left handed help again..

[lauren grier]

so. ce is getting frustrated. He CAN write his name the right way.. but then he suddenly forgot apparently.. he was doing really well at first and now it's all backwards again. I have no idea.. but he is getting mad cause he keeps getting corrected at school (haha duh kid!!) and I keep telling him he's going backwards etc. He is writing the letters in the right order.. but writing them backwards and going right to left. Almost like he's gotten into the habit of mirroring someone..
anyway.. are there any extra tips you have? We (and school obviously) have been working on this a lot.. he's done the tracing.. we've all kept reminding him left to right.. I follow with my finger when I read to him reinforce left to right etc etc.. I've even had him show me by underlining his words which way they go.. and he always goes right to left

atm he's writing F's all over his paper and ripping at it etc etc.. so yeh. We nee some focusing and relaxing right about now

[nesser1981]

Wish I could help you. Keira is also a lefty. No advice for you.

[alien21xx]

I've gone through that as a kid. There really wasn't anything special that my school and my parents did except make me practice more until I got over writing backwards thing. We lefties are so marginalized.

[jessica31876]

my son is left-handed I dont remember him writing backwards but I do notice he writes reallly messy!! So does his grandpa who is left-handed. So we had to work on that alot and basically it just took practice and reinforcement. If he is getting frustrated though Id tell him to just take a break for a little while. Also painting the letters with fingerpaint or watercolors tends to be less stressful I think. The kids usually think of it as fun when it is painting whereas writing them seems more like work

[Emmy]

My second son did this when he was 4 but eventually outgrew it. He's not left handed though. Other than practice I think you just have to wait it out....I'm sure it's frustrating for him!

[Julie Billingsley]

Logan is a leftie, but he is only in first grade so I don't have a huge volume of experience. Some things that have really helped during the last year or so are getting a special pencil grip. I got a pack at Target during back to school but I've found them in a school supply store. A teacher should be able to tell you where to get them or already have some and might give you one for home use. Have him put his pointer finger on the star (you'll see what I mean if you get one). Having Logan use the grip really helps his hand work correctly. Just keep working on the whole left to right thing. When we read (either him to me or me to him) I make him follow along by pointing to the word. Pointing while reading is actually required (yep required) by his school. After a month or so of focused working on it, Logan became comfortable with left to right on writing and reading. ((hugs)) I totally get that it is hard to teach a leftie if you are a rightie... LOL! We struggle with it a bunch from proper holding of the scissors to learning to tie shoes (ugh!).

[MelindaH]

A friend of mine had her pre-K son playing with a product from this site ... she teaches Kindergarten. I don't know whether he is left or right-handed, but I bet it would help either:

http://www.hwtears.com/

[tweetykl]

I use a program called Handwriting Without Tears with my Kindergarten students. It is a great program that does help with these issues. The biggest issue though is the cost of the program. It is worth looking into though.

[ColleenSwerb]

*hugs* I can sympathize with the frustrations of being a leftie. I actually do most thing rightie, because it was just easier for me to do it that way, than try to and get the extra attention/help as a leftie. I bat rightie, I use rightie scissors (which was tough cuz I *knew* I was a leftie, and would try and use leftie scissors as a rightie), etc. I kick leftie in soccer, and I write as a leftie, but that's it.

I think taking a break and doing some fun finger painting type things mught be a good break for Ce. I think it's mostly a mental block, and it will just take practice and some time for him. But BIG hugs for the little man, learning to write as a leftie in a right hand world is tough!

[Penny Springmann]

Paul is a lefty and at 4 he sometimes writes his name backwards. He also reads backwards...I couldn't figure out why he was asking me what p o t s spelled in the car...then I realized he was spelling stop...LOL...I asked my sister who's a pre-K/1st grade teacher and she said not to sweat it. Yes, it's frustrating but she said he would grow out of it eventually. She said it's like reading. Once they get it - they get it. It's more important to have fun and form the letters correctly than have the letters in the correct order and have a child who hates writing because it's so frustrating. I'll ask her if she knows of anything specific you can work on next time I talk to her.
(She is a huge advocate for Handwriting without tears linked ^^^^ in previous post.)

[lauren grier]

thanks girlies... we both have patience issues lol so things get frazzled quickly. I totally let him lead when we work on his writing (it was his idea tonight) but that doesn't prevent the meltdowns haha.

[profiler_mar]

Oh I wish I had some advice! I was so fortunate, in Kindergarten I had a left-handed teacher, so I am a rare-bread of lefties who doesn't curve her hand to write, I tilt the paper and hold the pen like a right-hander would. The special pencil grip that was mentioned sounds awesome- it would help with holding the pen correctly. My mom says I never read backwards or wrote backwards either, so no advice on that. *hugs* and good luck!!!

[krystalhartley]

Both of my kids are lefties (and Michael and I are not).

Avery has beautiful handwriting and has never had issues. Landon was later in motor skill development (ie walking at 13 months instead of 9 like Avery), and his fine motor skills also are seeing a bit of delay. He doesn't struggle with direction, but he does have issues.

Like on his last spelling list that he alphabetized...the list got farther and farther away from the red line on the left side of the notepaper. That's because he's using the line above as the relative point since he can't see the red line under his hand when he starts to write. Also...finger spacing the letters is more difficult because, once again, their left hand covers everything up...unless they use that really awkward thing where they bend their wrist to a strange (like extreme arthritis) position to write vertically (which I don't encourage them to do).

Anyways, this year (4th grade), his teacher had him join a super cool (secret) handwriting club to give him extra practice. Club time has them "eat with the teacher," too, which he loves. Somehow, this actually removes the work and frustration factors for him...even though it's the same dang thing we would do at home.

On another note...I'm not particularly concerned if he never has lovely penmanship...everything is done on the computers these days. He needs to know how to print correctly, spell correctly, and use correct grammar. Good penmanship is just a bonus.

[xboxmom]

Lauren

My Daughter Emma is a lefty and we had this issue too! I couldn't understand for the life of me why she kept writing her name wrong! And then I realized its because left handers can't see what they are writing like a right handed person can which is why you see a lot of left handers writing with their hands bent funny. Try it, it just feels so unnatural to write right to left when you are using your left hand. When I saw her name writen ammE I thought OH NO! She must be dislexic! Then realized its not backwards she is starting with the E and writing right to left. Once I realized she couldn't see the words she was writing and that was the reason we were able to correct it and help her write in a manner that she would be able to see what she was writing and do it properly. I hope that helps a bit. And GL

[newfiemountiewife]

Sorry La, all of my mobsters are righties and Tony and I are as well, so I have no advice. We are just struggling getting Rae to do ANYTHING, so I hear you on the meltdowns. I hope you get him sorted out, just taking it at his pace is the absolute best thing to do.

[Jennilyn]

I am a lefty as is both my girls (although Kaylee can't write right now) but Kristen and I never had problems writing from left to right. We do have problems with neatness though. LOL