# Left Handed?



## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

I'm pretty sure my two year old is left handed. My mother is left handed and so is my cousin, but I'm right handed and so is my husband. We aren't doing "real" school yet (for a few years) but we do a lot of coloring and crafts that require hand eye coordination. She really likes for me to hold her hand and help her write her name. Should I be doing anything differently because she is using her left hand? 

I'm sure this sounds absolutely ridiculous. I feel very silly just asking. I don't want to teach her to use her right hand instead. I just want to make sure I'm not going to mess her up by showing her how to do things the way that I do them myself. I don't want to doom her to a lifetime of illegible handwriting.

Kayleigh


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

My Dad is left handed. In the days when he went to school, there were still a lot if ignorant beliefs about why people were left-handed. His teachers used to beat him for using his left hand -- until my Grandad went in and set them straight. Dad is one of the few left-handed people of that generation that I know.

My son is ambidextrous. Both my DH and I are right-handed. Simply show her how to hold her writing instruments properly (i.e., the mirror image of how you do with your right hand) and let her get on with it. I did encourage MORE writing with my son, but that as merely me being fussy 

She'll figure it out so long as you present her with plenty of opportunities to use her new-found skills.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

I write left handed, just teach her to write properly - you can hold a mirror up to your hand so that she can see exactly the way she should hold it - I was fortunate to have a teacher do that for me as a child AFTER my father informed her she was not to force me to write right-handed. Just make sure she holds her arm & hands as a mirror image of writing right-handed. I've met many left handers who hold their pens/pencils improperly. The one big drawback of writing left handed is that you tend to smudge the ink or pencil as your hand moves over it if you rest your hand on the paper, so I've learned to hold mine slightly above the paper and write.

All of my children write right handed, although I have one that probably could have learned either way. I showed them how to hold the pencil, and only one needed the mirror in order to copy it.

Dawn


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## mtc (Dec 23, 2005)

I'm left handed. Having said that, there are some things I do right handed just because the people who taught me were doing it that way and it was easier than transposing. Whatever you do, don't force the issue. Just let your kidlet do what works best for her and be supportive.


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## Shagbarkmtcatle (Nov 1, 2004)

I'm the only left-handed one in my family of eight. I write mirror opposite of a right-handed person. I do not sprawl my arm across the page in the awkward looking way a lot of leftys do.

That being said, I don't remember how I learned to write.So I suggest that you just pick up the pencil in your right hand and she will pick it up in her left and try to copy you. It doesn't matter that you are using your right hand. She will use her left if that is what comes natural to her. I even taught myself to crochet using my left by watching a righty use her right. You just naturally transpose it without thinking about it. The only thing I can do with my right hand is iron and that's because the ironing board was always set up for right handed people of course.

I had four children and 1 dh and wouldn't you know it, I'm still the only lefty in the family. All of my children are rightys and I taught them how to write. They just picked up the pencil or crayon in their right hand and followed along as I wrote with my left.


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## jer (Sep 2, 2003)

I had one left-handed granddaughter, now 16, and we always put her silverware, pencils, crayons, etc. down in the center and let her choose which hand to use. She never made up her mind until age 3 to 4. We did not want to encourage any hand. We did the same with the next three grandchildren and they are all right-handed.


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## maps1350 (Jun 29, 2009)

With four kids close together, at age two-three, we just give them crayons and paper and let them at it. By the time they are three, we know which hand they are. One lefty, three righties. I'm left handed, but growing up in a right handed world (even the little pocket in your jeans is on the right side), you learn to do most other things right handed, or with both. I'd mess around and bat right handed for the first few innings, and then switch. Didn't matter to me, either way. lol I'm the teacher in this household and I have three right handed children.......I didn't use a mirror, I showed them what I was doing, and made minor adjustments as needed (I also hold my hand "normally"...althogh until this thread, I didn't know there were people who didn't lol). If I need to help them hold it...I just did...it's sorta opposite, but not that big of a deal IMO. 

I will also add that writing isn't the biggest issue...try teaching shooting. You see, I"m left handed, shoot right handed, and I'm right eye dominant. My rights are right eyed. My left is left eyed. Both my brothers are right handed, left eye dominant. How exactly do you teach that? lol

April


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## whiskeylivewire (May 27, 2009)

I'm left handed, neither of my parents or either side grandparents are. I don't think they did anything special with me lol. Then there is DD8...she doesn't know what handed she is. She says if she gets tired of writing with one hand, she just switches to the other!


