How left-handed children learn to write
Although we want to deny it, our mentality considers that left-handed children They are a problem and you have to promote the right being while on time. But what is really enhanced is the bad lateralization, which would create a real problem.
Is it bad to be left-handed?
From the point of view of the person, definitely not. Left-handed children have as many possibilities to develop as right-handed children. And being left-handed is a characteristic genetics, is not the result of a bad learning. For this reason, it is common to find families with more than one southpaw among their members, for example.
However, left-handed children have certain characteristics that should be observed and that if not addressed can be a source of problems. Given the possibility that a child is left-handed, a concern arises. This is because we continue to admit that left-handed people have a series of problems of their own, such as writing. And really this is true, it is not an old-fashioned topic that we have not been able to undo, it is a fact.
It is true that before it was something that had to be corrected and changed necessarily, but now, although there is not so much insistence on a change of laterality, it remains a special situation fundamentally for two reasons.
1. Because really the way of being left-handers and to fit and conceive the world is very different, their brain organization is different.
2. Because society is not completely sensitive to this peculiarity. It is seen in the absence of information for both educators and parents and, also, psychological barriers, furniture or school material, which do not fit.
It is true that the normal thing is to be right-handed, and that is why society is prepared and organized for this; do not be shocked. But the fact that our son is left-handed must force us to reflect.
The problems of left-handed children with writing
Left-handers are really exposed to many more learning problems than right-handers. The left-handed child may or may not present problems for reading but always has them in his writing. You just have to look at how they write. These children have to perform a series of movements to adjust to the normal writing from left to right, since its natural tendency in a horizontal plane is from right to left. The drawback is that instead of pulling the pencil have to push it. They also have no vision of what they are writing because they cover it with their own hand. And that is why his works may appear blurred.
One way to avoid this problem is for the child to write with his / her hand in the form of a "hook" that consists of placing the hand on the paper and curving the arm so that the pencil is dragged like the right-handers do. In any case, a left-handed child writes slower for these two reasons indicated and it is also easy to tend to turn the letters, as if writing in a mirror.
If above is a trained left-handed, the motor incoordination will be greater since it will be forced to use the side that does not dominate.
Learning to write with the left hand
How to help them? At school, if teachers are aware that problems with laterality exist, then they are more understanding and will favor a better adjustment of the child in their global environment.
On the other hand, educators should know that each left-handed person needs an individual solution because each child has his own difficulties and his particular motor system. It is not easy to start from this premise because you do not usually have time to stop at a particular, but the attention to the specific child is the guarantee of an adequate development.
Parents and teachers must be born observers and provide an environment that allows the child to take their potential. Allow your nature to be expressed in your times, not in ours, and remember that it is not a disorder. It is very subtle to pretend to direct its development: we must observe it and not guide it based on our project.
Marisol Nuevo Espín
