobody in the family is left-handed.  Not any aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.  (However...I am adopted and its possible MY extended family may have lefties).  

 

With handwriting, what do I need to be aware of, as far as stroke direction?  Anything different?  

[Aiden]

I am a lefty. I can't be certain, but I believe that I write with the same strokes as a right-handed person. Just keep in mind that small things that you'll do automaticallly--like tilting the paper a certain direction when you start teaching cursive--will need to be reversed. And if you ever figure out how to teach him to write in pen without smudging the ink and getting it all over the side of his hand, please let me know ...

[Angie in VA]

I'm right-handed but my first student (aka dd) is left-handed. Other than the paper slant issue mentioned above, I don't recall anything different. Of course, she's all grown up now, and I barely taught her anything (highly motivated, overachiever child, lol), so my memories have faded. I knew that I didn't want her to hook her hand around to write, so she didn't.

[RegularMom]

I'm a lefty and my older dd is also a lefty. We used the Handwriting Without Tears series for formal handwriting instruction. What I learned as a kid, and what I taught her to do, was to turn her paper or workbook almost 90 degrees clockwise on the table, and I was almost militant about not permitting her to hold her pencil improperly. That way she didn't develop the habit of bending her hand and wrist so that her pencil was below her wrist (in that way you see many lefties write) and thus she now doesn't get pencil and ink smears on her pinky and side of her hand today. 

 

I should add that she was resistant to the page tilt / pencil grip corrections when she was younger, but I just kept telling her what my 4th grade teacher once told me: You'll Thank Me For This Someday. 

 

My dd's handwriting is quite readable today, and her pencil grip looks like any right hander's. She, like me, just turns her paper to a more pronounced angle to get it to work. 

 

Good luck. :)

[sweetpea3829]

I'm a lefty and my older dd is also a lefty. We used the Handwriting Without Tears series for formal handwriting instruction. What I learned as a kid, and what I taught her to do, was to turn her paper or workbook almost 90 degrees clockwise on the table, and I was almost militant about not permitting her to hold her pencil improperly. That way she didn't develop the habit of bending her hand and wrist so that her pencil was below her wrist (in that way you see many lefties write) and thus she now doesn't get pencil and ink smears on her pinky and side of her hand today. 

 

I should add that she was resistant to the page tilt / pencil grip corrections when she was younger, but I just kept telling her what my 4th grade teacher once told me: You'll Thank Me For This Someday. 

 

My dd's handwriting is quite readable today, and her pencil grip looks like any right hander's. She, like me, just turns her paper to a more pronounced angle to get it to work. 

 

Good luck. :)

LOL, can you post a picture of what this looks like?  Or link a website showing the differences?  

 

I hadn't even thought of the smudging issue...we use dry erase pockets with wet erase markers so smudging could be an issue.  

[sweetpea3829]

Never mind!  I found a website that demonstrates the paper and hand positioning.  

 

 

http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html

[Mrs. Y]

I have 3 lefty dc. I've found they pretty much figure out their own groove and go with it.

[Aiden]

Never mind!  I found a website that demonstrates the paper and hand positioning.  

 

 

http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html

 

Interesting! I was never taught any of that, at least not explicitly that I recall, but it is the way I write now. And come to think of it, I rarely find ink smears on my hand now like I *always* did as a teenager ... apparently I adapted on my own without realizing what I was doing.

[silver]

I've found that some dry erase marker brands are more smudge prone for my lefty than others. The biggest thing I've run into for him is with art. When we were doing Drawing with Children warm-up exercises, there would be a picture that he was supposed to copy on the left and an empty box to copy it in on the right. But when he was doing his drawing, he'd block the sample image. Same with symmetry exercises in math. He doesn't hook, but he also refuses to tilt his paper, so the hand is still in the way.

[RegularMom]

Yes, that picture in the link is similar to what you'll find in the HWT curriculum, if you decide to use it. But keep in mind that I actually position my paper at a much greater angle than what that picture shows because that's most comfy for me. Your child may or may not position the paper at similar angles, but that's okay. Paper position is something I'm flexible on, but when it comes to hand position, I am pretty adamant:  No hook position allowed. :)

 

I can still remember how much I balked at learning all that in 4th grade. But it was truly worth it. 

[redsquirrel]

Lefties often go back and forth at that age. It isn't because they aren't a leftie, but more because they live in a right centric world so they get used to using their right hand more than right handed people use their left hand. Let him pick what hand he uses, don't ask him to go back and forth. Hand him the pencil with it level with the middle of his chest, at the midline, and the pointed side towards him. He will take it with the hand that makes sense to him and having to flip it around the correct way to write will give him another opportunity to find his natural grip.

