Advice and demonstrations on writing left handed for parents and teachers of left handed children. Left handed pens and writing aids. Writing left-handed guide. Simple techniques for improving handwriting.
As a left hander, sitting at a dinner table with a right-handed person to my left is infinitely more difficult than writing. As a child, my teachers forced left-handers to either use their right hand or to use the "hook" position - mostly because the teachers insisted that all the papers had to be slanted in one direction to allegedly prevent cheating. The first time my mother saw me writing using the hooked position and I was crying because it hurt, she asked why I was doing it. When I explained the teacher said I had to, she jumped in the car, went straight down to the school, demanded to see the teacher in the principal's office. In front of the principal she announced that if I was forced to write in an unnatural way,. then ALL the kids - and the teachers - had to as well. When the teacher objected, my mother threatened not only a lawsuit but media involvement. I never again had to write that way. The upshot? The principal took the matter to the school board, and all left-handers were allowed to write as natural as they pleased. Sometimes it only takes one voice to act as a catalyst.
Neat but I'm hung up on the slant of the writing in one direction allegedly prevents cheating......How? wouldn't the opposite be true because it may be harder for some to read the writing since they're not use to it slanting in that direction and may confuse select letters and words for others.
@@MichelleLM88 ~ You are absolutely correct. I didn't understand the reasoning either. If I was writing anything on my paper, both people on each side of me would have their papers slanted toward the left, mine always to the right. If anything, the person to my left would be able to copy from ME.
Props to your mom! I'm a lefty who for reasons I don't remember still write using the hook position until now.. I remember my dad taught me how to hold the pen correctly (tripod grip), and he kept correcting my posture and height of table etc. But I guess time spent at school with me writing in the hook position without anyone correcting me was far more than time spent writing at home, which is why I developed a habit of writing in the hook position to this day.. Teachers need to take a note! For me, I used to write like that at school not only because I felt it was more comfortable, but because many teachers made me sit to the right of a right handed person which made both of us uncomfortable! The most shocking part was when I grew up and we had to do exams on single seat desks.. anddd they where all for RIGHT HANDED STUDENTS!! I got so happy when I found a left handed desk in the examination hall, just to realize that I write in the "hook" position, and even left handed desks won't benefit me. So I adjusted myself on a right handed desk, and started cursing the whole generation of teachers who didn't teach me to write correctly or didn't correct me when they saw me writing the wrong way..
@@prothonotar ~ It was after school. I was home doing homework. Some of the teachers hadn't left for the day yet and the principal was still there as well. In my house, doing homework immediately after coming home and sitting at the dining room table to do it was mandatory. When she was angry, my mother didn't believe in waiting to go off on somebody.
+Hero's Shade Friends, my name is Niteesh, I live in India. I’m now 17 and as a child, I wondered, why I can’t play Cricket in the way others do, with right hand at bottom and why I can’t throw ball with my Right hand, but, with left hand. I used to ask my Mom about this, for which, I never got the expected answer. I write with my left hand today. Just a couple of days ago, when I forced her to tell about my handedness, I came to know that, I used to write with my left hand as a child and doing everything with Left hand. My Grandma changed my writing hand to right hand, forcibly, calling writing in left hand as a bad luck. Now, I want to gain my identity as a complete Left hander. I do everything with my left hand, but, write with my right hand. Is it good to start writing with my original dominant hand? From where shall i start? Please suggest me. Please send me a reply to my mail id, niteesh342692@gmail.com.
I'm 40 years old and I finally learned why my hand cramps up so much when writing. I've always used the hook technique. Taking notes on my tablet with a stylus has been very difficult, so much so that I was considering training myself to write right handed. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! I'm 35 and I just found out that I was writing wrong my whole life. My teachers back in my country, will force me to put my notepad straight. I write hook, with a tight grip, and sometimes I smudge my writing. Oh! let's not forget the horrible handwriting I have. I guess it's never too late to learn a new technique. I will practice this.
