The classroom struggle is very real for the left-handed child – from sharpening a pencil and smudged ink to using a mouse and writing in spiral-bound notebooks. While being a left-hander these days doesn’t come with the stigma and social pressure to change handedness as it did in previous generations, being left-handed in a right-handed world certainly still requires some adaptations.
Barak Obama, Prince William, singer PINK, Oprah Winfrey, Bart Simpson and Elsa from Frozen all have one thing in common … they’re all left-handed. It’s estimated that around 10 per cent of the world’s population is left-handed. A child may show a preference for using their left hand up until they’re four or five years old but their hand dominance isn’t set in stone until much later – some even say up to till they’re eight years old. For some children, however, their left-hand dominance is pretty obvious from early on. Many believe that handedness is passed on through the generations, however research suggests that handedness is not a simple pattern of inheritance. It is suggested that approximately 25% of children with left-handed parents will establish a left-handedness. However because the overall chance of being left-handed is relatively low most children of left-handed parents will actually establish a right-handed dominance.
My eldest daughter showed her left preference from quite a young age (with both parents being right-handed). As a young child she would kick the ball with her left foot, turn the tap on with her left hand, feed herself with her left hand, draw with her left hand, and all of her reaching and posting in the early play stage was done with her left hand. I knew that if she was left-handed she’d need adaptation and support to really develop her hand skills, that her hand-writing may take longer to establish but that she could also be an awesome tennis player! Left-handed tennis players have the ability to slice the ball away from a right-handed opponents’ racquet. Tennis champion Rafael Nadal reportedly switched to being a left-handed player – there’s a myth that his coach thought it would give him a bigger advantage on court. Left-handed people are also thought to be more creative – just look at a list of famous left-handers to get an idea of how many actors, singers, directors, painters and dancers are left-handed.
Unfortunately, being a left-hander isn’t always an advantage. There are plenty of things that are a challenge to navigate through. This is particularly the case when a child starts writing and preparing for school. So, in honour of World Left-handed Day, I thought I’d share some pointers for helping your left-handed child succeed in a right-handed orientated classroom.
1. Using pencil sharpeners
Using a typical pencil sharpener can be difficult as the left-handed child will twist the pencil to the left (rather than to the right) away from the body in the natural motion, therefore not actually sharpening the pencil at all. There are specially designed left-handed pencil sharpeners available to avoid this issue.
In New Zealand left-handed pencil sharpeners are available from various places, including Read Auckland
2. Using Scissors
It’s important for left-handed children to use left-handed scissors. Left-handed scissors have the blade orientated so that kids can see where they are cutting allowing them to cleanly cut the paper rather than folding or bending it to see where the blade is cutting. Typically left-handed scissors are green in colour to allow for easy identification.
In New Zealand left-handed pencil sharpeners are available from various places, including Office Max and Papakura Education
3. Finger spaces when writing
Children are often taught to use their finger to create the space between the words when writing, although this technique works nicely for our right-handed children, it does not work for left-handed children. This is because they will need to cross their left hand over the right hand (holding the finger space) but then the right hand is in the way of the paper therefore instead of a finger space, you now have a HAND space.
We used popsicle sticks that our daughter had decorated to replace the finger space when learning to write, this way the right hand can continue to support the paper and not get in the way of her writing.
4. Left-to-right orientation for reading and writing
The natural motion for a left-handed child is to move from the right to the left (rather than the western left to right). Therefore many children who are left-handed will require support to learn to read and write from the left margin. Some children benefit from a visual prompt to return their eye back to when reading – something like a ruler or a sticker on the left margin.
Even still at 6 1/2 our daughter will occasionally switch to writing or reading from the left to right of the page.
5. Placement of paper or exercise books
Teach your child to put their paper or exercise books to the left of their body, rather than in the middle or to the right, so they can see what they’re writing.
6. Slanting the paper for writing
Encourage your child to angle their paper or school exercise books with the left corner pointed up. By doing this their writing arm will be placed in a natural position to be able to write on the lines as they move from left to right. Some children may require a visual prompt to help with paper placement for writing. The Left Write Mat can be a great visual guide to help with this.
