February 3, 2006 6:43 PM
Parenting Q & A -What About Lefties?
Donna wrote:
I've asked everyone this question, then it dawned on me that you would know! My son is 3.4 years old and absolutely cannot decide if he wants to be left-handed or right-handed. It's so funny. Sometimes he will start off writing with his right hand, then switch to his left hand to cut paper. Or if I put his spoon horizontally above his plate, sometimes he will eat with his left or his right hand.I never encourage him to use one hand over the other. I am getting kind of worried because someone told me that if he was actually left=brained but used his right hand, he would develop learning disabilities. I'm more inclined to just lay back and watch what happens but am kind of worried that he will never master one or the other if I don't encourage one hand or the other. What should I do? By the way, I have 7 children and they are all right handed. How in the world do you teach a lefty? Do you do anything different? .
I had never had a lefty of my own, but when I wrote Ready, Set, Read, in covered writing skills, I wanted to address this issue - so I went to the source: lefties themselves.
This is the resulting appendix in the book:
Lefties Need a Little More Thought
As a right-handed parent of right-handed children (although my little Jesse is showing signs of preferring his left hand, as did his birth mother), I had not much considered the issues of left-handed children before Ready, Set, Read! In trying to anticipate all the challenges a parent might face, I wanted to pass on as much as I could for parents of lefties.
When my library research turned up nothing to pass on, I went to the Internet, found the newsgroup for lefties (alt.lefthanders) and asked the real experts – lefties themselves (some 10-13% of the population) – for input. I received many replies, some detailing real horror stories of what they had endured as children because of adults intent on changing their left-handed orientation. These included physical punishment as well as humiliation and isolation within the classroom. These stories, coupled with the fact that these children still grew up to be left-handed adults certainly offer convincing evidence that God did indeed make some people left-handed.
So, if you have encouraged your child to grasp with his right hand by handing him rattles and spoons toward his right, yet he still consistently prefers his left, don't fight it. Accept the fact that you have a lefty. If you are left-handed yourself, though will already know much about how to teach him, you may still benefit from some of the following suggestions. If you are right-handed, you will definitely need a crash course in translating the learning-to-write process for your child.
To teach a lefty, a left-handed parent should sit to the right and model the left-handed position. Many on the Internet felt that their own right-handed parents and teachers had been most effective when seated across from them in a mirror position. One man said that in spite of many lessons at shoe tying he never "got it" until he happened to come into the room when his mother was tying her own shoes. Fascinated, he watched (as in the mirror position), then was finally able to repeat the process on his own shoes.
The best writing position for a lefty would be the reverse of that for a right-handed person: the paper should be tilted to the right, with the bottom right hand corner angled toward the chest. Encourage your child to hold the pencil so that his hand is not curving up over the top (although some lefties do this, many resist this tendency to avoid smearing their writing). The immediate problem then becomes how to anchor the paper. Since we write left to right, if the right hand anchors the paper on the right side, it will be in the way of the writing. The solution seems to be to bring the right arm over the top of the paper and anchor the top left corner with the right hand. (See illustration .)
But there is more involved to complicate the writing process for lefties: our letters are really formed with a left-to-right orientation. None of the online lefties who responded were completely happy with their handwriting. Some had opted for printing, especially all capitals.
In teaching left-handed children to write, avoid holding a standard for them that they cannot achieve. Avoid clinging rigidly to the "correct" letter formation process – it may just be too difficult for a left-handed child to write a certain letter the way we teach it. For example, insisting that t's be crossed from left to right creates more difficulty for a left-handed child. This is one area where the results – consistently readable handwriting and hopefully enjoyment of the writing process – are more important than the details of the process.
I was also advised by lefties to ask parents to advocate for their left-handed children when they go to school: three ring binders are out for lefties. Spiral notebooks are as well, unless the teacher can agree to let them write on the back of the pages as though they were the front.