 

 

You can make some decisions about some skills. For instance. my lefty uses a right handed computer set up. It was simple for him to learn and I figured it was easier to do it that way rather than go around adjusting every computer he uses. But, he definitely needs left handed scissors and can opener. Hand shaking with his right isn't natural for him and he always forgets. He actually does quite a bit with his right hand because he has had to adapt to the world, but he absolutely cannot write with his right hand.

[lots of little ducklings]

Yes, that picture in the link is similar to what you'll find in the HWT curriculum, if you decide to use it. But keep in mind that I actually position my paper at a much greater angle than what that picture shows because that's most comfy for me. Your child may or may not position the paper at similar angles, but that's okay. Paper position is something I'm flexible on, but when it comes to hand position, I am pretty adamant: No hook position allowed. :)

 

I can still remember how much I balked at learning all that in 4th grade. But it was truly worth it.

Thanks for sharing! I have a lefty learning to write, too. A lefty acquaintance of mine uses a 90 degree slant that has always seemed bizarre and awkward to me (a righty); but her handwriting is absolutely gorgeous and I'm glad to learn such a slant is legitimate approach to try.

[Aiden]

Lefties often go back and forth at that age. It isn't because they aren't a leftie, but more because they live in a right centric world so they get used to using their right hand more than right handed people use their left hand. Let him pick what hand he uses, don't ask him to go back and forth. Hand him the pencil with it level with the middle of his chest, at the midline, and the pointed side towards him. He will take it with the hand that makes sense to him and having to flip it around the correct way to write will give him another opportunity to find his natural grip.

 

 

You can make some decisions about some skills. For instance. my lefty uses a right handed computer set up. It was simple for him to learn and I figured it was easier to do it that way rather than go around adjusting every computer he uses. But, he definitely needs left handed scissors and can opener. Hand shaking with his right isn't natural for him and he always forgets. He actually does quite a bit with his right hand because he has had to adapt to the world, but he absolutely cannot write with his right hand.

 

Bolded part--totally true! Even though I am most decidedly left handed, what limited athletic ability I have is all right handed, because my PE teachers were all right handed and taught me to do things that way. I actually can't use left handed scissors, because I can't cut with my left hand, only with my right, again because that's the way my teachers taught me. I use a right handed can opener. It also has never occurred to me to use a left handed configuration for the computer--I assume you just mean putting the mouse on the left side of the keyboard? They were always set up for righties, so that's how I learned to do it. Though when I was required to get used to those touch mouse pads on some laptops, I naturally used my left hand. I also wear my watch on my left wrist, despite being told as an adult that as a lefty, I'm "supposed" to wear it on my right. It just feels wrong over there.

 

Many lefties are (or were, back in my day, anyway) forced into being semi-ambidextrous, just because of the way we're taught to do things. I actually encourage you to deliberately teach your son to be ambidextrous in some ways--right handed scissors are ubiquitous, but left handed ones may not always be available, for example. And of course in a computer lab or with other public computers, the mouse always will be on the right side of the computer. So teach him to do things well with his left hand, but don't adapt your home environment so much that he doesn't learn how to manage when he has to use a pair of right handed scissors or a mouse with his right hand.

[Love_to_Read]

I can't seem to make the link paste, but there's a lengthy page about left handed writing at Peterson Directed Handwriting, showing the arm motions and everything.  If you google their homepage, it's under Training Tools on the menu that runs across the top of the page.

 

 

The only thing I'm particularly picky about myself as a left hander is that I try to keep my cursive with a neutral slant, because backward can be harder for others to read.  Sometimes I can slant mine forward, but IMO, it's not a hill worth dying on when neutral is easier.

[rjand6more]

We have 1 lefty.My husband and are not.  I think he is the only one out of any family members I can think of.  We make NO changes in anything.  He even uses righty scissors. He has figured out the paper angle on his own and his handwriting is so neat at 6!   We have the outlook that it is a right handed world and we want him to be able to adjust. Dh works in construction.  Tools and machienery are designed with right handed people in mind.  BTW, we think it is SO COOL that he is a lefty. :)

[RegularMom]

My younger dd writes with her right hand and eats right-handed, but does a lot of other things left-handed, like playing sports, for example. Her softball coach told me she bats lefty and she says she does lots of other things left handed, which was surprising. My older, lefty dd, does most things lefty, but a few things as a righty. Me, I'm 100% lefty, and RegularDad is 100% righty. 

 

Handedness is so very interesting, isn't it?

[redsquirrel]

I have only ever had right handed scissors in the house, but my son cannot manage them. Just to watch him try to cut with scissors is painful. It is the same with a can opener. He is 14 so I don't think it is going to change.

 

A left handed computer station does have the mouse in the left, but it also switched the two buttons on a desktop mouse, so that the left index finger works the 'right' side button. I did that at first every time he used a computer, but as he got older he started using one on his own and just didn't bother. So, he mouses with his right hand. That is less of an issue now because he only uses a laptop.

