These are basic things such as:

• Sitting a left-handed child on the left side of writing areas so they do not bump elbows with the child next to them
• Demonstrating a correct writing grip and encouraging an effective writing position
• Having left-handed scissors available and know how to use them.
• Understanding that left-handers will form some letters in a different direction to right-handers.

Unfortunately, we know from the huge amount of correspondence we get as well as responses to our surveys and comments on our website that these things do not happen as a matter of course.  Often it is only when the teacher is left-handed or the parents of the left-handed child really push for changes that the left-handed children get the proper advice and help they need.

Understanding the needs of left-handed children and how to help them is supp0sed to be a part of the Teacher Training Curriculum in the UK, but it seems to get little attention in practice.

We are very keen to raise awareness of this issue and to encourage teacher training organisations around the world to actually DO the small things that will make a lot of difference.  We are going to use this year’s International Left Handers Day on 13th August 2012 as a platform to get publicity about it in print, radio, TV and online media around the world.

The starting point is to pull together information on what is currently happening around the world and then to create an action plan that we can push to have included in all teacher training courses and be distributed to all teachers, and we need YOUR help!

If you have any knowledge or expertise in this area or would be willing to do a bit of research in your country we would love to hear what you can find out.  We will bring it all together on this web site and keep you informed of progress and further work we need to do.  We are also keen to hear about your personal experiences and those of your children.

We are particularly interested in younger children as it their early school years that can make a big difference, but we are going to include education right through to university / college level.

So, if you can help with any of the following, please add your thoughts and links to any information you can find as comments to this post (preferred method as others can then share it as well), or contact Keith Milsom direct on this page:
Contact Keith about teacher training on left-handed children.

• Teacher training guidelines and course content relating to left-handed children
• Checklists or notes given to teachers about helping left-handed children
• Any research or surveys on left-handed children in school
• Your own personal experiences or those of your children – good and bad!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Customer email

Hi,
Thank you for your email requesting some product reviews. I have one general feedback comment which is that your products do not come in cursive script. My son’s school begin by teaching cursive writing believing it is generally neater and easier (I have to agree). I have overwritten the writing guide that I bought with a pen, so that all the small letters begin at the bottom. Having done this, I have to say that it seems easier for children and particularly left handers to grasp letter formation as all the letters begin in the same place. I realise though that you may not have enough demand for these.
It wasn’t too much of a problem to change the guide (although a cursive version would be nice), but the skills pad is more problematic as my son wants to form the letters the same way that they appear in the pad. A cursive version would be wonderful!
Finally, I would like to say that I am slightly disappointed with the finish of the guide. I thought it would be more like the plastic dinner mats that children have which are a bit more robust for regular use. I have taken one into school and advised them to laminate it, which they have done, to improve its durability.
I hope my feedback is useful.
Regards, Amanda
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Reply from Keith

Hi Amanda

Thanks you for your comments and taking the time to let me know about it.

As schools differ widely in their teaching approaches (and also around the world), we didn’t go for a cursive style on the mat so it was more widely useful.  However our guides on Left Handed Writing Skills all use letter formation that progresses into cursive writing to have the appropriate hooks and endings.  The third book in the series uses cursive script.

Left handed writing Skills Book 1 – Fabulous Fine Motor Skills
Left handed writing Skills Book 2 – Funky Formation And Flow
Left handed writing Skills Book 3 – Successful Smudge Free Writing

Regarding the quality of the mats, we always have a trade-off between production quality and weight for posting against the cost of the product and we try to get a balance where we can provide a usable product at a low price.

That said, next time we produce these I will look at the cost of a heavier duty version, but we would no doubt have to sell it at a higher price.

I hope that helps.
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If you have any thoughts or further information on these topics – please add a comment below.

These playing cards have the number on all four corners so that everyone can play!

Click here to order left-handed playing cards (available with blue or red backs)

They are also available as a higher quality card with two packs in a gold coloured storage box – box of two sets of left handed playing cards

Here is our video demonstrating the problem

We had an email recently from Andrew that got us thinking:

The Wall Street Journal ran a nice article on this recently that we thought you may fine interesting and have some thoughts on. It covers, among other things:

* Dyslexia, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD
* Babies born to older mothers and with stress in the womb
* IQ and thinking methods
and references to some interesting studies

Use this link to see the article (link removed – see below)

(sorry, but it seems the WSJ changed the status of this article some time after we linked to it so that you cannot see it all without opening a free account on their site, BUT – you can still see the whole article if you go to it via a search request)

Search for “The Health Risks of Being Left-Handed” in Google or your favourite search engineand you should see a link to the article on online.wsj.com/ near the top

or click this link to go straight to the search results in Google

Please add your comments or any further information on the topics covered in this article below.

We like to think that we make decisions based on our ideas of right and wrong — and we do, to an extent. But according to recent research, our choices may also be influenced by something as simple as whether we’re right or left handed.
That’s because right-handed people are more drawn to things on the right side of a screen or page, while left-handed people look to the left. Cognitive scientist Daniel Casasanto of The New School for Social Research says it’s part of the “body-specificity hypothesis” — the idea that our physical bodies affect the decisions we make and the way we communicate with one another.