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

******* said:


> I'm pretty sure my two year old is left handed. My mother is left handed and so is my cousin, but I'm right handed and so is my husband. We aren't doing "real" school yet (for a few years) but we do a lot of coloring and crafts that require hand eye coordination. She really likes for me to hold her hand and help her write her name. Should I be doing anything differently because she is using her left hand?
> 
> I'm sure this sounds absolutely ridiculous. I feel very silly just asking. I don't want to teach her to use her right hand instead. I just want to make sure I'm not going to mess her up by showing her how to do things the way that I do them myself. I don't want to doom her to a lifetime of illegible handwriting.
> 
> Kayleigh


Both of my kids were ambidextrous until they were around three. A lot of kids are. They'd prefer one hand for a while, then they'd switch.
But, if they're nearly four or five, you might want to encourage them to pick a hand and stick with it, at least if they're going to go to public school.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I am ambidextrous.

I think any teaching is fine as long as you do not try to FORCE her. I never minded people showing me whatever WHEN ever, it never even bothered my when they put the tools in my right hand. 

What DID bother me was when they tried to INSIST that I use my right hand.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

An early childhood teacher, Terri, it's been my experience that kids who haven't made a preference for one hand or another have a _lot_ of trouble with learning handwriting.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Handwriting was easy for me.

Handwriting that was regular and easy to read, though.........

I was forced to use my right hand for many things, but it made no difference. Not to my handwriting and not to my sense of direction, which is poor because once in a while I remember a mirror image instead of how things really are. 

Making me use one hand never changed that, though. My sense of direction is as bad now as it was then: I have just learned to cope with it. 

My handwriting IS better, though. Every year it got just a little bit better: by the time I was in high school anybody could read it.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

> Handwriting was easy for me.


And you used _both_ hands to do it?


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

ErinP said:


> And you used _both_ hands to do it?


No, never. I have always written with my right hand, excepting the time I wanted to see if I COULD write with my left.....just to see if I could do it.

But, I would be stopped and be told to use the scissors in my right hand, to carry my books in my right hand, to use the paste brush in my right hand, and so forth. It made me feel picked on.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I guess that's not at all what I meant. 

I just meant that if a child is writing with both hands, they need to find one or the other and stick with it. 
If they're cutting with both hands, they need to pick one or the other and stick with it. Etc.

Good friend of mine is left-handed, but she bats right handed and sews with her right hand, though she crochets with her left. The point is just that if you're going to learn a skill, you need to practice it with the same hand (whichever you choose) to continue to improve...


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Terri said:


> No, never. I have always written with my right hand, excepting the time I wanted to see if I COULD write with my left.....just to see if I could do it.
> 
> But, I would be stopped and be told to use the scissors in my right hand, to carry my books in my right hand, to use the paste brush in my right hand, and so forth. It made me feel picked on.


That is so funny! I have never heard anybody (besides me) say that before! I was the exact same way! I always wrote with my right hand, but did everything else with either the left or the right hand... which ever worked at the time. My kids are like that too. Huh... go figure... Hey, at least we now know we are not the only ones ! L!

Cindyc.

PS *******... at 2, just give them the things they want to color with and let them just experience it. At that age, that is all they need. Don't worry so much.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

ErinP said:


> I guess that's not at all what I meant.
> 
> I just meant that if a child is writing with both hands, they need to find one or the other and stick with it.
> If they're cutting with both hands, they need to pick one or the other and stick with it. Etc.
> ...


I suppose that is the theory. As an adult, I find it a great convenince to be able to do things with whatever hand happens to be empty. 

I DO use my right hand for very fine work, now. like removing a splinter or sewing.


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## Step (Aug 4, 2005)

I'm also left-handed and do most everything as a lefty, including making a 'check-mark'. I am comfortable using my right hand, but when it comes to detail work.. it's done with my left hand. 

I never wrote upside down like many lefty's do.. so smudging the paper was never an issue. Right handed people write with the paper slanted to the right! Left-handed people 'should' write with the paper slanted to the left. If lefty's did this, their left hand rests comfortably on the paper moving down as words are written on the page, same as righties, except the paper is facing left instead of right. 

