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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 11:15am | IP Logged
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We started school this week and my ds is left handed. I'm not pushing writing on him but we are starting some letter formation and even trying a few words, numbers. I've known all along he is a lefty...I just didn't prepare 
Is there any advice on how to help him along the way? I'm not left handed and so far none of the other kids are either. My dh is a lefty but I wouldn't want his help (his penmenship is awful-to say the least  )
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Mackfam
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Paying close attention here!!!!
All my other kids were right-handed, but my preschooler is ambidextrous with some definite left handed preference at times. She writes, holds a fork and does fine motor work with BOTH hands very well! I've just let her choose her hand preference for writing since she is doing some beginning writing, and I adjust paper angling and helper hand placement depending on the hand she's using for writing. 
I ask her which hand she would like to hold her pencil in to try to determine preference and it's really a draw! 
Anyone start out with an ambidextrous writer? Do you simply decide on hand preference and gently insist on that hand as the writing hand? Or, is it better to just be patient and allow them to develop penmanship skill with both hands?
I'm all ears with Jenny! 
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JodieLyn
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So far all my kids are right handed for fine motor skills.. though I have a couple that prefer left for sports skills.. my oldest son would be a switch hitter in baseball(with a preference for left) for instance. But I did some preschool work in college and have helped some lefthanded children, I'm not ambidextrous but I can use my left hand better than many right handers. It was a big thing in my 4th grade to try and write with your non-dominate hand 
I would just look for suggestions on how to angle the paper and such since a left hand would drag over the words as you write if you don't get something of an angle.. and I'd look online to see a picture of it because that's how I'd need to see it to make sense.
Otherwise most lefthanded things I just think of as a mirror of the right handed things and figure I can help a child that way.. even if I have to go look in a mirror at myself first or maybe a mirror on a stand so that I can see the child in the mirror while they're working.
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3ringcircus
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I'm a lefty. My Mom is too. I would agree that he should mirror a righty as far as pencil/hand grip. That's what I always did. I don't curl my hand up and write from above. I think my penmanship skills were a tad behind my other skills (which were advanced in elementary), but I didn't have significant problems. I'd say just make sure you are doing other things to develop fine motor coordination (play-doh, Montessori activities, shaving cream, etc.). That will just support any efforts you are making. And, try to use as many resources as possible w/o a spine on the left, right where the hand sits.
They used to have lefty-scissors for kids when I was in K, but I never really got the hang of them and always used the righty ones. As long as the grips aren't molded specifically w/ curves for the right hand, regular kid scissors should be fine.
I'm a little jealous, actually! It doesn't look like I'm passing the lefty torch to any of my guys, and I would have loved sharing it.
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Betsy
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 7:38pm | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
| Anyone start out with an ambidextrous writer? |
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One of my ds's is. I am a little embarassed  to say that I strongly encouraged him to write right handed. Let's face it, most things are desiged with right handed people in mind.
However, he does pitch with both hands (he had a six finger glove so he can use it on both hands). He throws with is right arm best, but plays first with his left. He natural bats left, but he can switch hit as well.
His dominate soccer foot is left, but he uses both.
He shoots a baskeball left handed.... haven't had him try his right
Anyway, I am didn't mean to hijack and ramble. But I would encourage right if there is very little difference.
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Martha
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Handwriting without tears saved my sanity on this with my oldest.
If you can get him interested in knitting or some other ambidextrous activity, this will carry over into penmanship and other areas.
Practicing artistic skills, such as drawing, painting, carving... These will help as well.
Also, and most importantly IMO, I'd skip manuscript writing and go straight to cursive. It will likely be neater. It seems just when they are seeing major improvement in their penmanship is when boys are transitioned to cursive and have to start all over again. Thus boys tend to have worse penmanship than girls. There is no reason not to start with cursive. Manuscript is fairly new historically. Used to be cursive is all that was taught.
So far, the above is what has worked for my 3 lefties.
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Also, most lefties are at least partially ambidextrous. For example, they might write left hands, and bat right handed. I pay zero attention to which hand they use for what at this point. What I care about is if they are holding their pencil properly and writing neatly. Otherwise, I say nothing about it to them. Usually by about age 8, they're more definitive.
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I do not have Martha's experience, but my rising first grader is a lefty, and I am planning to introduce cursive with him at the same time as formally doing it with my third grader. I made handwriting sheets to correspond to an old first grade phonics course. I'd considered this years ago with my oldest but never did much formally with handwriting or even copywork. One of my school year resolutions was to do better in this regard, and since my lefty also has issues with letter reversal and reading right to left (both things cursive first is supposed to help address), I thought I really should do it with him, and it worked out that I could do it with both of them together.
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Grace&Chaos
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Ladies, interesting thoughts here!
Martha and Lindsay, so for my 4.5 yo ds would you not concentrate on writing at this point and give him another year or so before starting cursive?
I'm getting the feeling that I should just let him work on fine motor skills and possibly just do all our learning orally instead of getting caught up in say working towards copywork/writing. Maybe use more of the letter/number tiles to learn for now.
BTW, I found myself sitting across from him this week just so he could look at how I was holding the pencil and sitting. I love that mirror image thought.
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Jenny
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Martha
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4.5? Copywork wouldn't even be on my radar unless *maybe* they were obviously gifted. In fact, teaching any formal writing wouldn't occur to me yet. stick t developing the fine motor and ambidextrious skills in more enjoyable ways. Otherwise, I think you run the risk of making them hate writing more than necessary.
