SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Our DS is a lefty. Is it normal for lefties to have horrible writing? Seems to me that I remember hearing that writing is taught from the the right-hand perspective and lefties just have a really hard time understanding it.

Anyone aware of this? If so, does anyone have some good recommendations for us to help out our DS?

Hmmmm...well I always got a "C" in writing in grade school.

I don't know if that was because I'm left handed or I just have crappy handwriting.

One of the difficulties lefties have is that their hand tends to move over what they've just written...thereby smudging it as they write. I have this problem to this day, especially when writing with pencil.

That's the reason why lefties have a significant curvature of their hand (or wrap around) style when they write: So they can see what they've just written.

Also...most lefties hold their paper on the desk pointed in the opposite direction as does a right handed person. Not so me. Apparently I picked up the style of the right handed person teaching me (as is often the case in many things being taught to a lefty by a righty). I guess they didn't visualize why I would need to tilt my paper opposite to them. This made the smudging thing ever more pronounced.

I do 99% of things as a typical left handed person would do. Some exceptions: aforementioned writing style, cutting my steak and batting (these highly influenced by the fact that a right handed person taught me).

I would say....let him do what comes naturally to him and what feels comfortable. You may find he mixes it up. But don't force it one way or the other.

[This message edited by Kuwaited at 1:41 PM, September 6th (Monday)]

He holds the paper relatively square to the desk and he doesn't seem to have that strong of a wrap-around.

Oh, I was going to mention some other things in regards to letting him do what comes naturally.

He likes to bat righty, but he always misses. The few times I have "forced" him to try batting lefty, he actually connects. He still prefers trying righty though, even though he misses.

He seems to prefer kicking the soccer ball with his right foot.

He throws lefty, and would be a good pitcher if he would actually look at his target on the follow-thru.

His lefty golf swing is great.

He eats lefty too.

We tend to let him do what he wants, what is comfortable, but there has to be a way to work on improving his handwriting without making him feel totally abnormal.

I am a lefty and I write like a "righty." That is I don't have the crook. But a lefty pushes the pencil instead of pulling it. This tends to create more pressure on the writing utensil. More broken pencil tips, torn paper, etc. And when we get frustrated we grip harder and push harder and the problem worsens.

Also your child is a boy. Most boys have atrocious handwriting for many many years. Some it gets better, some not so much. My own son who is a righty has only recently evolved into legible writing at 9. I just left him alone. I encouraged neatness, I did not reward sloppy. I especially noticed that sloppy occurred when he was in a hurry or didn't particularly care for the assignment.

With most kids, not making too much of it is the best idea. Good luck!

My oldest daughter and my 2 oldest nephews are all lefties. I wouldn't say their penmanship is any worse than right-handed people, but like Kuwaited said, often their handwriting is smeared because of what he described.

I don't know about my nephews, but my DD can't use a knife or scissors with nearly the ease all the righties I know can. But she's not starving and I still get wrapped gifts from her on holidays! She manages.

He likes to bat righty, but he always misses. The few times I have "forced" him to try batting lefty, he actually connects. He still prefers trying righty though, even though he misses.

You know, I play tennis or racketball left handed (and bat right handed as I said...and if I golfed it would likely be right handed). I have found in playing tennis/rackeball...I have a very powerful backhand (more so than forehand). I've always thought maybe that's why I tend to bat better right handed (...effectively backhanding the ball ). It's a learned thing, I guess.

The wrap around thing would be more pronounced if he tilted the paper to the right (as a lot of southpaws do). Mine tends to be more to the left..although I still wrap it around a bit.

there has to be a way to work on improving his handwriting without making him feel totally abnormal.

If there is...I couldn't tell you. Of course...to me it's not abnormal.

I write nothing like I did when I was a kid (worse, probably). I mix cursive and printing and uppercase and lowercase in one sentence.

I guess I wouldn't be too awfully concerned about his handwriting. He'll come into his own at some point. My handwriting is certainly not the best. But I don't honestly think it has anything to do with which hand I use. I find myself having to decipher other people's handwriting quite frequently during the day...and I work with mostly right handed people.

Interesting responses!

I must be an abnormal leftie!

