Writing backwards

We have a white board in our dinning room that is often covered with DH's math scrawls, but the girls draw on it too.
On Sunday I noticed that Bianca was writing numbers. She was writing from right to left and all the odd numbers were mirror image and all the even numbers the right way. She went on like this from 1 to 9. I pointed it out to DH and he thought it was cool and said not everyone can do that. But it's not like she was doing it intentionally. And it made me a little uncomfortable. (yes, even non-comformist me would rather her kids wrote left to right and not in mirror image) She'll be 5 in September. I'm posting this here as it seems more likely that someone may have gone through this than in the 2-4 forum. Especially the teachers. I know it's normal for kids to make some of the letters/numbers backwards when they are learning. But the fact it was only the odd numbers sort of gave me the creeps!
Oh and she was writing with her right hand. I had thought earlier she was going to be left handed--she did have her hand "hooked" like a lot of lefties do.
Is it too early to worry about some sort of problem?

 

Don't worry, it is perfectly normal for Kindergarteners and even 1st graders to write numbers forwards, backwards, and any which way. At your girls' age, the kids don't have directionality with writing as a skill yet, so they write in any which way. As they have more exposure to formal writing, they will most likely not have any problems.

This is also one reason why dyslexia isn't diagnosed until 3rd grade. You need to wait to find out if the reversals are "normal" or problematic for their age.

 

I asked the teacher the same question as jessica does this too both backwards and forwards and totally normal for their age group. Jessica is left handed and if she starts from the right side of the page she actually writes her whole name backwards and so if u looked in a mirror it would be forward (kinda cool), if she starts on the left she does it the right way, most of the time.

 

I am a mirror imaged twin and both of us write forward and backward. We are almost 30 years old! Our family finds it very amusing and say it's because we share half a brain!

 

Timothy is a lefty (like me) and he tends to make numbers backwards more than Sarah the righty does. Sarah actually did the hook thing with her hand even though she is a righty. I'm guessing it's because I'm left-handed, and she was trying to make her pencil come at the paper like I do as a lefty. Timothy has never done it. I think it's because he just copies me, so he doesn't have the normal problems that most lefties will with hand positions.

If you truly think that she might be a lefty, find a left-handed person to spend some time with her. And make sure she know's it's alright. Timothy still took some convincing that it was ok to be left-handed (dh is right-handed and he wants to be like daddy). I got grandma involved helping Sarah with being right-handed.

Something that is helping Timothy, is the had a day to visit and spend in kindergarten classrooms. The teachers sent home a chart with how they are going to teach writing of numbers and letters. Timothy likes having that chart in front of him whenever he writes with the arrows of how to make the letters and numbers.

Marissa

 

OMGosh, I could have written this post! My DD is soon to be 5 and has written her name backwards a few times. I was always wondering if it was normal or something to be concerned about. She too is a leftie. I'm happy to hear that it's normal. I will keep an eye on it though.

 

Another "vote" for normal. The other thing my professor said in a class I was taking last semester is that kids like to play with their letters/numbers at that age. She may have been creating a pattern for fun: first letter one way, the next mirror, etc. It reminds me of when kids stutter: their minds are working faster than their mouths: maybe this is an example of her mind working just a bit faster than her hand: she gets most of it right, but not all.

My 5 year old niece was just here last weekend and I was watching her copy some text her mom had written for her. Most of the letters were right way round, but a lot of the time, they would get transposed during the transcription.

I still wonder if Sam is left-handed. I helped in his class with art, and I'd notice him pick up and use his brush in his left hand 1/2 the time, but he insists on writing with his right hand, and it's noticeably less legible than his brothers.

 

Well I'm glad to know she's not a freak!

I like the idea of a left handed person helping her, but I'm not sure if I can find one around here! It's been only in the last generation that the local schools haven't forced kids to write with their right hand.
We do tell her over and over again that it's okay to use either hand and sometimes ask her to try to use her left. She originally had a hard time with the mouse and was always left clicking instead of right. For a while we would change the settings for her, but she adapted to using her right hand for the mouse and also started eating with her right hand more and more (originally she ate with her left)--so I'm not sure which hand she is yet.
(Their hair whorls do go in opposite direction, so we were expecting one to be left handed, maybe we were seeing left-handedness where it didn't exsist?)

 

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