Angle the paper about 15 defrees clockwise. We are for more capable than right handed people since we have learned to perform a huge number of actions with our right hands, sadly we still live in a world of discrimination. Berghaus place the pocket on the left hand side of a jacket, convenient for right handed people but virtually impossible for those who are left handed. I sent a complaint in to them, just hope they take heed of their dreadful misdemeanor. if anything we lefties have the "upper" hand! I play the piano, paint peoples' portraits, do landscapes and am a maths teacher.
Finally, a video that perfectly explains why I've always had difficulty writing as a lefty. I've always been told that I have good handwriting but there are times where I'm critical about the way I write
Being a leftie is the worst when it comes to essay writing. I don't know how much stress I have got from writing illegibly during revision and during exam. And it is so hard to improve your handwriting!
Because of the hand smuge problem, I taught myself to write completely sideways ( up to down) and this works perfectly! I write with a staight ( uncurled) left hand and just have to turn my notebook clockwize). Attracts some attention but is the only solution I’ve found that works flawlessly and no more spending money on special pens ✒️🤚🏼👍🏼
Left handers are...... different. My favorite story is about my then 5 year old son. I came home and found a piece of paper on the dining room table with his name written very faintly on a piece of thin paper. It looked somewhat odd due to the very light line. I picked it up, turned it over and saw he had written his name backwards on the front and I was looking at the back
I am left handed but was forced to write with my right hand as a child. So i never learnt to write with my dominant hand. Now I am teaching myself to write with my left hand. I can so relate to the kids in this video.
I decided to watch this video, after bruising the life out of my pinky by writing for over an hour using the left hand hook style, and my hand hurtung. I was like, 'Ok... after years of writing like this and hurting my hand, it's now time to learn a better way.' Man, my little left pinky hurts. : (
We left handed individuals are oppressed in a right handed monorchy!!!! Edit: every video I've seen fails to acknowledge the bane of left handers..three ringed binders. WHY?!
Start from the back of any kind of binder/notebook and write on the "back" side of the sheet. This puts the arm on the left of the notebook & the rings to the right.
What I usually do is remove the papers from the binder (about 3 to 5 pages) and write without the obstruction of the rings. Sure it is a bit of a hassle but no obstructions for me.
I'm left-handed, and almost 20 and I just now thought of watching a video of writing "properly". I always adapted my writing to fixing a problem, like smudges. I write mainly with pencils and I hold my pencil like in the video but tilted so the eraser part of the pencil leaned to the right a little. and my hand is consistently below the writing line so smudging isn't a problem. It get a little awkward writing at the end of a page, though.
This video has touched my heart. I learned how to deal with being a lefty. Everything from my first couple of years from school makes perfect sense now. This video should have more views.
As someone who is learning how to learn with his left hand, thank you so much! This video was exactly what I needed, and the techniques clicked with me so well that I can actually write something that's not ugly relatively comfortably.
In 7th grade penmanship I was told to make my handwriting look like that of one who is right handed. Always have turned writing page with top at my left. Fine pointed pens dry faster so the left-handed writer doesn't have ink smears on the side of their left hand. Can't tell you the constant compliments about my beautiful handwriting style. Thank you for your personal comments about lefties. Life is about adaptation.