7. Choose a pen to reduce smudges
I recently made a very right-handed mistake – I encouraged my left-handed daughter write in a special birthday card with her gel pens! I felt so bad that I had forgotten that these pens will smudge when she writes with them, she was devastated that the birthday card was so messy, and yes I did go out and buy a new one for her to draw in!
There are however, pens that will reduce the smudge when writing. The main difference with these pens is that they are designed to be pushed along the page rather than pulled (by the right hand) and some have been designed to be quick drying therefore avoiding the smudge.
Anything Left Handed UK is a great resource to find writing materials for left-handed children.
8. Pens that allow your child to see what they are writing
When a left-handed child is writing they often struggle to see what they are writing due to the angle of their hand and the paper. This is often what results in a left-handed writer ‘hooking’ their wrist and pointing the pen toward their body. This is ergonomically a position that should be avoided. Firstly teach the left-handed child to hold the pencil slightly higher than you typically would, as this will help them see what they are writing. There have been some pens designed to allow the left-handed writer to see what they are writing while working such as the Yoropen.
These are not easily to find in NZ, but internationally they are available from Anything Left Handed UK, and Amazon.
9. Where to sit a left-handed child
To prevent your child bumping elbows with their classmates during writing suggest that they might like to sit on the left of the other students of at the left end of a row. But please ensure that there is enough space on the left side of the table to enable the child to rest their arm on it if need be.
10. Using a ruler
Many left-handed people simply adapt to using the standard ruler, however it is reported that it can be challenging and uncomfortable. When a left-handed child uses a ‘standard’ ruler their hands end up covering the number measurements. A left-handed ruler allows the child to rule from the right to left and enables them to see the numbers while they are using the ruler.
In New Zealand left-handed rulers are available from various places, including Papakura Education
11. Using a computer mouse
I know many computers are moving away from having a traditional mouse and instead having a mouse pad. However, using a standard mouse is challenging for a left-handed person as the regular ‘left click’ to select that was designed to be pressed with your strong right-handed index finger is under the weaker left-handed ring finger. As this move to make the computer more ergonomically beneficial for the majority (right-handed users) it has made it even more challenging for the left-handed user.
Unfortunately there is not a lot of left-handed adapted computer equipment, however there are left-handed computer mouse available where they have been designed for the left-hand user ergonomics.
You can also change the settings on your mouse to switch the buttons around to make the select button to be pressed by your index finger, take a look here for instructions.
12. PE Lesson adaptation for a left-handed child
My husband recently wanted to teach our daughter to putt with the golf club – this was very tricky because she wanted to hold it as a left-handed child would but she was then putting with the wrong side of the club! Left-handed golf players typically use different clubs to the right-handed players.
When teaching children to play hockey – the left-handed child will need to learn to play with a right-handed stick and ‘reverse hit’ as left-handed hocky sticks are illegal at competition level hockey due to safety concerns.
Any sport that requires a glove – such as baseball or golf – they will need a left-handed glove.
13. Getting changed for PE – especially tying their shoes
The latest left-handed task that we have encountered in our home is tying shoe laces – yes even this needs adaptation and special consideration. Left-handed children naturally tie bows for shoelaces in a different way to right-handers and that can make it very difficult for a right-handed parent to show them how to do it.
Take a look here for a guide to teaching your left handed child to tie their shoe laces:
Alternatively you could teach your child the “Ian Knot” method which does not change depending on your handedness:
I’ve covered off some of the classroom adaptations you’ll need to consider for left-handed children, but it’s important to remember that all aspects of their lives will require some level of adaptation to allow them to truly succeed. As your left-handed child grows and their experiences expand there are plenty of things to consider – like finding a left-handed desk in a lecture theatre, using a can opener when cooking, swiping an eftpos card and even doing up the fly on a pair of jeans! The good news is that with a little support there is nothing holding your left-handed child back.
If your child is challenged by completing a task with their left hand in this right-handed orientated world, Occupational Therapists are skilled at adapting a task to meet an individuals’ need. Please contact us for more information or support.