left handed writing

The latest thing for DD1 (turned 4 this month) is writing. She can
write all letters though sometimes she flips a few. She writes all
caps. I think she figured them out while looking at them because I
didn't teach her how to write and their teachers didn't teach either.
She can't spell yet. So she asks me to spell words and she writes them
and feels very proud. She's been writing her name nonstop since
yesterday afternoon

Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
lefthanded. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

wrote in message
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The latest thing for DD1 (turned 4 this month) is writing. She can
write all letters though sometimes she flips a few. She writes all
caps. I think she figured them out while looking at them because I
didn't teach her how to write and their teachers didn't teach either.
She can't spell yet. So she asks me to spell words and she writes them
and feels very proud. She's been writing her name nonstop since
yesterday afternoon

Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
left-handed. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

By any chance is your family Jewish? Hebrew is written right-to-left.
Perhaps she picked this up in Temple.

I wouldn't worry at all. I think when she learns to read and write words,
she will pick up on the left-to-right nature of English writing.

Jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
thlink.net...

wrote in message
oups.com...
The latest thing for DD1 (turned 4 this month) is writing. She can
write all letters though sometimes she flips a few. She writes all
caps. I think she figured them out while looking at them because I
didn't teach her how to write and their teachers didn't teach either.
She can't spell yet. So she asks me to spell words and she writes them
and feels very proud. She's been writing her name nonstop since
yesterday afternoon

Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
left-handed. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

By any chance is your family Jewish? Hebrew is written right-to-left.
Perhaps she picked this up in Temple.

I wouldn't worry at all. I think when she learns to read and write words,
she will pick up on the left-to-right nature of English writing.

Jeff


It's very common among left handed kids, because they're starting on the
side of the paper closest to their writing hand. Reversals in general are
common at this age, and usually the kids stop reversing letters or words by
age 6 or so. Nothing to worry about.

wrote in message
oups.com...
The latest thing for DD1 (turned 4 this month) is writing. She can
write all letters though sometimes she flips a few. She writes all
caps. I think she figured them out while looking at them because I
didn't teach her how to write and their teachers didn't teach
either.
She can't spell yet. So she asks me to spell words and she writes
them
and feels very proud. She's been writing her name nonstop since
yesterday afternoon

Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
lefthanded. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She
starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded
plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll
figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

It's common, period. I've written before about how my daughter would
either write her name forward with the 'n' reversed, or write it
backwards with the 'n' forward. What I don't think I mentioned before
was that it mostly depended on where on the paper she began writing.
If she happened to start nearer to the left edge of the paper she
would write forwards, and if she happened to start nearer to the right
edge, she would write backwards. She is right-handed.

Bizby

Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
lefthanded. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

It's common lefties and righties I believe and not something to be
concerned about
at this age.

I would be careful about correcting her. At this age alot of what she
will write will be wrong, so it would be very demotivating to correct
all the time.

As with many other things, I'd give lots of praise and then show her
how it should be done by example, saying something like "I'm going to
show you how I write it here". If you really want to work on something
specific then saying something like "you've written your name so
nicely, shall I show you how to make it look even better?" would be
good. It really depends on your DD. If she's ultra sensitive to any
form of critisism then tread carefully, but if she's very keen to get
it exactly right then go with it.

Mary Ann

"Mary Ann" wrote in message
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...

I would be careful about correcting her. At this age alot of what she
will write will be wrong, so it would be very demotivating to correct
all the time.

In soccer coaching, I learned that 85% of what you say to the kids should be
positive and only 15% be corrective (in a positive manner of course).

I haven't these sorts of numbers for education (at home in school) but they
seem to be a good guide.

Think about the all the stupid things we do in this forum like poor speling;
inproper punctation! and badly grammer. I would not expect anyone to be
perfect, especially before they start kindergarten.

Jeff

wrote in message
oups.com...
Anyways, the thing is, she writes 50% of the time in reverse. She's
lefthanded. So if I tell her cat, she sometimes writes tac. She starts
at the far right and writes in the correct order, just that it's
reverse when you read it. I think the fact that she's lefthanded plays
a big role in it. I think since she just started writing she'll figure
it out eventually. Or should I correct her?

I would show her the correct way to write but not make a big deal about it.

Is the reverse writing common among the lefthanded kids?

My oldest daughter is left-handed, and did write backwards more than my
other two children(who are right-handed). She did eventually work it out. I
homeschool so I did correct it b/c I was the one teaching them to write!

I love when they are at your daughter's age and wanting to write everything.
I can't remember what my older two did, but my youngest is 4 now and has
been writing since she was 3. The first things she learned was her
name(BETHANY), MAMA, and I LOVE YOU. It also helps them to learn spelling.
That age is very fun!
Marie

I would be careful about correcting her. At this age alot of what she
will write will be wrong, so it would be very demotivating to correct
all the time.

you could also encourage her to read back what she has written, I think you
said she's mostly reading my word recognition, so this might not help, or it
might, particularly if you can think of some words that she knows that are
different words each direction, such as god and dog. I think instilling the
habit of rereading what you have written would be a great one to have.

Anne