Years ago, being a lefty was more of an issue with things like scissors, carrot peelers and the like. Today, most things are designed for either/or. And there are products made specifically for lefties, including cups that normally have picture/flower/design facing a right handed person.


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## Shagbarkmtcatle (Nov 1, 2004)

?? 
Most people say the're left handed but do this and that with their right hand. WHy don't they say, they're right handed but do this and that with their left? Are they really left if they also use their right or are they really right but they sometimes use their left?

I do everything left handed but just got used to ironing right but can iron left if I feel like it. But I kick left footed and am left eyed dominant. It seems that most people who claim to be left handed actually can do alot of things right handed. Do any right handed people do things with their left hands?


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## jmtinmi (Feb 25, 2009)

Abeka teaches cursive starting in kindergarten. I used the system with my left handed boy and he is now in third grade. In my opinion, he is doing really well! I was really nervous to teach a left hander, but A Beka really addresses all the correct ways to do this.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I started writing with my right hand but learned how to write with my left so I could teach my younger brother and sister how to properly write left handed. Both always got good grades in hand writing. I use which ever hand is empty except for certain things which are set up only for the right hand (mainly scissors and can openers). For the majority of my writing I use my right but only because that is the way the world is set up. At work I use my left hand to write because things are set up that way. The only thing I do exclusively with my right is using a sharp knife and crocheting. That is mainly because I just never learned to do it left handed. I shoot right handed with my rifle because the shell casing pops out on the left side, it's no fun to be hit in the face with an empty shell casing.

ETA, let the child pick which hand they want to use. Even people who use both hands to write eventually get it worked out and have legible handwriting. Keyboarding is easier to learn if you can use both hands.


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## dezeeuwgoats (Jan 12, 2006)

I am left handed, left leg, left eye dominant. My mom is too. My great grandmother was also. The only thing I do right handed is crochet and that is because I could only find a right handed teacher. However, my mind kind of 'turns off' when I do it. I don't know how to describe it.

My oldest son is ambidextrious - but writes with his left and eats with his left. He is right eye dominant and and right leg dominant. He plays guitar right handed but he says it is because it is easier to to get the fingering with his left hand!

I also have two right handed sons. One can use either eye to shoot and he is an excellent shot. He usually does the kill when we butcher and has dropped the animal, first shot, each time. 

I really wouldn't worry about it. Let the child use whatever is natural and go from there. I use Spalding method to teach writing also. It is pretty detailed so it helps with all the 'little things'.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

im lefty also and its a right hand world! Im not that old and even when I was a kid people still thought you could force a lefty right. its good your aware of it. working in construction my boss's would always start me working left to right wich is really unnatural being left handed working right to left is far more productive though as rightys they didnt realize that. some tools are only right handed, some come either way and some are just that way naturaly think hammer ,though depending on the angle of the swing it may bennefit using either hand.
what Im saying is we leftys are a minority so it would behove you to encourage using the right hand also notice I said encourage not force. she vary well may be amidextrous at the least she may be able to develop more use in it for some things. as far as showing her how to do stuff it might be a little hard at fist but she will catch on how to take your right hand approch and make it fit her left hand need. although I do like the mirror idea wish someone had done that for me when I was a kid may help her conceptualize the idea easier.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

I was forced to be right handed. I guess if you get smacked enough times you could learn to eat with your feet. My left eye is dominant and when I shoot a pistol I hold it in my right hand and sight with my left eye. Probably not an ideal situation. I think it was an advantage when I was young in hitting a softball and golf ball, but I could be wrong.

Nomad


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## backachersfarm (Jun 14, 2005)

I'm left handed also. They attempted to change me when I started school, but Mom told them to leave me alone. ...bless her heart. My fourth grade teacher was the one who encouraged me to hold my hand at a comfortable angle and not worry about the right handed slant. The worst problem I had was the sissor thing. No pair is for both hands. I could never cut things well and didn't understand why. You have to do more then round off the handles to make them work for either hand.....they are engineered differently. As an adult I finally bought myself a pair of lefthanded sissors. I was at a workshop once and someone asked me if they could borrow my sissors. Not thinking I said yes. When she came back and told me they didn't cut well I noticed which hand she had them in. Finally after yrs and yrs of hearing this...I got to tell someone right handed.."You've got them in the wrong hand stupid"....lol

Sharon


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