How to help a left handed child write
8 Tips to teach left handed kids how to write – Love Writing Co.
Did you know that 10% of the world's population writes with their left hand? Learning how to write can be a difficult process and often even more so when left-handed. Here at Love Writing Co. we have expertly designed all of our handwriting practice resources to be suitable for right and left handers.
There are several techniques, hints and tips that you can incorporate in everyday writing life to help teach left-handed children to write.
For example, a tip many may not realised as that it is great to encourage left-handed children to move their pencil in a certain manner on paper - the movement for left-handers is to push instead of pulling on the page, as right handers do.
We know how important it is to start off on the "right foot" from the beginning of every child's handwriting journey as not doing so may leave to difficulties such as poor pencil control, muscle fatigue and excessive smudging in the future that lead to reluctant writing.
We've put together our Top 8 Useful Tips to help your left-handed child get to grips with writing from the start.
You will also find links to writing resources developed to make learning to write quicker, easier and fun! Ages 3-5: Complete Learning To Write Pack and Ages 6-9: Better Writing Pack are chosen by 100's of parents every single day for their for left and right-handed children.
In this blog, you will find:
1. Position the paper correctly.2. Use the right hand for stability.
3. Keep the wrist below the line to avoid the ‘hook’ hand.
4. Hold the pencil in the right place.
5. Practice the tripod grip.
6. Sit lefties on the left.
7. Use the correct tools.
8. Use writing practice sheets.
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1. Position the paper correctly (so important!).
When your child sits to practice handwriting, sit their paper slightly to the left of centre, and rotate it roughly 45 degrees clockwise (moving the top right corner down slightly). This makes it easier for your child to see the nib of the pencil as they're writing.
Take a look at these examples below to help.
Top Tip: Our handwriting practice workbooks that support the UK National Curriculum are created specially with a ring-binder in order for the paper to lay flat on the page and tilted as required for left handers. You can shop Cursive & Pre-cursive options for ages 3-9 here with 10% off.
2. Use the right hand for stability.Help your child place their right hand flat on the right-hand side of the paper to prevent the page from shifting as they write.
Stability when writing is a big factor in writing comfortability. That's way our handwriting pencils are uniquely designed with a Tripod Grip, softer core and hexagonal shape with correct diameter and length to fit children's hands. This means when used, our pencil reduce hand and wrist fatigue, encourage correct tripod grip and allow children to write for longer with ease.
Try out out packs of handwriting pencils here: available in ages 3-5 and 6-9 years.
3. Keep the wrist below the line to avoid the ‘hook’ hand.Without guidance, left-handed writers often develop an uncomfortable ‘hooked’ wrist position, where the wrist curls in order to see what they’re writing and not smudge their work.
It is important to encourage your child to keep the pencil on the line, with the wrist below the line to improve their vision, reduce arm strain and prevent smudging.
Correct paper positioning and pencil grip will also help maintain this correct hand position.
Our handwriting and A-Z activity workbooks are all ring-binded in order to allow left-handers to comfortably lay each page flat to complete. Available on offer shop here.
See images below as guidance.
4. Hold the pencil in the right place.Ideally left-handers should hold the pen or pencil roughly 2-3 cm from the point to enable them to see their writing and avoid ‘hooking’ with the writing hand or adopting awkward neck posture when writing.
Indicate where they should hold the pencil with a line of nail varnish or a small elastic band wrapped around the desired area, which can be removed once the child is familiar with the position.
5. Practice the tripod grip.Show your child how to hold the pen/pencil with the correct tripod grip between the thumb, index and middle fingers. This grip, taught during the early stages along with sitting and paper position, should eliminate the ‘hooked’ hand problem.
See image below as an example.
With our hexagonal, small chunky pencils designed with an expert tripod grip, children are encouraged to write for longer, with more ease as well as adopting correct tripod grip. Angela told us:
"These pencils have allowed my grandson to write. He always held a pencil like a dagger, and still does for any other pen/pencil. He also uses little pressure when writing, but the minute he used these he can do it. It has helped so much. Even the school have commented on his vast improvement. Highly recommended as a starter even if you have no problems."
Discover more about our Tripod Grip pencils here.
6. Sit lefties on the left.If you’re helping more than one child with their handwriting practice or homework, be sure the left-handed child is sitting on the left to avoid their elbows clashing as they write.
It is important for left-handers to feel they have enough space too without interruption.