I searched for this technique as it may solve one of my greatest problems, especially i had my both hands with allergies. I forced myself to write through left, trying to achieve the letter M but my trials are not as perfect as expected. I used my right, through focus and determination i might able to work even i had my skin allergy on my hands. Now, i learned something: Believing to something will make you achieve it more
While I agree with most of what's been presented here, I have to disagree with the pen grip that's been shown here. The normal tripod grip is not the best grip for left handers, especially with the normal straight edge pens and pencils. The proof of this is in the practice. Essentially, with this grip on a normal pen, you are either sacrificing finger comfort for pen stability or sacrificing legibility for endurance. Thus, it can only be used for show, not for writing long periods. Therefore, in addition to the posture suggested here, I believe the following two adjustments are needed for legible and enduring left handed writing. 1) A pen with an hourglass shaped grip, and best if the grip is rubbery. A external pen or pencil grip can also be helpful, but only if it is similar to an hourglass shape. Contrary to belief, this part is not used to teach you how to grip. It is used to help prevent your fingers from sliding down the pen, and that's precisely the reason for the hourglass shape. (A right hander pulls the pen during writing, and thus a normal straight edge pen will do fine.) 2) An "open" tripod grip works the best for the left hand (in my experience). In contrast to the normal "closed" tripod where all three fingers coincide on the same ring around the pen, an "open" tripod is where your fingers are slightly apart and not sat on the same ring. In this grip, the thumb is slightly higher than the index finger, which is slightly higher than the middle finger. The grip clinches the pen into your hand so that it does not wiggle easily during writing (the same is not true for a normal tripod grip, and a right hander does not have worry about this because the pen rests on the hand during pulling and the extra firm contact to the hand prevents it from wiggling). Also in contrast, you will be pushing the pen mainly with your middle finger and guiding it with your index finger and thumb (as opposed to pulling the pen with your thumb and index finger and guiding it with your middle finger in a normal right handed tripod grip). In addition, a normal tripod done with the left hand will cause too much temptation to push with all three fingers and not enough fine motor contol on the letter details, which will in turn cause a big drop in legibility. This slight "open" tripod modification will not decrease the range of motion of the pen. It will, however, provide slightly finer control of the pen and may prove to be less stressful than the normal tripod grip in long writing sessions. I hope these tips will help some fellow left handers.
I write with my left, and have always naturally used the tripod grip shown in the video. Teachers never caught on that I was a left-writer (i am naturally cross dominant preferring different hands for different activities) so I was able to find my own natural grip and style. I can write and draw for hours.
I was born left handed, but have never written in that 'hook' way. I was in a meeting at work recently and all three of us in the meeting were left handers. And even more interesting, we all wrote in a similar style.
This was brilliant. I made all of the mistakes in the video, but I learned how to write the correct way under my own steam. But I was probably about 18 when I eventually did it, no training, etc.. In my early years, I spent many hours in Friday detention ("detto") at my Grammar School in north-east England in the 1970s LOL! Brings it all back! I now use a fountain pen for all my (non-computer) writing. I remember when I was about 10 my Great-Aunt was mortified that I was a "sinister" - she was, too, but she got it hammered out of her as a child in a rural school in the Highlands of Scotland - "We'll have no Catholics here..." she used to say.
I used to love to visit the store when it existed in London, my mother also bought a book on how to teach lefthanded children to write. As such I’ve never developed hooked hand. These are great tips and there are far more resources out there for us lefties nowadays
I'm an elementary teacher. I make it a point to show my left handed students how to write comfortably. I was born right handed but wanted to be ambidextrous. I saved this video many years ago. Now I'm a teacher and I am able to help my left handed students in ways most teachers aren't able. I also teach cursive so it's especially important that the students learn to tilt their paper for better cursive. Our curriculum comes with differentiation for left handed students and even a separate set of paper because the cursive letters are writtne in "backslant". I instruct all of my students during cursive to tilt their paper away from their pencil. This works for both lefties and righties.
im left handed, also. i always used my left for everything when i young but i throw a ball with my right. i used to do write mirror style,too. very unique that im left handed.
I remember when I was in Kindergarten up to grade 2 , they tried to force me to use my right hand because I also wrote from the right side of the page. I learned how to right with both hands, when my left was tired I would just switch, except I would start from the right side of the page, with my right hand, and left side of the page with my left hand. It drove my teachers crazy, they even got my parents to make me switch at home. My parents told them, "if he wants to use his left he'll use it, if he wants to use both hands he can." Eventually they threatened to hold me back, even though the work was correct. Ultimately they came to a compromise, and I continued to write with my left hand. Just to throw it out their, I also went on to skip grade 5, and was transferred for a time, to an enrichment class.