Since Ready, Set, Read was published, Jesse's ambidexterity has resolved itself. However, Justin, our youngest and also adopted, has been firmly left-handed from the get-go. If you aim something at his right hand, he takes it with his left. So with him, I am having to walk-the-walk - that is, rethinking everything.
Bottom line is this: Observe your child very carefully - using manipulatives like pegboards and puzzles with knobs to see if either hand appears more capable. If neither is clearly the dominant hand and as long as your child shows no preference, I'd encourage the right hand. But if he does better with the left and prefers it, then you just have to add a few more responsibilities to being a mom :)
Any readers with experience - as lefties or mothers of lefties - we need to hear from you!
Posted in Homeschooling, Toddlers | Permalink
Comments
My father is left-handed and he was the parent who taught me how to write so even though I was right-handed, I wrote like I was left-handed for awhile(like the illustration in your blog). It took me years to correct myself so I can sympathize with lefties being taught by righties! My two boys are too young for me to know yet what preference they will have but I appreciate this info on how to tackle left-handedness if that occurs! BTW, you mentioned pegboards...are there any in particular you recommend? I'm having a hard time finding any. Thanks!
Posted by: Laurie | February 3, 2006 8:02 PM
Barbara,
I am a leftie, the mother of 2 lefties (10 yr. old boy and 3 yr. old girl) and former teacher (I now stay home with my 4 kiddos). I have learned to adapt in our right-handed world and my son is doing the same. I can cut with both hands (actually, I prefer to cut right-handed) because left-handed scissors were not always available. I also learned to eat with both hands to avoid hitting elbows with righties sitting next to me. My mom never made an issue out of my left-handedness so I was fortunate.
One thing to consider is that it does take lefties a little longer to complete work sometimes. Pushing their pencil across the paper requires more effort than pulling it like righties do. This is especially true when they are just learning to write and their fine motor skills are developing. I can remember getting frustrated when I was in elementary school because it seemed that I was always one of the last to finish my work. It was years later in my college training that I learned why it took me so long - I had to work a little harder! Not a lot of teachers realize that it takes lefties longer so this might need to be brought to their attention.
I hope this helps!
Kendra
Posted by: Kendra | February 3, 2006 8:05 PM
I was a right handed child raised by two left handed parents. In my case, because of the military life style my mother had to teach me cursive (we moved coasts at the wrong time...) She taught herself to write with her right hand to teach me to write with mine. Sometimes I write like a lefty when I get tired.
The thing was my brother (also a righty) and I learned to adapt to a left handed world (The reverse of what happens to most people). My parents were given such grief about their manual inclination as children that they reveled in being able to set the world of their home to their standards. Did you know that refrigerator doors can be reversed? We had no right handed scissors at my house and my brother and I can (though in my house I do not) eat left handed to maintain unbumped elbows at the table. When my parents divorced they again chose left handed partners, so the situation promptly doubled! In my Dad's case, both his parents were right handed but he and his brother were left. Luckily, my brother and I adapted (like our mother had, we became very good at using both hands for everything) and are both accutely aware of how difficult the situation can be for anyone to be on the different side of the people we are learning from.
Now as a teacher I make sure I get left handed desks in my high school English Classrooms. I recomend my College Prep students flip their notebooks when they take class notes (most are surprised by the idea, but like it) so that they will be more effecient in college classes. But mostly I try to remember that we are all so very unique and that Left Handed people in my life are almost always my favorites (Did I mention that my brother married a lefty and so far I have only dated men that were lefties... though not intentionally)!
Posted by: Sandy | February 3, 2006 9:30 PM
Your son may be what is called abidextrious(not sure if I spelled that right). But it means he is basically both handed. My grandfather and my uncle were all their lives, and I wsa also until I broke my arm when I was 8 and had to use only my right hand for a couple months, so I ended up being right handed, but I can still use both hands fairly efficiently.My parents did nothing to encourage a specific hand, but they had 2 right handed, 1 lefty and myself who used both equally.
Posted by: melanie | February 4, 2006 12:01 PM