I have always had beautiful printing and handwriting. In fact, back in '59 I won the Penmanship Award in grade three!

I am the only one of a family of six children who is left handed. Back in the '50s, most schools enforced changing lefties to right-handed students. My parents refused to allow this.

I think lefties are really fortunate: steering wheels and typewriters were made for us!

Top Ten Advantages to Being Left-Handed

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/667071/top_ten_advantages_of_being_lefthanded_pg2.html?cat=7

Half my dads family is left handed...literally (grandma, one aunt, one uncle; grandpa, my dad, my other aunt righties).

My sister is a left.

My bother can use both but just uses the right.

A large amount of people out here in west/central jersey and across the bridge are lefties.

I could not read my grandmother's handwriting to save my life. I had to have my aunt translate.

My aunt and uncle had somewhat sloppy writing but not so bad.

Sis, better.

Most of the people I know out here have beautiful penmanship.

I recently met a man who turned the paper north to south to write (not the normal east to west), but his penmanship was good.

In the past teachers used to push the kids to write with their right and so their writing skills lacked. My sister (who is 38 had her hand smacked in kindergarden by the teacher and it was the only time my mother threatened bodily harm on anyone).

Today, there isn't quite the stigma.

In today's times, it just the individual. Ive seen righties who have some of the worst penmanship Ive ever seen in my life.

There are complaints that its hard to use objects (like scizzors) that are not made for lefties, but they adapt.

I heard there is even a Left handed store to purchase such items.

I was born in 1961.

If there was any bias exhibited during my early school days I don't remember it. In fact...I can't say I recall being taught how to write.

I do remember the "C's", though. The only ones I got in grade school.

So far as I know....I'm the only one in the family.

...... (like scizzors) that are not made for lefties, but they adapt.

That would be me. I could never use the so-called "left handed scissors" in school. I had "adapted" earlier by using right handed scissors with my left hand. To hell with them, I say!!!

GWADW and my youngest boy are lefties.

As far as I could tell, none of them could write legiblt till they were aboout 10ish. My DS does the most lovely calligraphy - because someone tolld him left handers can't "do" that.

I heard all the "it takes longer 'cause I use my left hand" enough that I taught myself to print and write in semi-legible script lefty as well.

With GWADW, the "sloppy" comes from flat out not wanting to do any more. She likes math, her math is always neat. Spelling is a pain, it's never legible.

She needs a break between, and to swithch between stuff she likes and stuff she hates.

Our sons writing has improved, at least in math. I don't think he feels any pressure directly associated with being lefty. Coaches usually ask up front, even the soccer coaches.

To be fair to DS, my writing is crappy. I even have trouble reading my own notes at times, so I am not so much worried about the quality. I thought someone might now a secret lefty writing method.

I'm left handed and have very nice penmanship in spite of Sr. Elizabeth Francis and her ruler!

I was born in 62 and am the only lefty in my family. My father, and both grandmothers were left handed, but changed to right. They all had nice penmanship, but one grandmother was quite handicapped by it. She had difficulty with small, precise tasks with her right hand.

But I don't have that lefty crook when writing, but tend to have my paper perpendicular and write bottom to top, if that makes sense. I still tend to smudge quite a bit. I find writing in note books or check books difficult because it seems like the wire binding is always in the way.

As a child, I tended to transpose letters, for example the letters "b" and "d" I could never keep straight or I would put the stick on the wrong side of the "p" or "a". I remember the teacher telling my mother this is common for left handed kids.

I use scissors, knives and knit right handed, as well, but I think this is the result of being taught being taught by a right handed person. I've often pick up scissors with my left hand, but I can't get them to work, but it feels right. I also bat right handed, because my brothers wouldn't pitch to me as a lefty. But, I throw left handed which is problematic because I really can only catch left handed. In essence, anything that requires precision, I have to do with my left hand.

I can play tennis with both hands, and I have a killer backhand, in which I hold right hand out front. I'm very strong on my left side.

I don't golf, but I can't imagine any other way but left primarily because the ball is small.

As a nurse, I can put any tube in any orifice with my right hand except IV's. I can only do that with my left hand.

I agree that you should let your son do what comes naturally-he'll figure it out.

I am a lefty and 2 out of 3 of my dd's are lefties.

