There are two types of trouble a child can have with writing. In our homeschool, we’ve faced both challenges. There’s the challenge of actually getting ideas on paper and organizing thoughts: that’s the challenge most people think of when they hear someone has trouble writing. But there’s also the physical challenge of putting pen or pencil to paper and moving it across the page, of forming the words on paper. Officially, the diagnosis for these types of challenges is a disability called dysgraphia. (You can find the full list of symptoms and a more in depth description click here.) But it’s also a common difficulty in left-handed learners; the challenges are similar.
My son throughout his schooling has had these challenges. Dyslexia flips letters and numbers out of order as he reads and writes, but he also has always found it difficult to form the letters and words and write across a page. (Though his perfectionism can over-compensate in this area and allow him to write beautifully, it’s painfully tedious for him and takes a lot of time.) He’s also left-handed.
In spite of these challenges, we’ve had years where he sailed through schoolwork, with only a bump here and there. Then there are years where, for whatever reason, the challenge rears up like a multi-headed dragon and stops us in our tracks every where we turn. (Last year was one of those years.) So what do you do when these kinds of learning challenges seem to show up in every subject and halt the learning in your homeschool day?
6 Tips for Homeschooling a Left-Handed Learner (or a child with writing challenges)
There are lots of strategies, fine motor skills exercises, and writing tools to help with this. But these are the 6 tips I’ve used through the years to get us moving forward, just a few some simple products or adjustments that have really helped me with homeschooling a left-handed learner with writing challenges.
1. Purchase the special paper that helps with distinguishing lines.
One obstacle early on was finding paper that helped him to see and feel the difference in the lines and where his letters needed to touch. We tried Handwriting Without Tears, writing apps, and multiple multi-sensory activities for handwriting, working on both large and fine motor skills.
But this particular paper, when I found it, made all the difference for us. You can find it on Amazon at this link. He used this probably up till the 4th grade or so, I think. It was one of the best homeschool purchases I made, and the paper I would recommend for every early learner.
2. Try teaching cursive (or typing).
This might seem counter-intuitive, but it was actually really helpful for both my kids with dyslexia. The unique, flowing writing of cursive makes the letters more distinct and the formation is a more natural movement, which often makes cursive easier to write than print for many kids. Our favorite program was Handwriting for a Reason. My kids loved the flow of the lessons, practicing to produce a work of art at the end of the week, and often proudly gifted their handwriting sheets to others. It not only taught them beautiful handwriting, but it really grew their confidence.
Bonus Tip: introduce typing early! As soon as my kids had learned their letters we started typing, and it has been a life-saver as they’ve gotten older. Typing allows for a lot of accommodations for both dyslexia and dysgraphia when writing gets longer and more complicated.
3. Use composition notebooks instead of spiral notebooks.
Especially if you have a leftie, composition books are so much better. Those spiral edges are really difficult for a left-handed writer to work around. And if there are already writing challenges, you just don’t need the added challenge of the binding to get frustrated with. There are some really fun composition notebook options as well that make great keepsakes of their work. Amazon is my favorite place to find them.
4. Unbind the book.
Again, this is an issue for left-handed learners, but watch for the level of frustration with the book itself. I noticed this especially in math. My son is excellent in math; he really has a mind for it and can do mental calculations faster than I can even get the problem written down. But writing out his work is extremely challenging. The numbers get flipped around when he’s copying, or they don’t look as neat as he’d like them to look (so he erases and erases and erases). Then, on top of all of that, the binding of the book gets in the way of his left-hand as he tries to work a problem. It’s frustration upon frustration, and that’s not even the actual lesson of fractions and decimals!
So I literally took his math book and ripped the binding off until we had just the flat worksheets to work with.
Of course, you could always opt for an online curriculum and skip the book altogether.
5. Use a wipe board.
Wipe boards are a life-saver. I’m not sure about the mechanics of why this works, but for some reason I’ve observed that writing on a wipe board is so much less intimidating than a piece of paper. (It really helps with disabling perfectionism, too.) For my son, math goes so much better if it’s done on a wipe board. For my daughter, writing on a wipe board was key in helping her to write papers on her own. Now, she types papers without a problem, but early on, all writing was on a wipe board.
6. Scribe the lesson for your child.
Or, learn how to use Speech to Text apps and tools, many of which are free. This allows the student to speak their ideas and see them in print. My kids used these helps early on, and it took one frustration out of writing. Contrary to what you might think, it was not a crutch that kept them from writing on their own. Eventually, they grew in confidence and wrote more on their own. But the benefit is that, even now, my high schooler, will use speech to text for a complicated idea she wants to express but is unsure about the spelling or writing of it. She’ll use it for a phrase or a sentence, and then happily type away on the rest of what she is communicating. It’s pretty cool to see.
Anytime a child has difficulty learning, it’s time to get creative, step out of the box, and try things just a bit differently. But sometimes, it’s the simple adjustments that make the biggest difference.
Have a few tips of your own? Leave your favorite tip in the comment section.
