Are you raising a "leftie"?

[MissyJ]

Are you a parent of a left-handed child? We'd love to hear from you!

What have you found to be the greatest challenges for you as a parent of a leftie?

Share your tips on the following (or your concerns to allow other "leftie" parents to respond!):

1. Teaching skills -- like writing, tying shoes


2. Building self-confidence: Do my best to insure that my child feels good about being left handed


3. Providing left-handed tools and an environment friendly to a child who is left-handed


4. Realizing the special challenges and frustrations my pre-verbal left-handed child may face

Thanks in advance! Feel free to add additional questions / comments!

~Missy (missyj@pregnancy.org)

[shellyk8]

I have 4 out of 8 left handed children. My husband is left handed....not a big deal. Honestly I have not even thought about it a bit! There has been no issues....no difference at all.

[~HollyBear~]

I have one lefty and 2 right so far (and my dh is lefty). My dd is my lefty and she so far isn't really any different to teach to do things than my boys. I have only noticed a few things with he as a lefty--she tends to still write a few letters backwards and its almost like it is just easier for her because those letters just "flow" better for a righty. The other thing is that I have to have good scissors for her because cheapies just don't cut well for her, but they are not hard to find, just have to make sure she has good ones at school and at home. She'll be in 1st grade in the fall.

And as for the "pre-verbal" question, it was never really an issue--I suspected she was a lefty by the time she was 10 months, knew it for sure by 15 but at 18 months she was speaking in very clear sentences so she could always communicate frustrations well--and she had a lot of signs she knew too, done with left hand.

[Minx_Kristi]

As far as I know, DD is a righty.

I do have family members though who are lefties so it could be possible.

No big deal though, right?

xx

[pickles07]

DS is a righty. DD I'm starting to suspect she may be a lefty. No big deal to me. My DH on the other hand is a bit freaked out by it for some reason. He needs to get over himself!

[AshG]

My almost 4 year old son is left handed. We haven't really thought too much of it. He never had a problem with it when he was younger. On the contrary he actually is an excellent thrower and excels in sports but for us the difficulties showed up when we started trying to learn to write and draw shapes. He still finds it tough and I have a tough time helping him because he does things the opposite way of a righty. I'm pretty sure its so he can see what he's writing. I'm sure he'll get the hang of it eventually.

[mw7_7]

DS1 favors his right hand in many things. I am not sure about DS2 since he is only 2 months old DH and I are both left handed.

[Andy1784]

I'm pretty ambidexterous, though I favor my right. I can write and draw with both sides without being awkward. DS is a righty too, but he can draw pretty much anything he can with his right with his left too. I am trying to encourage the use of both because I think it is kind of useful.

[laurensmitty1982]

My dh is a lefty and we know that we have one righty so far. The other two are still very little.. I think the biggest struggle that we have and its pretty darn petty is that we have to figure out which side of the table to sit on so we are not bumping elbows..

[ShermanElroy]

My 6 year old DD is a leftie, as am I. It was obvious very early on that she was favouring her left hand. She also is on the autism spectrum (PDD-NOS) so it is hard to say how much of her difficulties with things such as handwriting or using scissors is from her being left-handed or a symptom of her ASD (motor skill issues).