Lefthandedness

Kyle is 6 years 2 months and is left handed

He wrote the following on his mother's iphone. 

We went to  ....... to day we had drinking chocolate in starducks.

We went on the dus.

And we went dack on the dus.
And we went to the shop.
We went to peziz hut.0
And i had pasta.

If a child of seven years old or less is confusing 'b' and 'd', the errors should slowly sort themselves out.  If a child is left handed they will have difficulty distinguishing between b/d but they are not necessarily dyslexic.
Lefthandness can cause a variety of problems, one being messy writing as the left hand drags across the paper and smudges the ink.  There are strategies that can be taught so that a left-hander can cope with this 'difference'.

If a child of eight years or more still confuses these two letters, it would be advisable to get him* screened for Dyslexia.  A child with Dyslexia learns differently from non-dyslexic children and needs to be taught in a different way.  Useful strategies are to personalise material to be learned such as spelling, liberal yet meaningful use of colour, multi-sensory activities such as writing in sand, use of paint, saying words slowly as they are written, writing in the air, finding other words with similar patterns to build a spelling vocabulary and using 3D plastic or wooden letters. 

Magnetic letters work well on a fridge - muddle the spelling on the fridge two or three times a day and get the child to re-order the word in correct letter sequence.  Dyslexic children have to work four times as hard as non-dyslexic children as they do not have the same neural connections.  Multi-sensory learning ensures that any available route can be targeted.

More on spelling on a later post.

There are many websites which sell items useful to those who are left handed.

Try  http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/uk/

* use of him does mean 'him or her'

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