Yes, I either sit directly across, or I stand behind their left shoulder and write it in front of them.
However, I start straight up with cursive. I never use manuscript. If you watch little kids, they don't naturally make stick figures. They make circles even when they scribble. Cursive with pencil staying on the paper making loops is easier than lifting the pencil repeatedly and trying to repeatedly connect or cross stick figure lines.
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At 4.5 I focus on tracing sandpaper letters and writing in sand or shaving cream (even thought it is a holy mess  ). Of course, mine is righty. When she wants to write (and she does), I have her trace letters, not copy them. It has worked pretty well. They taught my son to "write" in preschool and he does not form any of his letters correctly. It is almost impossible to change this!
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Martha
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged
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Ug. Yeah. Bad habits very hard to near impossible to break. Especially when formed so very very young.
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Martha
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Grace&Chaos
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Thanks Martha. I guess by copywork I mean basic numbers & letters to build on. We've been working with thick chalk, sand letters, and paint so far.
My intent is not to rush him but he has such a bigger base of pre-reading & math skills than his siblings did at this stage. And he's asking for his own writing notebooks like his siblings.
I do agree that I don't want him to dislike writing so I have some things planned for him to nuture these young years. I'm just curious on how to gently address the whole left handed issue.
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Jenny
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Martha
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 10:54pm | IP Logged
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Oh I was.
?
Ppp,
P
L
P,
,
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Martha
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| Posted: Aug 15 2012 at 11:08pm | IP Logged
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Baby boy is obviously interested in my iPad.
As I was saying.
I wasn't being critical.
Other than mirroring, the cursive, and some artistic activities are the same things I'd do with a righty. I almost forget they are lefties.
The osmosis learners are eager to participate, but I refuse to buy them anything formal that young. I play games, we paint, make playdoh.... Ohhh! Make some playdoh! Love homemade playdoh.
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: Aug 16 2012 at 9:32am | IP Logged
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Great ideas & help 
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Jenny
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Angel
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As far as the ambidexterous thing... my 9 yo took a long time to settle down with a preferred hand. Finally it became clear that he was left-handed, as far as writing went... but he still uses a mouse with his right hand and also uses his right side (hand, foot) in some sports. The biggest problems I ran into in accommodating his left-handedness had nothing to do with writing, actually; they were teaching him to tie his shoes and remembering to set his cups and painting water and paints on the *left* side, not the right! Otherwise there was a giant mess!
Anyway, when I noticed that he did prefer to do many things (like writing) with his left hand, I started to shift things around so he *could* use his left hand in a less difficult fashion. And I don't think I really figured this out until he was about 4 years old. I don't do any kind of formal writing with my boys until they are older, or until they show me they want to learn to write by trying it out a little themselves, but his left-handedness didn't really cause many problems with his writing when he was using a model because his fine motor control was good (unlike some of my right-handed children.) BUT the left-handedness turned out to be part of a whole visual-spatial/dyslexic package. NOT that all left-handed kids have trouble learning to read, or that all reversals have to do with dyslexia, but... it's been hard for us to tell if it's the dyslexia or the left-handedness which makes it so hard for him not to reverse his numbers and letters without a model, kwim? It's all part of the same package. But I do think that left-handed kids in general are reported to make reversals longer, so... anyway, something to be aware of. That's why cursive is pushed to be taught first, I think; you can't reverse it, and those tough letters, b's and d's, are totally different.
We use Handwriting Without Tears because it's an easier style to learn, and also because the cursive doesn't have a slant. Slant is hard for lefties. I wish that they would make their workbooks for left-handers, though. It's so much easier for a leftie to use a book spiral bound across the top for handwriting.
Apparently, however, true ambidexterity is rare, and what my 9 yo has often exhibited is called "cross dominance". When kids take a while to settle on a dominant hand, they can run into problems with reading, etc. Here's a good article:
Establishing Dominance and Crossing the Midline
Here's another interesting article on "mixed dominance". I actually just had my 9 yo try the camera and seashell "tricks" to show dominance, and they seemed to work; he put the camera to his left eye and the shell to his left ear. Nifty!
Mixed Dominance and Learning Disabilities
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Betsy
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Angela,
Thanks for posting! Me and my ds (and I suspect my youngest) fall into this category.
Both me and my ds have had certain learning delays, but nothing that was a long term issues. It's alway interesting for me to learn why things are the way that they are!
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christannb
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Thanks for posting this topic - I am following closely...We are about to start homeschooling first time. My 5yo dd was in a part time pre-k program last year. She was a lefty, or so it seemed, at the start of the school year. But by the end of the school year she was writing with her right hand...Now she says she is more comfortable with the right hand now. But I notice she switches back and forth quite a bit. usually when one hand gets tired of writing/coloring. When teaching I don't know whether to encourage her to use her left hand more, or just go with the flow...One thing for certain, she loves to write!
Thanks!
Christie
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JodieLyn
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If you can determine which "eyed" a child is.. and then encourage that hand it will help them greatly in many things. I have a girl that's right handed and left eyed and mostly she's fine but when she took hunter's safety she discovered that she needed to shoot lefthanded and it's a hard transition.
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Topic: Left-handed Kinder...HELP!
