Surprisingly there are few differences when teaching left and right-handed children to handwrite. A left-handed child needs a slightly different pencil grip, and needs to hold the pencil slightly higher up the shaft, as well as a different paper position and tilt. Some left-handed children do find handwriting challenging to start with because they naturally want to draw straight lines right to left rather than left to right.
I would recommend you try the following, if you find your left-handed writers are struggling with learning to handwriting:
- Check their pencil grip and that they are being taught at the correct developmental stage for them: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/pencil-grip-development.html For further information on how a left-handed child should hold a pencil using the tripod grip go to our pencil grip section: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/handwriting-pencil-grip.html
- Paper position and tilt is very important for a left-handed writer to ensure that the writing hand stays below the writing line: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/paper-position-for-comfortable-handwriting.html
- Use a range of Pre-handwriting patterns that help a child to practise the left to right pencil pushes and pulls they need for forming letters. These patterns help them to get used to how it feels to move the pencil left to right rather than their natural instinct to want to write right to left (I would do this before introducing a letter family). Pre-handwriting pattern animations and worksheets can be found using the following link: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/pre-handwriting-patterns.html
- Check our tips for a right-handed person teaching handwriting to a left-handed child which can be found on our handwriting teaching tips page: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/handwriting-teachers-tips.html
- Check they can cross the mid-line point, and their hand and finger strength, using our Key Strengths Assessment: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/the-four-essential-strengths.html For games to support crossing the mid-line and hand and finger strength development see our gross and fine motor skills games section: https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk/gross-and-fine-motor-skills-games.html
