Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi friends,

I would like to post on something which worries me about my 5 year old son. He has left handedness and write in left hand too. However, his handwriting is very poor. Can someone help me some interesting ideas to improve his handwriting.

Hi Anu,

Great question

Normally a child is most commonly left handed if someone else in the family is left handed.

Your son's poor writing skills however is not due to the fact of being left handed. If your son is comfortable writing with his left hand then by all means let him.

When your son is at school and he is learning to write letters etc, he actually sees the letters being written in reverse because he is left handed (the teacher is most probably right handed).

When a right handed person is writing letters it may confuse him because as a left handed writer he sees it as backwards, causing his letters to be written the wrong way and his poor writing.

My solution would be is to get the person who is left handed to help your son with his writing. When he sees how the left handed person writes he will be able to write it alot better.

This takes practice and patience. Write words and letters that your son can copy and practice... don't worry his handwriting skills will improve

,
L.A.

Don't worry...there is nothing to worry about

Your child is still learning to develop his fine motor skills at his age. Fine motor skills are basically different skills to develop his muscles in his hands and fingers for example learning to tie his shoelace, learning to hold a pencil correctly, undoing and doing up buttons etc

In my opinion, it doesn't make a huge difference whether your child is right handed or left handed. All handwriting during this age is commonly poor.

However as L.A said it could take a little longer for a left handed child to develop his writing skills when being taught by a right handed person in which it's causing him to see mirror image.

As your son practices and matures over time his handwriting will improve.

In fact someone in my family is left handed and she writes beautifully

Like L.A mentioned there are little things to help your son improve with practice, such as teach him to lift his left hand up every so often so he can check if his writing is neat and his letters are right.

If you are right handed, instead of sitting next to your child when you are helping with his writing, sit across from him while doing his homework...remember he does see letters mirror image.

Try not to worry.... his development is typical for his age and as he matures his handwriting will too.

My sister is left handed and when she was your sons age her writing wasn't that great either.

Overtime her writing became much better and now she writes really well.

It's probably a good idea to get your son to practice writing some words/letters as that may help him improve his writing a little more.

Hope this helps!

thanx so much. Actually, I myself have a left handedness may be thas y he too is. I shall certainly try the tips from u guys and watch his performance and keep u guys updated. thanx 1ce again for the information.