 

We've also had to instruct him in how to correctly make a simple graph in science and math. His natural instinct was to make them 'backwards' with the X and Y lines over on the right hand side. It's just how his brain works. All his diagrams in science are made from left to right as well.They are all correct, just not laid out the same as everyone else's.

[sweetpea3829]

Thank you kindly for all of the helpful information.  I'm glad I asked, lol...I felt kind of silly, but I have very very little experience with lefties!  

 

Interestingly, when I was discussing T's handedness with my husband (who is dyslexic) he kind of looked at me funny and said, "You can't write with both hands?"  I was like, "Um, no...most people cannot."  Well not only can he write with both hands, but he can do it AT THE SAME TIME!  His left side is much weaker than his right, however.  

 

I suspect it is related to his dyslexia.  

 

In the meantime, T started baseball this past year and we assumed he would be a righty, and so we spent this season teaching him to throw and bat as a righty.  So I think we're going to have to reassess that and at least offer him the direction on both sides, so he can choose as he matures.  

 

For now, however, when he writes, he ALWAYS uses his left side to start.  And the more I'm paying attention to it, the more I'm seeing other left-side dominance...using his left hand when eating, etc.  

 

It is all very interesting to me, and...as another poster said, I think it's kind of cool that's apparently a lefty!  Though I won't be disappointed if he ends up switching to his right side as he gets closer to 6 yrs old.  

[boscopup]

My rising K'er is left-leaning. He can still write equally well with both hands, but he uses his left hand most of the time. It's kind of handy though... If the left hand gets tired, he can switch to the right hand and keep going. :D He just turned 5, and he's been writing for a good year now.

 

In sports, he tends to be right handed, but sometimes I'll notice him do something right handed and not have good aim, and I'll suggest that he try it left handed. Did this with archery, and lo and behold, he hit the target left handed! So I usually just let him know he can try both and see which one feels better. If he can be ambidextrous, even better. My DH was ambidextrous until he was around 6 or so, but then he went right handed. I don't think that will happen with this little guy, as he is clearly using his left hand much more when writing.

 

Teaching him to write has not been any different than my righties. When we get to cursive, I'll just tell him which way to slant his paper. No big deal. The strokes are the same either way. Pencil grip is the same either way (he has a beautiful pencil grip).

 

Not sure if it is related, but he also sucks his left thumb. My rightie thumb sucker sucked his right thumb.

 

Oh, and how cool... my little guy was born just 4 days before yours. :D

 

[Hunter]

Gifted and many normal left-handed people find being a lefty very easy to deal with and are insulted when others talk about it being difficult.

 

Being a lefty on top of having an LD is hard. Sometimes very hard.

 

Sometimes I'm dealing with 50% to 75% of my students being lefties. Left-handedness is more common among people with LDs and brain damage. And the type of left-handedness isn't just being left-handed. I don't fully understand it all.

 

I sometimes don't want to post about this, because there are lefties that find what I write insulting. Most posters at this board are gifted though, and just ordinary and fully left-handed, and that is not what I am dealing with.

 

Paper slant differs depending on the handwriting style used and the slant. There is no one way to hold the paper, whether a student is right or left handed.

 

If the student is using a vertical slant, usually the paper can be parallel to their arm. For lefties, there will be smudging and loss of being able to see what has been written, but no hook. My default is to just have them keep the paper parallel to their arm and use the Spalding font. When I teach cursive, I just have them retain the manuscript uppercase.

 

I allow lefties to backslant if that is their natural slant. I tell them to just be consistent. And then we need to explore other paper slants. Also, if a student wants to be able to see their writing better and prevent smudging, we again need to explore other slants, but those are harder to learn, and beyond some of my students.

[sweetpea3829]

Gifted and many normal left-handed people find being a lefty very easy to deal with and are insulted when others talk about it being difficult.

 

Being a lefty on top of having an LD is hard. Sometimes very hard.

 

Sometimes I'm dealing with 50% to 75% of my students being lefties. Left-handedness is more common among people with LDs and brain damage. And the type of left-handedness isn't just being left-handed. I don't fully understand it all.

 

I sometimes don't want to post about this, because there are lefties that find what I write insulting. Most posters at this board are gifted though, and just ordinary and fully left-handed, and that is not what I am dealing with.

 

Paper slant differs depending on the handwriting style used and the slant. There is no one way to hold the paper, whether a student is right or left handed.

 

If the student is using a vertical slant, usually the paper can be parallel to their arm. For lefties, there will be smudging and loss of being able to see what has been written, but no hook. My default is to just have them keep the paper parallel to their arm and use the Spalding font. When I teach cursive, I just have them retain the manuscript uppercase.