I am left handed an turn the copy to the right. I can't write making the copy straight. I have to bend it to right. If your bend the copy to right bend your hand too and wriye. BAM!! Your done. I can write easily with this method
I can write with my both hands since 3rd grade, I also saw the challenges described in this video but I hadn’t no one to help me to understand how to fix my left writing. I never stopped writing with my left but when I was 19 I started to mirror writing.
I found this style of writing by myself intuitively as soon as I learned how to write. Even though I know I didn't create a new writing technique, I have never seen another left handed in real life who writes like this. To this day people who see me writing for the first time are left in awe and think I'm crazy lmao
As a lefthander when I was learning cursive & penmenship in the 50's my teacher would hit my left hand hard with a ruler, turn my paper and force me to hold the pencil in my right hand. I told my dad after just a few days and he came to school with me and straight to the principal's office. From that day forward i could use my left hand but was relegated to the back left corner desk and the teacher stood in front of my desk so she couldn't see me. I am so so glad that being left handed is no longer a stigma.
I have a left handed child in a right handed family. I am trying to teach him to write properly but his writing has to be different then writing right handed ( which I didn't know). I am homeschooling and didn't realise until this year grade 3. This video is important for our lefty's.
I remember, when I was a child I used to mark ✓ sign in mirror image 😊. Always sat on corner side of bench in school and college days. 😥 I am special, I am left hander.
Thank you so much!❤️Love this video and it's very helpful for me.It's really a struggle to write as I am used to this hook style and this should be a bit difficult to change my style still I hope it would become easy for me later on.
You can be a left handed if you want. Well, not exactly a left handed, but ambidextrous. Watching this video helped me a lot. That tip about using only the thumb, the indicator and the middle fingers. Wow! I write like this on my right hand but on my left I was all clumsy and awkward and I used to try to use all the 5 finger in my hand. As it's said this way you get more tired and you don't have full control of the pen. Awesome.
+Dino Saur If you get it from www.cultpens.com/i/q/SB01193/stabilo-easy-original-handwriting-pen it comes extremely quick, and the ink on the stabilo pen drys instantly now too! Thank you so much for introducing me to this pen, it helped a lot!
Last week at work at the age of 32 i really payed attentions to someone write left handed and i was amazed at how he was even able to see and how frustrating it is to push instead of pull words.
I’m 28 and just watching this now haha, I find it so hard to write in the way this video recommends. My method is more of a hook style where my hand goes over the writing but I find it easier and my writing is neater whereas with the recommended method I can’t write well. I might order that book so I can practice 😂😂
another good pen for lefties is the EnerGel liquid gel ink pen by Pentel. it has a nice grip and the ink dry time is super fast. it doesn't smudge or print back onto your hand. and is pretty cheat- you can find them at wal-mart. i didn't find these pens until i started college. in high school the side of my hand always looked bruised from the ink printing back into my hand!
I'm lefthanded and I got used to write 'hook' with my arm. It wasn't such a problem and nobody told me it's wrong. But now I'd like to learn calligrapgy and write letters with the proper stroke direction is impossible without scratching the paper. So I'm learning to write all over again the right way - nib pointing away.