7. Use the correct tools.When children start writing, it is far easier to use soft leaded pencils rather than pens to reduce writing pressure and avoid smudging. Pencils with broader and softer leads - 2B rather than HB - help reduce writing pressure. Whilst pencils with a wider diameter are well-suited to left handers as they encourage the critical tripod grip.
Love Writing Co. Pencils are specially designed for little hands as they have a wider diameter so they are easier to hold, a softer core so the pencil moves smoothly across the page, and a hexagonal shape to encourage the correct tripod grip. The pencils are also the correct length for a child's hand, making them easy to balance and control - perfect for left-handers.
You can buy them here combined with Handwriting practice and A-Z activity workbooks and other handwriting resources: Ages 3-5: Complete Learning To Write Pack and Ages 6-9: Better Writing Pack or in a single packs.
Click here to shop
8. Use writing practice sheets.By using fun-filled writing sheets with fun characters and rewards throughout the pages can work as a great to way encourage your child. Children often will feel greater encouragement and consider practising their writing as something enjoyable rather than a dull task.
Love Writing Co. have a selection of engaging Handwriting Practice Books supporting KS1 learning which support the UK School Curriculum with cursive and pre-cursive handwriting practice. You can buy them in an integrated pack together with others useful writing resources: Ages 3-5: Complete Learning To Write Pack and Ages 6-9: Better Writing Pack or as a single products to test out.
Each activity workbook focuses on letter and word formation, pencil grip and control, upper and lowercase letters for the complete A-Z and a variety of exercises and colouring pictures to add variation to the learning journey.
Not to mention the best part - Reward sticks feature on every single letter page! We use these stickers included in every book as positive reinforcements to ensure little learners feel a sense of achievement throughout their writing journey.
Shop the collection for ages 3-9 years here as well as check out our instant downloadable packs, we have a collection of over 13 to choose from that you can print on demand and enjoy from the comfort of your own home from as little as £4.99.
We hope you've found this helpful and if you are looking for more hints, tips and tricks for handwriting for early learners (left and right-handers) then be sure to Subscribe to our newsletter.
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Happy Writing! We'd love to hear from you - feel free to contact us anytime at hello@lovewritingco.
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Left-Handed Handwriting Tips & Guide
Teaching Tips
June 30, 2020
0
2 minutes
What do David Bowie, Oprah, Barack Obama, and Jim Henson (and Kermit!) all have in common? Aside from being the ultimate dream dinner party—they are famous lefties!
According to the BBC, ten percent of the population is left-handed, which means you are sure to have some lefties in your classroom. They may struggle in this mostly right-handed world—so here are some tips to make their writing experience comfortable and successful.
The Difficulty of Being Left Handed
Being a left-handed child in a right-handed world can make many daily tasks more challenging. There are many aspects to handwriting that can be complicated by having a child who is left-handed. Often, the hand smears the ink or pencil as the child writes across the page. The hand also gets in the way of reading directions and examples in the left-handed margin.
Because of these challenges, we often see children who will “hook” their left wrist to get their hand and wrist out of the way. This can be very uncomfortable for writing. Children who use this posture may demonstrate fatigue quickly, decreased endurance, poor legibility, and pain with writing.
They may also have decreased motivation to write and may write only a few words to satisfy a prompt instead of full sentences. We want children to be successful with their writing, no matter their hand dominance.
Left Handed Writing Teaching Tips
1. Left Handed Paper Placement
Children who can print sentences across the page are ready to tilt their paper at a slight angle (30-35 degrees) to follow the natural arc of the writing hand. For left-handed children, put the left corner of the page higher, so the writing hand is below the line of writing. This practice encourages a correct, neutral wrist position.
You may observe some left-handed children slanting their papers too much.
They do this to prevent their wrists from hooking. Allow them to exaggerate the slant on their papers if it doesn’t cause speed or neatness trouble.
Make free left-friendly worksheets with the A+ Worksheet Maker Lite.
2. Cross Strokes
When writing, we typically travel from top to bottom and left to right. At times, left-handed children may choose to cross letters by pulling their writing hand from right to left. This is natural. Model the cross stroke for them in their student editions. Letters with cross strokes are A, E, F, G, H, I, J, T and lowercase f and t.
3. Lefty-Friendly Student Editions
Make sure the student editions you use in your classroom are lefty-friendly—especially when it comes to early writing skills like handwriting. Pages should provide letter models on the left and right, so left-handed children can always see the model they are copying.
