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angelrue522
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Left handed question?
angelrue522
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My son is 4 yrs and in preschool now. He has always disliked coloring and writing. We recently have been working with him more and he writes with his left hand. He refuses to use his right. When he colors, he just scribbles all over and gets nothing in the lines. He tells me that he is just not good at coloring and writing.
I am wondering if anyone who has experience with their child being left handed if they were very frustrated with writing and coloring early on? DH and I are both right handed so I think its very strange to have a left handed child! He does use his right for other things. He also gets very frustrated with scissors.
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Re: Left handed question?
Your son is probably a leftie, and he should be encouraged to use his left hand, if that's the most comfortable for him. Kids can also have what's called "weak lateral dominance" which causes them to have trouble choosing a hand. Sometimes kids who have weak lateral dominance seem uncoordinated, but they can blossom into ambidextrous teens later on.
My DH and I are both right-handed, but we have one left-handed child. Both of my children struggle with fine motor coordination, and learning to write was a challenge for both. DD also has weak lateral dominance (as many lefties do.) At ages 7 and 11, neither have particularly great handwriting. Your son may dislike writing and drawing because he's a leftie who has always been encouraged to use his right. Or, he may dislike drawing and writing because he has trouble with fine motor skills. Or both.
That being said, my daughter always enjoyed drawing and coloring. My son has never been as into it. One thing I have noted is that when he draws, my son likes to draw pictures that show actions instead of objects or people. He draws mostly weather, movement, and explosions. He'll occasionally throw in an insect or a vehicle. He never draws things that typically appear in girls' drawings: people, flowers, houses, and animals. If you just look at his pictures, they often look like a lot of abstract lines and squiggles. It's not until he explains the action that you can really "get" what he was drawing.
I read an article once that said most boys draw this way. Unfortunately for little boys, most people think a "good" drawing is one that shows objects. So, little boys don't usually get a lot of positive reinforcement for their drawings early on, and this can discourage them from liking to draw.
My husband and I are both lefties (although I do more things righty than he does).
I have very nice writing and loved to color and do fine motor type things as a child.
DH's writing is nice when he tries. Usually he doesn't care and just scrawls anything down. You should see his signature.
He also enjoyed coloring as a child.
I don't think it has to do anything with what hand you write with. As a teacher I've had lefties with bad writing, righties with bad writing, lefties who love to draw, righties who hate it. I think it just depends on the child really.
At a young age it might have more to do with their fine motor control. I'd work on some things to build up those small muscles in his hands and see if that helps any.
I agree that it sounds as if he needs OT and this is not a left/right issue.
My son has delayed fine motor skills. He is a righty, but always hated art, writing, cutting, etc. He cannot write as fast as he thinks. We got him into private OT (and later school OT and extra help with handwriting) and he has made great improvements! Get him tested and start privately if you need to.
Try to get him tested / on track to receive OT as soon as he starts school. I had to PUSH and PUSH and PUSH for DS (even though he was tested and I gave the results to the school) and it took 18 months for him to receive help at school (even though his teachers kept saying how horrible and illegible his handwriting was).
I was a lefty and never hated coloring or drawing. Some things were a pain, especially sports when coaches couldn't show me how to do things, and I needed the lefty scissors, but overall I had no problems.
I would second the idea of OT. My son did private OT for a year, and it made a huge difference. His OT used the "handwriting without tears" program, and it worked well.
He has relapsed a little since he stopped seeing her, but he can keep up with the writing demands of first grade.
DH is right handed and I am left.
DD#1 is left handed and DS is right handed. Too early to tell about DD#2 and DD#3.
Both of our older two have always loved to color, draw and write. DH homeschools our kids, so he had to learn how to teach her to write/hold a pencil, but we have had no other issues.
DD#1 likes to make up stories and create her own books now. So great to see!
My son is a lefty. I don't remember him ever getting irritated with coloring but it has never been his favorite thing to do. He's 9 years old and just got out of 3rd grade, and writing is his weakest subject. I am not sure if it is because he is left handed or because he doesn't like to write period.
My husband and my brother are lefted handed, so we weren't surprised to see that my son was the same.