 

I allow lefties to backslant if that is their natural slant. I tell them to just be consistent. And then we need to explore other paper slants. Also, if a student wants to be able to see their writing better and prevent smudging, we again need to explore other slants, but those are harder to learn, and beyond some of my students.

 

I've actually heard this about LDs and left-handedness, particularly when a student is ambidextrous.  But I'm not sure how the connection can be made...perhaps it is coincidental?  My daughter with LD is right-handed, but she did have a TERRIBLE time learning how to write.  Which direction to form a letter was very difficult for her.  And if she took any kind of break from writing, she'd forget everything and we'd have to start all over.  

 

After she finally mastered letter formation, her handwriting was very good.  But over the last year and a half, her handwriting has deteriorated significantly.  This, even with returning to practicing letter formation.  

 

With DD8, I just KNEW at a very young age that she was likely going to have some difficulties.  There were so many random "signs" that could have been nothing at all, but when considered together, I knew in my heart she was going to struggle.  

 

With DS5, I see some very minor signs that he *may* have a LD, but nothing like with DD, and at this point, I *think* he's right on track.  I'll just say it won't be a huge shock to me if, in another year or two, he starts showing signs of dyslexia/dyscalculia.  

[silver]

Not sure if it is related, but he also sucks his left thumb. My rightie thumb sucker sucked his right thumb.

 

 

That's funny that it worked that way in your family. My lefty sucked his right thumb. And I've always wondered if he developed left hand dominance so that he could drive cars/build towers/color while still still sucking his thumb. :laugh:

[Peregrine]

Ditto on lefties having to live in a right-handed world! I do all of my sports as a righty because my spatial skills are so bad that it was just easier to do everything righty rather than try to reverse what the teacher was showing.

 

As for the smudging issue, the best advice I can give is to be patient with it. I spent my formative years believing I was just a messy person because teachers would criticize how dirty my papers would get. I remember having grey hands from all of the pencil smudging and feeling like it was somehow my fault. I don't think anyone tried to make me feel bad but I did. I would plan to acknowledge it and just go with it. Your lefty will figure out how to keep the paper neater as he or she grows.

[Love_to_Read]

I've heard the same thing about ambidexterity being connected to dyslexia and such.

 

 

A long time ago...not sure if this is still the current science on the matter....some of the research for a report I was writing on left-handedness suggested that since the inheritance pattern doesn't follow a simple recessive-dominant model, not even when you take into account the effect of some genes possibly being on the x and y chromosomes (left-handedness is more common in males, and there are different rates of inheritance depending on whether it appears in your maternal lineage or paternal)...there is one hypothesis that there is no left-handed genetic trait exactly.  Instead, the hypothesis is that there is a right-preference trait to inherit (probably consisting of multiple genes), and a lack thereof.  Of those who do not inherit a right-preference, some copy the world around them and become right-handers, some settle on left-handedness, some remain ambidextrous. This hypothesis would account for why many of us lefties are more ambidextrous than righties tend to be.  It would also account for why many lefties are creative and gifted...hmm, why not try this other hand? It would also account for the linkage with brain damage and LDs...if the genes that transmit right-preference (or the expression of those genes as the brain develops) are damaged in some way, then the child could become a lefty.  If the child doesn't inherit a strong hand preference, and has trouble with directionality as in some types of dyslexia, it's also possible that the child could be copying the wrong hand movements, relying on social imitation rather than innate preference, trying to use his or her own left hand while you use your right hand...you know how some kids need you to stand in front of them with your back turned  (so that you're all facing the same way instead of facing each other) in order to show them dance steps in the right direction? As hard as it is to reverse complex movements in sports and knitting and whatnot, it's still pretty complicated for young children to realize that your right hand and their right hand are diagonal from each other when facing one another!

 

Anyhow....All that to say, if you have a child who Is ambidextrous...while you should celebrate the positives and not see that as a pronouncement of doom, you might want to keep an eye on early warning signs for learning disabilities, and twice-exceptionalness (gifted + learning disability such as dyslexia).  And you might want teach motions sitting next to the child instead of in front, or maybe even consider using a mirror.

 

But whatever the reason or cause, and no matter how ambidextrous...I wouldn't force right-handedness.  I'm glad I played with enough right-handed scissors to be able to use them when lefties aren't available, but there are lots of studies about forcing right handedness that proved that to be detrimental.  There may or may not be a left-preference gene, but whatever the reasons the child doesn't default to right, it's not changeable.

[redsquirrel]

I have been told that premature babies are much more likely to be left handed and ds1 was quite premature and is also a lefty. But, he just such a classic left hander that I can't imagine him not being left handed, lol. He's artistic, very smart, and very musical. That said, so is my other son and he was  a right handed kid from the very start. So who knows?