I'm 29 now and I've been writing with the grip shown at 0:45 since I started writing with a pen in elementary school. They say lefties are about 10% of the population but for some reason I was usually the only lefty in my class. I really wish somebody around me had given me some advice or helped me with my handwriting along the way, or at the very least that my teachers hadn't insisted that I write with my page inside a 3-ring binder, or having me sit to the right of right-handed classmates. I remember timidly trying to explain that writing in a binder was nearly impossible for me and getting nowhere. Now I would like to begin learning calligraphy, but first I need to re-teach myself how to hold a pencil and write 😅
Thanks a lot for uploading this. I'm left-handed and write using cursive. It kills my wrist and fingers. I've tried your method, and although my writing slants a lot to the left now, it's much neater and uniform, and my wrist and the rest of me has stopped hurting. Thanks. :)
I"m glad I wasn't taught like that as a child, but was left (ahem) to find my own way of writing. I tilt the paper about 45 deg in the other direction (i.e. right corner higher), and hold my hand in a loose tripod grip about 180 deg opposite in position from where a right-hander holds their pen. That way I can slope my writing in the same direction as a right-hander does and use the same easy wrist swing which a right-hander uses for slanted running writing, but from the top of the writing line rather than the bottom, so I can easily see what I'm writing without my hand being at all in the way, my fingers cramped or my wrist and arm hooked. My hand rests on lines written further up the page which have already dried, so unless the ink is extremely slow-drying, there's no smudging, and I don't have to use that awkward 'fingers in and out' movement to shape the letters which you and others demonstrate.
+Lachlan Baird-MacKenzie Friends, my name is Niteesh, I live in India. I’m now 17 and as a child, I wondered, why I can’t play Cricket in the way others do, with right hand at bottom and why I can’t throw ball with my Right hand, but, with left hand. I used to ask my Mom about this, for which, I never got the expected answer. I write with my left hand today. Just a couple of days ago, when I forced her to tell about my handedness, I came to know that, I used to write with my left hand as a child and doing everything with Left hand. My Grandma changed my writing hand to right hand, forcibly, calling writing in left hand as a bad luck. Now, I want to gain my identity as a complete Left hander. I do everything with my left hand, but, write with my right hand. Is it good to start writing with my original dominant hand? From where shall i start? Please suggest me. Please send me a reply to my mail id, niteesh342692@gmail.com. I desperately need your help. Looking for your help, Niteesh.
I've started welding with my left hand. And using my left foot. I've slowly begun to use left more. It really is a right hand world . Writing is a bit of a struggle for lefty
I write with my left hand and do everything else with my right, like using scissors or throwing. Strangely enough, I hated sitting on the left seat of a car when I was a child. It just felt wrong and made me feel uncomfortable..
Just so you know, right handed persons: It doesen't hurt! We write exactly like you, but with the other hand! And actually it is really fun to be left handed, you're special'😂 and when it comes to ink smuges it is actually cool! Pne time I had a gliter pen, and those beautiful marker colors, gues what happened, I got a gliter rainbow!!! It was sooo beautiful!
As I child I started out writing with my left hand and then my mom trained me to write with my right hand and I've been writing with my right hand ever since.
Oy.. I can relate to this. The biggest problem I have is after writing for a while, the side of my middle finger gets almost bruised and like flat. Hurts a lot too. I'm very proud to be a lefty.. I just wish sometimes I could switch to my right hand and give the left a break. :P
i was born lefty and used my left hand everyday. until i went into kindergarden and saw everybody writing with there left hand and i didnt feel normal(lol) now im learning how to write with my left hand again!!!!!
Like a left handed..i write in my left hand when my right hand was injured..now I use my left hand long time ago.. I was amazed when I wrote in my left hand is more beautiful than my right hand.. written..
I write very comfortably and with a beautiful script, and have done so since childhood (always getting an A in penmanship). I use a tri-finger relaxed hold, but naturally find myself what you call a hook position with my hand arching above the line I'm writing so as not to smudge as well as to be able to see what I've written and where I'm going. I hold my page tilted with the right side slightly up. If I were to tilt my page with the left side up it would result in a script that slants left!
