Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Dyslexic or Ambidextrous?

DS5 has had quite a few issues with writing his numbers and letters backwards. My first thought was that it was normal for a 2 & 3 year old to have a tendency to write them backwards, and then at 4, he rarely wrote any letters backwards. But lately it seems he has been writing more backwards than before. So I thought dyslexia. I have had issues with mild dyslexia myself, but DS5 doesn't have ANY difficulties comprehending words or letters when they are written or when he reads them, etc. He does sometimes say 51 instead of 15 when he sees the number 15, but it's extremely rare.

So I thought about my own issues with writing things backwards as a kid, and while I don't remember how I reacted to being told my letters were backwards or what have you, I DO remember being able to write with both hands. And I'm wondering now, if because DS5's brain is a bit more advanced than the average 5 year old brain, that maybe somewhere subconsciously, his brain is telling him to write with his right hand like he would with his left hand, as in the motions themselves. And I know you're saying, well we all write the same way, but think about it. If you write a number 5 with your left hand, the thumb and finger(s) holding the pencil don't just make a backwards c when you get to the bottom part, but they move in an outward direction - away from the palm of your hand. So, if you do the same motion with your right hand, you will actually make a c, making the 5 backwards. It's like the whole pat your head while rubbing your belly. Even if you can move your hands individually, your brain tells you to move them the same.

So, now is that dyslexia afterall or is it an ambidextrous child, who started out only using his left hand (as a small baby/toddler - even writing), but is now right handed (he was not forced), and whose backwards writing is really not a product of him being dyslexic, but that he is able to use both hands equally kinesthetically, which if you were to mirror motion with both hands, they would move in opposite directions???

Or am I just thinking entirely too much? LOL!!! (Sports Medicine was my minor, so I'm intrigued by the brain and the physical movements of the body, etc).

It's common for kids to write letters backwards; my DS9 (an early writer) was still doing this occasionally when he was 8.

I'm mostly ambidextrous and have never copied the motions of the more dominant hand. So, that's a sample size of one in your survey!

Val

GS9, 10 next month, still reverses letters which are commonly reversed. He reads very well, but his spelling is so bad that it's not unusual for him to not read his own writing. His letters will be mixed in order and sometimes reversed.
He writes & eats left handed, throws & kicks right handed, switch hits equally well(if he could catch and throw as well as he hits, he'd be a very good little leaguer!). He still prints since they didn't seem to concentrate on teaching cursive at any point in grade school, and he forms his letters backwards -- for example, when he makes an 'm' he writes it from right to left instead of left to right. That leaves his printing with uneven spaces unless he completely concentrates on being neat.
Last year I was worried about dyslexia, ambidexterity, mixed dominance, etc., but finally decided in our case that it was mild enough to not cause him a problem.

Oh, and for the record, I'm more curious about this than concerned about it causing problems for DS, which obviously it doesn't seem to just yet.

I type backwards, for the record. I'll press the J key instead of the F key, or vice versa.

My 11 year old son was ambidextrous in Kindergarten but we had him use his right hand only to practice writing. If he is holding something in his right hand while he is eating, he will use his left hand to eat. If he is using his right hand to move the mouse while on the computer, he will use his left hand to write. His handwriting is only a little better when he uses his right hand. When he is doing piano, he will occasionally play the left hand notes with his right hand. He occasionally rights 5's backwards and they look more like 2's. He sometimes writes P's backwards.

But he started reading at 2 1/2 on his own and could always spell really well. If he sees a word, he usually remembers how it is spelled. We homeschool but I never really had to have him work on spelling because he was naturally good at it and he only worked on it the year he participated in the state spelling bee.

I think my son just has motor memory issues (motor dyspraxia)and this is what caused him to have to think each time he writes the letter P or the number 2. It never became automatic for him.

Just a quick thought...
My son has vision problems and until he was about 6 we did not know if he was ambidextrous or what the issue was. He did things with both hands. Anything on the left side of his plate he ate with his left hand, anything on the right side of his plate, he ate with his right hand. Your kid very well may be ambidextrous, but in my son's case, he could not see past the midline (his nose). When looking with his left eye he couldn't see the stuff on the right and vice versa. Could he possibly have eye tracking problems? They can have perfect vision and still have eye problems that you can't see. My son went to vision therapy and although he can now see past the midline, he still uses both hands occasionally, just because that is the way he learned.

This is an interesting thread. I am ambi, my grandad on mom's side was too. Ds8 seems to be as well. He writes right, and does some sports right, and drawing with this right hand, but when tested recently on a peg board test, he is faster with his left hand. Also, just recently I noticed him fiddling with something very detailed and he gave up with his right and switched to left.

Actually, as I read this wiki article, I guess the correct term for this might be 'mixed handedness'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness

"Approximately 95 percent of right-handed individuals primarily process speech in the brain's left hemisphere."[5]"More than half of left-handers process speech in their left hemisphere, just like right-handers. However, about one fourth of left-handers process speech equally in both hemispheres."[5] On the balance, it appears that this theory could well explain some left-handedness, but it has too many gaps to explain all left-handedness."

Now, having completely wandered off the subject of ambidextrous people, and in no way touching on dyslexia, I am engrossed in reading this article:
The effect of handedness on earnings

(The reason I started to post was to point out that 'The Edison Trait' has an interesting couple of pages on dyslexia and whether it can be considered an advantage in certain disciplines like architecture, design, engineering, etc. (The ability to easily get away from our left-to-right framework, etc.) )

Ramble, ramble....

My dd5 seems completely ambidextrous. Since being taught how to print letters in pre-k, she has now chosen to write with her right hand (perhaps the teachers suggested it?). But when she was first starting out, she would switch hands back and forth frequently - making the big vertical line for an "E" with her left hand and the horizontal lines with her right. I'd never seen anything like it!

I think I read somewhere that being ambidextrous can be a sign of giftedness. Or maybe I made that up

DS's eyesight is perfect. And he has no issues reading words whether they are written forwards or backwards either.

Chris, I'm going to have to look at your links later. Definitely interesting!

Oh, and I forgot to say, ds8 does still reverse b and d, sometimes write his 6 backwards...I don't see it in his writing anymore, but I asked about it maybe 3 months back and he said he still has to check in his head to make sure. So, definitely more tendency to reverse letters/numbers although I expect these too will become automatic for him in another few months.