That way they never have to lift their hand or place it in an awkward position to see a model.
If using a worksheet, give the student another copy of the worksheet to place on their right side if they have directions or words to copy in the left margin. This will give them a way to see those directions or words without having to “hook” their wrist.
4. Left-Handed Pencil Grip
Left handed grip looks different from right handed grip. Since many left-handed students will hook their wrists to accommodate for having to copy material on the left, which their hand would cover. Check out our previously published blog post on how to properly hold a pencil or pen for more information.
5. Play with Writing Position
Tape a worksheet or coloring page on the wall. Having a child write or color on a vertical surface encourages them to bend the wrist back while writing instead of hooking it forward. Better yet, do not tape the paper on the wall but have them use their right hand to stabilize it.
This will help coordinate the two hands together for writing.
If you have an art easel, this is a great option as well. Having them write, color, and draw on the art easel will also encourage children to use those muscles in a more typical pattern and over time will improve muscle memory of this position.
Have the child lay on the floor on his or her stomach and prop up on the forearms/elbows while coloring and drawing. This allows them to put weight through the forearms and helps stabilize them while coloring. With this posture, they are less likely to make a “hook” wrist.
If you have a small coffee table, piano bench, or other small table that the child can easily lay under, tape a coloring or drawing page on the underneath side of the table. This position allows gravity to assist with the proper wrist position. They may only do this activity in small time bursts due to fatigue of holding their arms in the air, but it can be very helpful. Plus, this idea is unusual, and they may really like it!
These are many ideas that you can try at home while working with your child during the stay at home orders, but they are great to continue in the future as well to help promote proper wrist placement and life-long writing skills!
We Know Left-Handed Writing!
Handwriting Without Tears looks out for lefties! That’s why all our student editions are left-friendly and help all children succeed in the classroom.
Download a sample student edition page to see the difference.
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How to teach a lefty to write
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The mother is right-handed and the child is left-handed. How not to get confused before the task of teaching a child to write? We offer small tips for interested mothers.
Preparing for a letter.
Left-handed children, unlike right-handed children, have difficulties in developing the speed and accuracy of movements. It is more difficult for them to quickly switch from one type of activity to another, which means that the development of switching from one type of activity to another should be the basis for teaching left-handers to write. This requires giving kids more time to complete each task and move on to the next so that the skill is perfected.
Experts are sure that it is necessary to deal with left-handers from preschool age. But more emphasis should be placed not on purposeful teaching of writing, but on the development of basic motor functions: fine and gross motor skills, stretching exercises, the study of spatial representations, the development of speech and the training of phonetic-phonemic perception (the ability to distinguish between speech and non-speech sounds). The formation of all these skills will greatly help the baby in grade 1.
All these peculiarities of a child's education come from the fact that left-handers (and left-handedness can only be determined by the age of 5) have more developed visual perception than auditory. Therefore, the child writes the word, remembering how it looks, and not by ear. Therefore, phonemic hearing must be developed, otherwise it will be difficult for the baby at school, where they dictate more often than they show words for cheating. In addition, photographically remembering the spelling of many words is very difficult and more often we recognize them when we hear from someone. That is why it is better to teach a child to listen to sounding speech so that he develops more harmoniously and is ready for school.
The development of spatial representations will help the child navigate on a sheet of paper, in writing letters, not to read words backwards, not to draw letters and numbers in random order or in a mirror, which is so characteristic of left-handed children.
Letter.
The process of writing consists of 4 components: the correct landing at the table, the correct grip of the pen, the position of the notebook and the writing technique itself.
Proper seating at the table and gripping the pen are no different from right-handers. True, only the light should be on the right.
The notebook can be arranged in 2 ways:
- 1. The same as for right-handers, but in mirror image: at an angle of 45ᵒ. The fold line of the notebook should be approximately parallel to the forearm of the left hand, which should lie completely on the table. When writing, as you fill in the lines, the sheet of paper will rise up.
- 2. The notebook lies in the same way as for right-handers, only we increase the slope: instead of 45ᵒ - 80ᵒ-90ᵒ. What gives such a slope? The child does not have to twist the hand, and the hand will go straight, straight up, from the shoulder, which will greatly facilitate the work of the child.
In addition, the hand will smear the ink less, because it will go over the top lines that are already dry. Writing technique.
