Writing words backwards

[Skylark]

Curious if anyone has any suggestions.

My 3.5 yo would write words ( left to right), but she would write them backwards for example drow for word, and sometimes she would write a "mirror" version of the word ( letters included). She does not write much yet, but starting to, so I was wondering if anyone would have any personal experience/suggestions?

[Mandabplus3]

It's pretty common, even for kids who know you read from left to right. Some kids even get it right most of the time but will just occasionally write it the wrong way.
I just gently ex paint that we always right from this side and go this way other wise the words say something different. Then I have a little giggle wight hem trying to read their word phonetically the right way around. Usually thats enough to get them on track again, but its sometimes takes a few gentle reminders. If you put a dot at the left side of the page and ask that she starts writing from that dot it will be almost impossible to write it the wrong way around.

[Skylark]

Thank you, Manda!

I was wondering at first if she might be dyslexic, but she has an amazing sense of rhyme ( which is one of the soft markers for dyslexia, - dyslexic children would not usually be able to rhyme; I mean she writes poems and songs for the last 7 months!) and she would not fit any other description, -- super early talker, can understand very complicated and long written sentences, she reads, albeight would not want to be tested  So I think I just need to gently guide her in sorting this out    Really appreciate your suggestions!

[Mandabplus3]

Hehe I have about one kid a week bring me something written backwards! nothing to worry about 

[TeachingMyToddlers]

When I watched a video of Robert's Kindergarten classroom program (Team Children) one of the teacher's mentioned crawling improving mirror writing tendencies dramatically. Lily still does it sometimes (for certain letters & numbers). I vaguely recall certain claims being made about some brain Gym activities, so I personally believe that cross pattern activities are most likely very connected and will benefit a child dealing with this. Swimming, arm cross over movements, crawling, etc. Those activities strengthen the corpus collossum IIRC, so it may be as simple as mirror imaging is just a common thing while the child is bridging from left to right brain. I am not a brain scientist of course, just a parent that is pretty good at connecting the dots in life in general.  This remark also possibly supports that theory, as each hand is controlled by the opposite side of the brain and while the person is learning to use their "unnatural" side of the brain in a new way (for writing) they may experience this. (Just like a child learning to use the left side of the brain more dominantly).

Transient mirror writing sometimes occurs in both left-handed and right-handed healthy children as a normal phase during writing development. In right-handed adults who write with their left hand, mirror writing can be produced at will and for fun, and it is undertaken by lithographers, printers, and others for occupational purposes. Transient left-handed mirror writing is also sometimes observed when conventional writing is no longer possible in otherwise healthy right-handed individuals, for example, after the right arm has been damaged.

http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=787244

Interesting presentation. The note about a brain injured person mirror writing also makes me believe that it's all due to brain development. http://neurolearning.com/ReadSpellWrite3.pdf

[Skylark]

Very interesting information, especially considering E. has never crawled, she started to walk independently at 8 months and crawling got skipped somehow..

[Tamsyn]

It's interesting that you bring up dyslexia.  I have three siblings that have severe dyslexia.  I was talking to my mom about it, who has no EL experience besides witnessing my kids, but who homeschooled all 11 of us and managed to teach those three to read.  She said that my one brother was in 3rd grade and still reading like a kindergartener despite all of her work, but then something clicked and he skyrocketed to a 7th grade level almost overnight.  I've been doing some research on it, and it turns out that dyslexic people read with their right brains instead of their left.  People also speed read with their right-brains, so dyslexic readers often learn this skill quicker than others.  (I've been looking into teaching speed reading too.)

I bring all of this up because I wonder if I would even be able to recognize dyslexia if my children had it. Genetically it's a real possibility.  One of the mainstream ways of recognizing it is when children struggle to learn how to read.  Well, EL people teach their children to read with right-brain methods, so I hypothesize that dyslexic tiny children would learn just as well as their counterparts with right-brain methods.  But that wouldn't negate the fact that they were dyslexic.

I give my mom a lot of credit for teaching my dyslexic siblings to read so well.  She didn't have the benefit of EL, and it was a struggle for her, but all three of them turned out to be very bright.  My one sister memorizes large passages fairly quickly, things like the declaration of independence, and my mom credits her dyslexia.  It's not really a handicap, it's just a brain that works a little differently.

Anyway, when my 3rd sibling with dyslexia struggled with reading and wrote letters and/or words backwards, she recognized that he was dyslexic and tailored his education appropriately.  Again, I don't think that reading would be a problem for an EL dyslexic kid, so writing words backwards could very well be one of the signs of dyslexia that still would show with an EL child.  I really wonder how they would test for it, if the child could already read?  Because of my recent conversation with my mom, I've been trying to figure out what makes a child be dyslexic at the core.  I don't have much to share yet, but it's something I'm looking into.

[Mandabplus3]

Yes TMT I remember that comment about the crawling helping reduce mirror writing. She said it almost eliminated mirror writing in kids who regularly did it. When i read it I couldn't decide if it was a case of cross patterning helping or if it was just that half a year of teaching had passed... But it did make sence and I would most definately give it a try. Crawling helps many areas of coordination. So it certainly can't hurt!
 I havnt had any kids who mirror write beyond a good reason. A good reason being they started writing on the wrong side of the page to begin with or they are only just beginning to write and thus still learning. I would love to hear if the crawling action helps if anyone tries it.

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