When I ask my son to write letters, he writes the mirror image of the letters. Do all toddlers do that?

Question

When I ask my son to write letters, he writes the mirror image of the letters. Do all toddlers do that?

Answer 1

yes they really dont know waht to do

Answer 2

It is very common for young children to do that but after 6 years of age if a child still does that is is a sign of Dyslexia.

What you can do to help your child is to write the letters in dots and then have your child trace over them and do that with A first and then help your child with the pencil and then let your child do it on their own and do that each day and then the next week work on B and then do that through the alphabet. Also do that with numbers and then it will help your child by holding the pencil. I have worked with children that could not hold a pencil right and they were in Kindergarden and they could not cut right because their parents and teachers did not work with them.  It will take time and it will help.

When I was younger my teacher got me confused by forcing me to write with my right hand and that made things in school hard for me and I learned to work around it from help of my Mother and some teachers that I had in my upper grades.

Answer 3

They're called "reversals" and they're very normal until approximately 1st grade.  If he's still reversing by 6 years, contact your school's occupational therapist and/or your physician.

Answer 4

I did this in kindergarten and I remember the teachers helping me with it. I did it because I'm a lefty.

To help me, the teachers would draw the outline of a word (they called it the house) and then I wrote the word inside of it. This helped my problem. You can try that with your son.

Answer 5

My daughter did this when she was very young . She even said words backwards such as cycle bike instead of bicycle etc. Don't worry as your son will probably grow out of it just as my daughter did .

Answer 6

This is pretty common.  I've been teaching preschool for 10 years and I see it every year.  It's more common in left-handed children, and it seems to take longer to for them to remember how to print correctly.  Last year, I had a four-year-old who was one of the smartest kids I've ever met and she wrote everything backwards...starting from the right and working left.  She was a lefty.  Just keep working with your son, but don't push it!  You don't want to turn him off of learning--it should be fun!

Answer 7

Sounds like dyslexia. Don't worry too much, it's irritating, but survivable. For me it was 'dancing numbers'. I worked out math problems correctly, knowing the prinicples involved, but when I went back to it later, it was nonsense. Nearly drove me crazy in grammar school!

Answer 8

Most toddlers don't write at all. It's perfectly normal for kids to reverse letters up to about age 6. Don't push the writing. Give him crayons and markers and let him scribble away. It will develop eye/hand coordination and small motor skills.

Answer 9

Its very typical for children up to about age 7 actually, at that point it would be best to have them tested. Why would one want a toddler (usually described as a child from 1 yr to about 3 yrs) to be writing, it is not developmentally approiate.  Children of this group need to be introduced to writing implements--crayons, markers, pencils but not actually expected to "write" anything but lines, dots, etc....only after they are developmentally ready should they even  try writing(usually between 4-5 yrs) and then begin with the letters in their first name(and others only as they become interested before kindergarten. Often the first time a child "writes" their own name it is a traced copy of their name from the back of some art work...hence beginning of reversed letters....think about it...

Answer 10

i used to do that i remember so clearly, it took me time to learn the right way, a lot of patience from my teacher and mom.

Answer 11

It's pretty common, but it could also mean dislexia.  My brother is dislexic and did the same thing.  My 4 year old writes some backwards too, so I wonder if he's got it also.

Answer 12

My daughter wrote her name in mirror image...and backwards.  When I asked her to write them correctly and she took her time, she would.  She did that from 3-5 years of age, but I could see her concentrating to do it, I still swear she did it to drive me nuts.  Don't worry too much, it's not uncommon.