Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Writing name backwards...Mirror image

I shared (above image) earlier, showing the boy writing things backwards.
The image (below) shows his name written sideways. He wrote the W and I thought that's going off at a weird angle, you're not going to have room on the paper. (k, I've done that. Lol). But then he wrote all the letters sideways. Luckily I grabbed the camera in time. Silliness pure.

Wow! It's so neat to hear that other children are writing backwards too! And at the same age! My middle daughter when she was 4, used to write backwards. Someone told me that it was because her mind is thinking so fast that she knows the right way to write the letters but her brain takes an extra step to reverse the letters because it can. After reading your post, I remember in junior high I used to write notes to my friend backwards also. My youngest daughter, now 5, also reverses letters just because.

My dd did this at 4yo as well. She had been writing her name since she was 16 months old and writing all her letters correctly for a long time so I just figured it was something she thought was "neat" to do.

I used to do that!!! I just did it for fun and to curb boredom.

Interesting thread- my LO will do this too- write his name backwards, he's now 4yo, BUT...
he appears to be somewhat ambidextrous and has not chosen a hand yet- anyone else's kiddos struggling with handedness and direction of text? hmmm...

DD5 used to write her name upside-down and mirror image when she was 3. She still gets it backwards sometimes.

DS7 still gets numbers and letters backwards from time to time . . . the teacher and principal agreed it's still developmentally normal.

edit: both are unambiguously right-handed.

Mine did this at 5 or 6 years, but in a spiral, backwards and mirrored...

when I asked her why she had written that way, she didn't even realize she had done it any differently than usual(thereby starting an ongoing question for me about some strange form of dyslexia, lol)

Her grandpa used to write that way for fun, it turns out. We found his old algebra book and his name and address are written backwards & mirrored on the inside cover.

I wouldn't *worry* about it. It is amazing, isn't it!?

Yeah, my dd has the same intension. she started to spell words backward. She feels that's fun and nobody else in the classroom can do it. Glad to see so many kids have the intension at the same age. amazing!

My 5 year old writes her name backwards and my 6 year old writes half her letters backwards, but my 6 year old does it more for attention.

A good friend of mine did that when he was about 5, I think. He could write his name, and he could write the mirror image of his name, and he couldn't not tell which one was supposed to be right.

I asked him if he ever received any special services for that. He said, "We didn't have any of this identifying people nonsense in my day. The teacher just yelled at you, and eventually, you got it right."

He grew up to be a fairly successful director of video and film in Asia.