Teaching leftys

[Misse84]

We have a few children who are left-handed , and they will be attending school next year . One of the mum's asked us to help her daughters to write , since they struggle a little bit .

My director asked me to sit down with them because I am the only left handed staff there . I am happy to do that , but don't know what to do ! I struggled as a child but didn't get help from the teachers ( more like told off because of my writing )


I do not want to make them write with their right hand , but I want to show them how to write with their dominant hand .

Does anyone have any advice please ?

[fchaudari76]

Some good advice & info here
http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/kids_help.html

http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html

http://voices.yahoo.com/writing-tips-pa ... 67967.html

http://www.lefthandedchildren.org/

From what I can see it is about giving the children the correct tools (eg proper scissors for left handed people) and helping the children position their paper/pencil correctly when they write.

Just because you are left handed does not necessarily mean you are the best to help them .... sorry not saying that in a bad way but you may not have been taught in your childhood the proper way to write with your left hand and may just pass this on to the children.

I personally would look through the sites, print off relevant and useful info and give it to any persons who are coming in contact with the left handed children (parents included) so you all can adopt proper techniques & practices to help

hope this is useful and works for you

[Normy86]

Hi there!

Im an ECT and regularly have leftys in my room.....and im also left handed. I use things like slant cards....which you can find and print online. The starting point though is having correct pencil grip. Without that it is pretty hard to go anywhere!!! The above advice from fefe76 seems spot on!! Best of luck!

[LindyT]

I too am a leftie,
And I agree with Fefe that just because you are left handed doesn't mean you are an expert of teaching left handed children. But having said that you can be a great support for the children.

When I have a left handed child to work with I just ensure the pencil grip is correct and that I ensure they have left handed scissors for cutting out.

[dulciean]

Have you noticed there is a high proportion of left- handers working in the child care industry? I am one too! Is it because its a creative profession I wonder? Any other lefties here on the forum? : )

[LindyT]

Have you noticed there is a high proportion of left- handers working in the child care industry? I am one too! Is it because its a creative profession I wonder? Any other lefties here on the forum? : )

So far

Normy86
dulciean
Bubuella
LindyT

[NorthLight36]

Also a lefty by birth. A broken wrist when I was young (roller skating accident. You can't play soccer with skates on) taught me to be ambidextrous though so these days I basically use whichever hand is holding the pen.