- 1. If for right-handers they created notebooks in a narrow line with an appropriate slope, then left-handers now have their own notebooks with their own slope. This means that it is impossible to force a left-hander to write letters with an inclination to the right. Lefties write either straight or tilted to the left. This greatly facilitates the work of the hand.
- 2. So that the child does not smear the ink, you can put another piece of paper under your arm, and buy the pens themselves thin and with non-greasy ink.
- 3. There are also special nozzles for left-handers, special pens with a curved shaft, pads on the table for the correct position of the notebook and hands when writing.
The main thing when teaching a left-handed child to write is to develop motor skills and spatial coordination, as well as the skills listed above.
The very process of mastering writing with the development of these skills will not differ for left-handed people from right-handers. You only need to follow some fundamental rules listed in the second part of the article.
The development of spatial representations in preschoolers will be helped by online classes on our website in the section "Spatio-temporal representations for children 5-6 years old."
Did you like it? Share with friends:
Online classes on the Razumeikin website:
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develop attention, memory, thinking, speech - namely, this is the basis for successful schooling;
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help to learn letters and numbers, learn to read, count, solve examples and problems, get acquainted with the basics of the world around;
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provide quality preparation of the child for school;
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allow primary school students to master and consolidate the most important and complex topics of the school curriculum;
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broaden the horizons of children and in an accessible form introduce them to the basics of various sciences (biology, geography, physics, chemistry).
Left-handed child: 10 tips for parents
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How to raise a child?
Left-handed child: 10 tips for parents
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- 3-7 years
- 7-12 years
Teachers have finally admitted that trying to retrain a left-hander is useless.
But even with the support of teachers, lefties sometimes have a hard time. They are only 10% of the world's population, and the whole world is adapted for the right-handed majority. On International Left-Handed Day, I, the Parent, have prepared 10 tips to help left-handed moms and dads better understand their little geniuses.
Being left-handed in the modern world is easier and simpler than before, and to some extent even honorable. Among left-handed people there are many geniuses of our time, sociological studies tell us that left-handers earn more, and left-handers themselves are indeed often very talented and extraordinary personalities.
What is the difference between right-handed children and left-handed children in terms of psychological development?
A left-handed child may experience spatial confusion, as their spatial imagination is less developed. But, like all growing kids, they want to know as much as possible. That is why left-handed people often ask questions, fix their attention on the same film, fairy tale, or passage of text. This does not make a left-handed child unthinkable. It's just that the kid has to build logical chains in his head. It is more difficult for him to get to the truth. This is because the left hemisphere is responsible for logic, which is less developed in the left-hander.
The upbringing and education of children with a dominant left hand also has its own characteristics. The Parent Me experts have prepared 10 recommendations that will help make the life of a little left-hander more convenient and easier.
1. Remind which hand is right and which is left
The left-hander does not understand well which hand is left and which is right.
Buy your child a bright bracelet or watch. You can make some kind of decoration with it. The hand on which the bracelet is on is left. The child will quickly be able to navigate in the presence of such a reminder.
2. Do not focus on the fact that the child is left-handed
Do not focus on the fact that the child is left-handed. The kid should not feel like a stranger among peers. Parents should try to act as discreetly as possible, helping the child cope with difficulties. For example, you can ask the teacher to seat the child on the left at the desk so that the right hand of the neighbor does not interfere with him.
3. Train the use of both hands
From a very young age, left-handers should be taught to use both hands. This does not mean that the leading role should be taken away from the left hand. Playing with the ball, playing musical instruments will help. All those hobbies that involve both hands.
4. Don't rush the little left-hander
A left-handed child will always be slower.
Hurrying, shouting, showing your displeasure is useless. A left-handed child will not become faster. He will start to get nervous, fuss, panic. As a result, the child will not be able to concentrate on homework.
5. Repeat and reinforce knowledge
Experts have proven that systematization of knowledge is very important for lefties. That is, if a right-handed child can skip some nuances, but master the topic of the lesson as a whole, then this is impossible for a left-handed child. Each new material should be mastered in stages, with repetition and consolidation.
6. Organize the study space for left-handers
Pay attention to the correct organization of the workplace. Light and textbooks should be on the right side.
7. Teach a left-handed child according to schemes and rules
It is always more difficult for a left-handed child to analyze, so offer simple and understandable schemes in the process of teaching. It is better to make the rules for solving problems schematic, or even make an elementary memo on the stages of completing the task.
