It is very important for small children to create a tripod finger method. You can do this by teaching them to hold a pen or pencil in the three fingers they use to write with. Remember if a child is left it is very important not to be scared, children have to develop both hands in this tripod method to their full strength. This will help them with resting the wrist as well as develop so the left handed child does not learn to hook his arm and wrist.
Left handed children must be taught to turn the left side of their paper up a little before writing, just like right handed children turn their paper to up a little to the right.
Also teach a left handed child to take their pencil a bit higher then they can see where they are writing. It also helps them to not hook and smudge the paper.
Also teach lefties to put the paper on the left side of their bodies it just makes it easier for them to see what they are writing. Also encourage the left handed child to use his right hand to hold the paper this will prevent them from hooking.
When letters are being learned, we are inclined to put the example on the left, the child then covers it with his hand and means it takes him longer or make mistakes. So if you teach a left handed child move the example in such a way that he can see it without lifting his hand. Only fair to them.
When teaching the letter O, teach the left handed child to make the O anticlockwise just like the right handed child as this will inprove their speed. Letters like a T F E and so forth let them draw the line from right to left as this also makes it easier for them to see and will help with writing faster. It is also good to give them shorter pencils as it helps with the tripod skill and when they later in life use pens they will have good tripod skills and will not struggle. The children must really learn to just use the three fingers otherwise they are inclined to grasp the pencil instead of using the three fingers.
Remember that hand dominance is really only definite from the ages 5 or 6 yet if they really are left please teach this to the child, because some teachers well meaning, might take the crayon or pencil, and put it in the kids right hand so he must know to tell her that he is lefthanded.
Now a very good way to teach kids to learn the tripod way is playing I see with my little eye where the children use the pencil holding it the right way and making a dot on the paper. This is very inportant for the development of their writing skills later in life.
When helping a left handed child you must sit next to them and not on the opposite side as it is very difficult for them to follow you when you sit across them.
How to play this game : I am putting some examples on my post which show how to play this game. This is for the use of the tripod method and they have to make a dot on figure they are looking for.
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