Ask your son to make a smiley face.....watch in which direction he draws the circle for the head, which eye he makes first and which direction he makes his smile, left to right or right to left?! Then you do it too. You will soon see which way their brain is focused, true lefty or righty?

I could never use scissors either, my handwriting was/is terrible and has a back slant.

Bothe of my lefty dd's would start at the right side of the page and write their name completely backwards, starting from right to left. Like a mirror image.

One has terrible hand writing and the other is very very neat. Go figure.

Learning to to their shoes....I just had their dad (righty) do it and they copied while in front of him, mirror image.

The world is truly not made for lefties. Soup ladels (with the spout)....for righties, may many other things which I just can't think of at the moment, but you get the idea.

ss

I used to have really good penmanship, then I hit college. I remember early on that my slant was backwards. I ended up tilting the page to compensate for it so it would appear with the correct slant so I wouldn't get deducted for incorrect writing.

Boy...never create an opening for left handed people.

The world is truly not made for lefties.

This is very true. But it's funny...at 48 I'm still finding there are things that are designed for right handed people and are very difficult for a lefty to use....and I suddenly realize why I find it so difficult to use the damned thing.

The most recent among these is serrated knives. Turns out the majority of the serrated knives are manufactured such that they work most efficiently with the right hand. For some reason…I managed to deal with it for years. Until one day I was cutting up some potatoes and thought to myself: Why is this so freaking hard????

I ended up buying non-serrated knives (a reasonably good set)…and wow!!!. What a difference!!! I have since discovered that even some non-serrated knives are biased toward the right handed person (having to do with the bevel and/or handle).

As a nurse, I can put any tube in any orifice with my right hand except IV's. I can only do that with my left hand.

Damn!!! And there’s something else to worry about. There are some "orifices" I'd want my nurse to have extreme precision navigating!

[This message edited by Kuwaited at 8:47 AM, September 7th (Tuesday)]

Not only left-handed, but left-sided. Left eye better, kick left-footed. Do very little with the right side of my body. Handwriting was good until I developed a little tremor in my hand...now it is shit and I type everything on the computer. Even have a "checkless" checking account.

I figured out scissors....just buy a pair with the handle openings the same size...otherwise I have to turn them over and use them upsidedown. But I like the the serrated knife comment from Kuwaited....I never figured out before why I don't like serrated knives.

I had a high school teacher that went out of her way to find one of the 3 left-handed desks my school had...and then I discovered I didn't know how to use it, I was so used to sitting sideways to write on the right-handed ones. But had to use it all year so I wouldn't hurt her feelings.

Have lots of lefties in family and friends....and we are all different in degree of left-handedness. As with most other lefties have learned to adapt, have purchased some lefthanded items ie, scissors and such and discovered couldn't use them very well.

Just remember...only lefthanded people are in their right minds...

I learned how to write right handed then when I went to 1st grade they didn't have any left hand desks so I switched without missing a beat...

I'm predominately left handed (pitched, batted, bowled, tennis) but I learned to play gold left handed then a pro I took lessons from switched me to right handed because I could hit the ball a lot farther by pulling my left side through the ball.

What's weird is that with an hour or so of practice my writing looks exactly the same right or left handed...

WB

There are many things to look at with respect to handwriting.

Starting with fine motor: What if you switched to a fatter writing instrument? Is his grip cramped? Can he do other fine motor manipulation with no problems, such as using scissors, molding play doh, etc.?

With respect to gross motor: more pitching and batting helps. So does fencing. Sometimes cramped writing comes from not being able to control the humerus very well, it's not always the fingers.

Writing in a binder is a big pain as a lefty. I find any form of binder to be a nuisance. It wasn't until I was in 20's, that I finally figured out to just take paper out. You watch all the right handed people writing in their binders just fine, so I never realized that that's a task I just can't do. Also, have you seen some of the school desks. The writing surface is as small as a notebook, but the arm support is on the right side.

If your son prefers to use his right hand for certain things, just let him. I think only 3% of the left handed population are truly 100% left handed.

We haven't tried a different sized utensil yet and I guess I never thought to have him just take the paper out of the binder before.

He is only in fifth grade, so the desks are all just rectangular, not right or left.