Click here to read the full story

and please add any thoughts you have on this as comments below.

1. Barack Obama – US President
2. Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft
3. Benjamin Netanyahu – Prime Minister of Israel
4. Oprah Winfrey – TV personality and media owner
5. Hugo Chavez – President of Venezuela
6. Michael Bloomberg – New York Mayor
7. Fidel Castro – President of Cuba (up to 2008)
8. Bill Clinton – past US President
9. David Cameron – UK Prime Minister
10. Felipe Calderon – President of Mexico

What do you think of this list? If you have any other left-handers you think have been missed out please add them as a comment below.

• Bart Simpson, Ned Flanders and Mr Burns from The Simpsons (and, occasionally, Marge)
• (The show’s creator, Matt Groening, is himself left-handed)
• Chuckie from Rugrats
• Link – the sword-wielding hero from The Legend of Zelda
• Chris Griffin from Family Guy
• Doug Funnie from Doug
• Arnold from Hey Arnold!and if we include puppets as well:
• Kermit the Frog from The Muppets
  (a creation of the late Jim Henson, also left-handed)
• Bear in the Big Blue House

We are sure you know many more examples and if you do please add them as a comment to this article below and if you can put a link to a page where there is a picture of them being left-handed that would be great and we will build up our list.

What is it that makes the artist or animator draw a left-handed character? We would be very interested in your thoughts:

Is it because the artist is left-handed?

Are there more left handed cartoon artists than you would expect from the 10% or so of left-handers in the population?

Is there anything special about animation that makes a left handed character easier to draw than the right handed ones?

Is it because when a cartoonist is drawing them he draws their writing hand on the same side as his writing hand (his right, their left)?

Are there deliberate reasons for making some characters left-handed – to seem a bit “quirky” or rebellious (Bart?)

Left handed puppets are interesting. The Big Blue Bear is left-handed on the show; he seems to do most things with his left hand. This is because the head controls are important and a right-handed puppeer’s right hand is busy moving the head and mouth and has to do other things with their left hand. In a similar fashion, a lot of Muppets are left-handed, because their puppeteers are right-handed, so the right hand is almost always used to operate the puppet’s head.

What about left-handed puppeteer’s – is it really hard to do as the puppets are designed for right-handed use?

We would also be interested in inks to cartoons about being left-handed. Here is one page we found (though not particularly funny!)
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/l/left_handed.asp
Here are a few more – I am sure we can find funnier cartoons than these?
http://www.shereebradfordlea.com/coollinks.html

Please post your views on this and any other left-handed characters you can find as comments below

Hello Keith and Lauren,

I’ll just mention an argument I got into last week with a left-handed theme.

I was sending something at our local Post Office by special delivery.   I had to sign a slip to confirm my name and address in case of problems delivering the package.   The pen for signing was on the right-hand side of the counter on a short chain.   As it would have meant twisting into an awkward position, I used my own pen.   The lady behind the counter said “Why not use our pen?”.   I said “Because it’s on the wrong side of the counter for me, it’s discriminating against left-handers”.  

The sub-postmaster now joined in and said “You’re talking rubbish”.   I said “I’m not talking rubbish, it’s awkward for a left-hander to write with the pen on the right-hand side, and don’t speak to a customer like that”.   He said “I’m left-handed and it doesn’t bother me”.   He of course is on the other side of the counter and wouldn’t have a chained pen to use.   He started to raise his voice and I said “Right, I’m going to make a complaint to your superiors, what’s your name?”.   He said “It’s on the front of the counter” in a supercilious voice.   I could see “Chris” in tiny letters which I could just about read, not in an obvious position.   He then said “What’s your name?”.   I gave my full name and said “I don’t mind anybody knowing my name, what’s YOUR surname?”.   He wouldn’t give it!   The lady now said “I think you’d better go, you’re upsetting the other customers”.    None of the other customers looked upset.

When I got home I sent off an email to Royal Mail to say I had been spoken to rudely by one of their staff and made a suggestion that pens are placed in a better position for left-handers.   We’ll see what happens.

Best wishes, David Dawber.

Quite apart from the bad attitude and rudeness of the Post Office staff member, we think this is an outrageous story!    Our thanks to David for taking the time to share and standing up for us lefthanders and if you have had similar experiences please let us know by leaving a comment below.

CWL, Customer Services Dept, PO Box 187,
Leeds, LS7, 1EF, United Kingdom.
Your invoice from Anything Left Handed that we include with your watch when it is sent will act as a valid receipt for the purposes of the guarantee.

Click here to see our range of backwards watches

This is a scan of the guarantee leaflet included with each watch:
(please note that this is for watches only and does not apply to the backwards clock from Tobar)

Click here to see our range of backwards watches

www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk

Last order date for UK delivery is:
07.00 UK time on Monday 19th December 2011

We will keep despatching orders right up to Friday 23
December and some orders placed soon after the official last
dates may still reach you in time but we cannot be sure.

Don’t forget to get your lefthanders diary for 2012:
(full details, pictures and videos on the product pages)

Block calendar 2012 with a tear-off sheet for each day
http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/block_calendar.html

Spiral bound 2012 desk diary
http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/desk_and_engagement_diary.html