LeftHandersClub I’m naturally right handed but about 18 months ago I practiced doing 1 handed texting with my LEFT hand when I was sat on the sofa incase I dropped my phone & now I always use my left hand even when I’m walking around but still can handle it just as good with my right hand, I've also started picking up my cup of tea & drinks with my left hand, one weird thing is I've ALWAYS held my Knife & Fork the left handed way round & until my mid teens I wore my watch the left handed way round but I created a challenge for myself to see how long I could go wearing it the right handed way round but EVENTUALLY I got so used to it that I always wear it the right handed way round now but it doesn’t feel weird on the original arm I wore it on, actually I might try wearing it on the original arm I wore it on, I’ve even been practicing writing with my left hand, first I practiced the full alphabet in lower case & capitals & now I’ve began practicing writing sentences in joined up writing with my left hand & it’s getting neater & it doesn’t take as long as it did when I first started practicing writing with my left hand
Idk why but I’m over here dying laughing at how accurate this shit is😆I’ve been having these problems forever .😂endless hand cramps taking me forever to write essays and having to re write em cuz the words are smudged, and this is wit a pencil🤦🏾♂️
Here in America, I've never seen any of these pens, which is a pity. I discovered a Pentel EnerGel a couple of years ago and it works very well for me. The ink dries very quickly, so I almost never smudge anything and it has a rubber grip that keeps it between the fingers. I've always come up with my own solutions to problems of handwriting. I put the spirals on the right side and start from the back cover with notebooks. I have to explain this to rightys or they can't make heads or tails of my notes. I also can't write in cursive; I tried, but I could never make it work well enough to take quick notes and be able to read them later. I started writing in print and realized I needed to write faster, so I dropped the lower case letter forms, reducing the number of letter shapes from 52 to 26 letters, making the capitals twice as large. And I flat refuse to use pencils, eliminating the Curse of the Black Hand. Fun stuff.
Same, I us pentel engergel.. I get it all over my hand but the paper fares pretty well smearwise :) They great and forgiving to the push. I was never taught to write like a left hander to maximize penmanship.. Or shall we say, penpersonship, just criticized for messy illegibility and given bad grades for it in elementary school. This is too bad because I have carried the messy writing and a huge complex to this day. Also my neck, hand and shoulder can really get to hurtin'.. :) Guess it's never too late for some reframing and retraining :)
gosh I wish this stuff was available and known and understood when I was kid. I might be writing a lot better today if I had had them back then. I exhibit all the problems mentioned in this video. It is probably too late for me to change.
I am a leftie and I write without issue. I can use pens without getting any ink and I can see what I write. And I can control what handwriting to use..slanted left or straight or beautiful cursive slanted right. The tip... I always position the paper 90 degrees to my right. ☺ When writing essay I just move the paper higher to reach the bottom. Having 90 degrees paper position means you need to read vertically. Perfect for writing on blank white paper without lines, because my line height is always perfectly aligned.
His comment doesn't mean he hates being left handed. It means he likes to try things. I'm with him. I'm right handed and am trying to be left handed for a least 4 months now. I can common tasks with ease on my left hand but writing is specially hard.
I'm 19 and a lefty, so it turns out I had an extra bone piece grow in my hand just because i'd been writing in an extreme hook style my whole life. Great to know lol
My writing has a pronounced back slant as the paper is rotated clockwise. It hasn't entirely eliminated smudging, but that doesn't matter. I regard smudging as legitimate part of my writing, when I use a pen. I've also revived my ability to mirror write, since it is our natural writing as left handed writers. Mechanical 2mm pencils are my preferred writing stick, though 0.7mm mechanical pencils are my other preference, so I don't need to sharpen them. All this has largely been replaced as mainly I touch-type.
I'm originally a righty but because I was not happy with my penmanship as a righty I changed to being a lefty. my strokes are more uniformed now and pretty much happy with it. reverse writing was something new to me then and I found it amusing😄 I do not smudge my writing coz my original position as a righty is still much the same just that the grip is a bit tighter than before, the only thing that I still am not comfortable writing with my left is when standing up, seems like my right hand is not yet used how to support the paper while standing since I rarely write while standing up . my penmanship now is pretty much way better than before by the way😅
This explains so much! I always hate eating dinner at r kitchen table because my seat is by the window and when I spoon on food my arm always hits the window sill!
