Help with child's co-ordination

oliviarosejackson

Hi everyone,

I have never posted on this part of the forum before.

I was wondering if anyone could help me? I have a daughter who is 5yrs old. She is left handed and seems to not be very good with her co-ordination. She finds it very difficult to do certain things, eg climbing, riding a bike, hopping, skipping. I was wondering if anyone knew of any activities that could help bring these on. Her writing could do with improvement too.

The activities she does at the moment are dancing (ballet, tap and disco) and she had her first swimming lesson last saturday.

Thanks for any help that you can give

dora37

I have read before that a scooter is a great way for a child to learn to balance and a good pre cursor to learning to ride a bike.

DS2 (now 14) has always had issue with coordination, somethings got better, somethings he will never master(like skipping)!

He is left handed too, however we have always encouraged him to find his own way round things, so that it is natural to him, rather than forced. His 'issue' is a mixture of coordination and fine motor skills.

HTH

feclmum

hi
my friends daughter has a problem with co ordination and has found that gymnastics has helped a lot.

slummymummyof3

Try playing simple games such as 'catch' with a football or tennis ball etc.

DKLS

My ohs nephew had terrible co-ordination, couldnt catch, run in a very odd way, legs all over the place, hate sports.

The combination of karate, and Nintendo Wii, has improved his co-ordination, and confidence no-end and now loves competitive sports.

galvanizersbaby

Hello Oliviarose jackson

My son has just turned 6 and he is left handed, he doesn't have any of the co-ordination issues but we are trying to make his hand writing better!
I recently brought a good book from Amazon called 'Your left handed child' and it is really interesting so I would recommend that.

Also online there is a club called www.lefthanders which you can join for free and there's lots of info on there about lefties in a right handed world!

dawnydee73

My son has dyspraxia, which means he has problems with his co-ordination. He has to do exercises that will strengthen his core muscles as these will help with his balance and co-ordination.

My son is also left handed, I have found the best way to help with some things like tying shoe laces was to have him sat opposite so it was like a mirror image - if that makes sense

oliviarosejackson

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.... Really are so many different things to look at now.

DKLS - I have got her a wii for christmas, so might help her a little.

galvaniversbaby - that book sounds like a good read, will have a look at it, as her writing is terrible too. Very big and all over the paper.

Thank you again for all of your replies. It is very much appreciated

mcspanna

The combination of writing and coordination difficulties suggests a specific learning difficulty to me (like Dyslexia/Dyspraxia) this link may be useful :-)

System

left handed children have difficulty writing neatly because their hand covers what they are writing unlike right handers who can see what they have just written.you can get left handed pens/pencils that are shaped differently to over come this problem,there is a left handed web site give them a try.

MrsKelly_2

As a left handed person (my DH and DD are left handed too) i personally wouldn't waste my money on left handed pens etc, yes there are things that are harder to use if you are left handed (myself and Dh cannot use normal tin openers we have to use an electric one, some knives we cannot cut with as they are designed to be used in the right hand not the left so we have to have a potatoe peeler) but you do get used to it and your child will probably grow to be able to use both hands to do most things.

I don't think lack of coordination has anything to do with being left handed personally as mcspanna suggested this is more likely another problem, but the writing is most likely just being left handed (it will improve).

With the writing aspect you need to look at how your child is sitting when they are writing, i personally cannot write if the paper is not at an angle (paper is sideways almost), make sure school do not have your child sat with their left arm next to another childs right arm, if they are both writing your child will not have enough room to write properly or quickly, this was a problem for me as a child until my teacher mentioned how slow and poor my handwriting was, my Mum told her if she didn't squeeze me in next another child who writes with the opposite arm i may have a chance, and it did work, everybody comments on how 'nice' my writing is.

Please do not treat your child any different for being left handed, this will not help them at all, my daughter is 3 and i have not seen her struggle with anything being left handed, obviously as she gets older there will be things that crop up as a bit of an issue but she will find a way to work around it, my life nor my husbands life are affected in anyway by being left handed and other than the electric tin opener we do not need anything different to a right handed person.