Parents of left-handed
children across the UK are harnessing parent power to address the lack
of appropriate teaching their children receive in school, particularly
relating to handwriting. As the school term begins, parents are able
to download a survey form
to take directly to their children’s school in an effort to establish
how much or how little guidance is given to their child that is
appropriate to learning new skills as a left-hander.
The survey marks the first stage of the Rights of Left-Handed Writers
Campaign by the Left-Handers Club (LHC), the leading pressure group for
left-handers in the UK. The campaign is a result of the constant
concerns of parents among their 100,000+ members at their children’s
difficulty mastering the basic essential skill of handwriting. Their
concerns and frustrations are evident from the hundreds of heartfelt
comments on this topic on the Left-Handers Club website,
and the unprecedented interest in the subject by a record number of
visitors to the site for the campaign launch on August 13th 21012 -
Left-Handers Day.
Being left-handed does not, in itself, make handwriting difficult, but
it does require different techniques for pen grip, posture and paper
positioning to those of a right-hander. Lauren Milsom, expert on
handedness and author of "Your Left-Handed Child",
confirms that attempting to write using the same techniques and
positioning as right-handed children leads to a number of problems for
left-handers including:
- Cramped hand grip,
- Poor pen control,
- Bad posture
- Slow laboured letter formation
- Smudged writing
As Ms. Milsom points out "All of these difficulties can be avoided if
the left-handed child is properly positioned at the desk and in the
classroom, and shown some simple, specific techniques for left-handed
writing."
Having spent many fruitless years in discussions with teaching
authorities, Teacher Training Agency and the Minister for Education
attempting to ensure left-handed writing & cutting techniques become
compulsory knowledge for all teachers, the LHC are now harnessing the
energy and commitment of the parents of these left-handed pupils to take
the necessary information and training directly to the teachers in
their own local schools.
The first stage is to determine the level of awareness that individual
schools have of the issues facing their left-handed pupils, and even
whether a child’s hand preference is noted. (Many schools are not
aware of how many left-handed students they have in the school and no
policy for noting a child’s hand preference on any records).
A free
Questionnaire has been produced by the LHC which parents can download
and take in to their child’s class to harness directly the assistance of
teachers to establish how well left-handed students are catered for.
The survey form covers:
• Whether schools note the handedness of pupils and have any policy or guidance in place for teachers on how to help them
• Whether teachers have been given any training regarding left-handed
children either while they were qualifying or in their schools.
• What provisions are made to help left-handed children with handwriting
• Information on scissors and other tools and the level of support available.
The LHC have committed to collate all the information with the aim of
producing a set of suggested guidelines for best practice in appropriate
teaching for left-handers in schools.
Any parents of a left-handed child or adult involved in teaching or
education in any way can download the free survey form and complete the
simple process here-:
http://www.lefthandersclub.org/teachers/survey.html
(three A4 pages with 20 questions in total)
Give it to their child's teacher and explain what it is for
Get the completed form back together with copies of any documents that
are available and enter the results into the LHC web form available at
the same address as above
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