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

Well, this is a new one for me! So we came back from dd5 kindergarten conference...Teacher showed us a paper where daughter completely wrote her last name backwards---A complete mirror image. She had never done that before and has always written all words/letters/numbers correctly...Daughter is also an excellent reader...She wants desperately to have "permission" from teacher to start writing her name in cursive (she knows how to do it) Unfortunately teacher said no So I'm wondering if this backwards writing thing is just my daughter expressing her needs for more creativity or could it be something else lurking in the possible future? Anyone else with this experience? Why would this start now? It was just so odd for me to see...

My oldest DD did the same thing at the same age. When I talked with her about it, I determined she did it just to prove to herself she could. One thing about these kids is they will challenge themselves if no one else will!

Thanks for replying revmom! I asked my daughter why she did it and she said that she wanted to show her teacher that she could

Both of my kids did mirror perfect writing too. They did this in preschool. Therapist said it was a sign of intelligence. It was startling to me both times.

My dd, then 4, wrote a full page letter in mirror writing and I too wondered why on earth she was doing it. Turned out it was just for fun. They're funny little things.

My DD, then 4, addressed all of her Valentine's backwards when I wasn't watching. I asked her why and she said she thought it was funny. Go figure.

My DD did this for a little while this past year. I found it odd since she has been able to write with no problems. It wasn't until I talked to another mom that I found out her DD does it but she doesn't seem to be doing it for fun. DD sat across from her so I guess she was mocking her. I did talk to her and explained how her friend is trying to learn how to write and she needed to help her writing the correct way. Since then we haven't had any mirror image writing at school but on occasion she will do it at home ... just for fun.

My DS6 writes backwards all the time. I gave him a hand held mirror that he carries around with him so he can write secret messages in his notebook to his friends and then they use the mirror to read it. I asked the teacher about it and she said, "Isn't it wonderful! We learned all about Leonardo Da Vinci in class and Leonardo wrote backwards in many of his journals." She let my DS share his notebook and mirror at Show and Tell and it was a huge hit. So, it seems like you have little Leos on your hands!

lol, my DS6 did things like this a lot last year. He did little things to amuse himself. Spelling it backwards, scrambling the letters, writing some big and some small, doubling the letters, etc. Of course that is better than when he was 3yo in prek (and some at 4yo) writing "my name is poop" on the paper. He thought that was quite amusing. The teachers did not agree. They do lots of things to make their work more interesting. He even went through a little stage of intentionally mispelling words and trying to write like the other kids do.

DD8 did this too at that age. She also liked to write upside down and backwards at the same time. Her grandmother writes her letters that are upside down and backwards and she thought it was great so she taught herself to do it. Her preschool teacher promptly told us that we were not to allow her to do it because it would affect her ability to write properly and spell correctly! We got the same message from her 2nd grade teacher when she started writing her homework backwards or upside down or both when we weren't looking. (In reality, I saw the paper after she had gone to bed and felt that maybe it would send more of a message to her teacher than we had been able to get through. It didn't work and she was required to redo her work before it was accepted.)
She definitely did it out of boredom when she wanted to prove to someone she could do more than they were asking of her.