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Looking out for lefties!
Looking out for lefties!
Teaching a child to write with his or her left hand is not just the opposite from teaching how to write right-handed. Languages that are written left-to-right, like English, are more difficult to write with the left hand -- a right-hander writes away from his body and pulls the pencil, while a left-hander must write toward his body and push the pencil.
If a left-handed child is only permitted to write with the left hand but not taught how to write, the child may develop a needlessly uncomfortable, inefficient, slow, messy way of writing that will be a lifelong hardship. Therefore, it is especially important for parents and teachers to understand how to teach left-handed children to write correctly.
The most important factors are: the position of the writing paper, the position of the arm and wrist, and the grip on the writing instrument.
'Hooked' writing
The "hooked" style of writing that one often sees in left-handers (see Figure 1) results from lack of proper training -- this is not how a left-hander should write. Left-handers adopt this posture because they are trying to see what they are writing and not smear what they have just written with their hand, while maintaining a right-slant to their letters -- these problems are better overcome by paper positioning and pencil grip (with the understanding that a right-slant is not mandatory, that upright or left-slanted letters are acceptable) (REFS: Clark 1959:7; Szeligo et al. 2000).
Left-handed Pencil grasp
Left-handed Pencil grasp
Ideally left-handers should hold the pen or pencil 2-3cm from the point to enable them to see round their fingers and avoid “hooking” with the writing hand or adopting and awkward neck posture when writing.
Try marking the distance with stickers, a line of nail varnish (clear works well if children are self-conscious) or a small elastic band wrapped round several times.
“The finger rule” – If the child places his index and middle fingers at the end of the sharpened part of the pencil, and then grasps the pencil ready to write above this, his fingers should be an appropriate distance from the point.
A common problem for all young children learning to write is gripping the pencil too tightly, making writing tense and tiresome. Usually the child learns to relax his or her grip as writing develops, but teachers can remind students to hold the instrument gently. Frequent practice and letting the child write large letters, also helps children learn to relax their grip. The child will tend to naturally reduce the size of the writing as s/he attains better motor control (Clark 1959).
Paper position
Paper position
Allow the child to tilt the paper slightly to the right. Around 45 is usually appropriate but allow the child to experiment until comfortable.
Left-handed writers may require more space at a shared desk or prefer to sit on the left of a shared desk so they do not bump arms with their peer when writing.
If a student continues to hook their wrist, try placing the paper on a slantboard.
Letter formation
Letter formation
When copying a word, numbers, letters, writing patterns etc a left-hander is helped if these are placed down the right hand side of page.
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.
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