May 31, 2008 3:41 PM
Teaching a leftie? Here's the scoop.
IntroductionTeaching 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.
For the full-size image and lots more info - including downloadable free posters - go to 
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Thanks to Kilikina - at Living Each Moment - for passing this on
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Comments
wow. I had no idea!
Posted by: Tara R | May 31, 2008 6:04 PM
Thanks so much for posting this! Our 4-yr-old is a leftie and mirror writes, and I've been trying to come up with a way to help her. Her dad is a leftie, too, and his wrist was taped as a child...not really the right thing to do anymore, lol. I've forwarded this to her teacher as well, and will pass it on to her next teacher as well.
Posted by: Moira | June 1, 2008 12:36 PM
Thanks for this. My eldest is a leftie. Lucky for me my husband can use either hand so I haven't had to worry about it, but it's still good to know.
Posted by: Dawm | June 1, 2008 2:16 PM
Interesting. Out of five kids I have three lefties, I can use every piece of good information on the subject I can get.
Posted by: chris | June 1, 2008 6:18 PM
You are so right. :):):) Both of my boys are left handed and my girl in the middle is right handed.
Posted by: Stephanie | June 1, 2008 9:11 PM
I struggled as a leftie until I got a great teacher in 4th grade who took the time to teach me and several other lefties how to write properly.
She actually had little gizmos to put on our pencils to "train" our hands in the right position. It was so wonderful to be able to write without smudging everything!
Later on, an interest in calligraphy really improved my handwriting, as again I was forced to write without "hooking" my arm to avoid smudging my painstaking lettering.
Posted by: Margaret | June 2, 2008 7:51 AM
I liked the site's information about desk discrimination in schools. I have suffered greatly trying to take notes at wrong-handed desks, but I never realized that they could also slow down lefthanders during timed tests enough to affect test results.
Posted by: peggy | June 4, 2008 4:52 PM
