Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Mirror writing?

Hi, I'm new to the board. My daughter is 6.5 and is homeschooled. She reads far above her level, even spells surprisingly well. But she has a habit of writing in mirror image. I don't mean mixing up B and D, Z and S, etc. I mean full on complete sentences. I had her look at her writing in the mirror and tell me what she sees, and she says "it looks the same, except the "I" is over here" (pointing to the opposite end of her sentence)
Any thoughts? Advice? Thanks in advance!

My daughter likes to do that too, but she doesn't think it is the same both ways. Does your DD read upside down as well? I ask because if she can easily read upside down as well she may not really see a problem with mirror writing, whether or not she is doing it on purpose. Is she doing it on purpose? Have you asked her why she does it that way? Does she find it more stimulating to write that way rather than the correct way or is it a mistake she does without realizing it?

Mirror writing is actually pretty common at that age. If she is still doing it in a couple of years look at her for something, but right now no worries.

I'd say reversals on individual letters are common, but not complete sentences. Do you think she really doesn't see it as backward? I enjoyed mirror writing & writing upside down as a child. Denying that it was atypical sounds exactly like something I'd say, even though I clearly knew what I was doing. If she REALLY can't see the difference, & this persist for the next few months, I'd look into it more.

I actually still write upside down for my job on a regular basis. So maybe my teachers were wrong & it wasn't wasted time!

My son wrote backwards, literally like a mirror. I cured it by enrolling him in karate. The patterns require a lot of right and left brain crossovers. For example strike with your right hand twist left then kick left. It requires a lot of focus, discipline, and pattern recognition also.