Explore ways to help left-handed pupils who face challenges

I refer to the letter “More support needed for left-handed students” (July 19).

Having worked with learners with dyslexia over the past decade, I find this follow-up to the article “Managing dyslexic kids” (July 17) rather interesting, as it highlights the difficulties faced by left-handed pupils, which are seldom explored in Singapore.

For instance, left-handed pupils would need to take extra consideration to follow a right-handed teacher writing the letter T on the whiteboard.

It is more natural for left-handed pupils to cross the T from right to left instead of the convention to cross from left to right that the teacher models.

As the pupil is still developing penmanship and fine motor skills, this difference in direction is an added layer of information to process. Most of the population, which is right-handed, would not realise this.

This is similar to the experiences faced by students with dyslexia, who may have to take extra steps to consider how to pronounce words instead of reading them automatically.

As an educational therapist who is passionate about left-handed pupils’ learning needs, I take notice whenever my learners who are dyslexic write with their left hand.

Although there has always been speculation as to whether dyslexia occurs more often in left-handed learners, nothing conclusive has yet been found through research.

There is the recent journal article “Language and learning disorders in handers children”, which investigates the relationship between dyslexia and left-handedness in 369 students at an Italian primary school.

The authors suggest that the incidence of dyslexia among left-handers is higher than right-handers, although they also recognise that this is contentious, as previous researches have not proved a conclusive increase in the incidence of left-handedness among learners with dyslexia.

Nevertheless, I hope that this starts a conversation among parents of left-handed children, who may demonstrate that they learn differently, so as to explore strategies and coping skills to assist them with their academic needs.