I’ve been practicing the ABCs and 123s with my son and notice that certain letters (J N P S Z) and numbers (4 6) he always writes backwards/mirror imaged. I’ve seen other kids, and even my own writings as a child, have the same quirk. Is this pretty much universal?
In: 1018
I think it’s pretty universal. You remember that “P” has a vertical line and then a semicircle part, you just don’t remember which way it goes. I guess if you get used to a certain way it will always come out that way.
My handwriting is pretty much fine tuned versions of numbers and letters based off what I would see that looked cool when we would grade each others papers in elementary
Dyslexia can sometimes cause correct spelling but backwards as they realize the word as a “picture” (like similar comments in the thread) and as long as the letters are in the correct order, their brain won’t intervene.
Same reason they don’t know left from right for a while.
Left-right is largely an arbitrary notation for something that’s almost impossible to describe. What is “left”? Define “left” in terms that don’t have to refer to something else or become self-referential (like clockwise, or 90 degree “left” of forward).
The axis is perfectly understood, the directionality isn’t.
On Earth, up-down is quite easily… you can define in relation to the centre of the earth (a fixed point, relatively speaking). Left/right? What’s the “leftmost” point of the world? How much further right can I travel – by any means – from where I’m standing?
There is no fixed reference point for left/right, just an arbitrary assignment. Even East/West has some kind of reference points, including not least the Sun at a given time, but not Left/Right.
So children struggle with left-right, as do adults, and humans in general. The whole “why does the image in the mirror look flipped left-right but not up-down” is exactly the same problem with our adult, human perception – not with the physics of the situation. (For reference, in our heads “we” are flipping the person in the mirror to be facing the other way… and thus automatically thinking that “their left” is “our right”, when it’s not – that person isn’t facing us at all).
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We think it’s wrong to write that way, but why should it be? It could just as well have been the case that only the shape mattered, and not the orientation.
Don’t know about the other answers, but I remember when I was learning letters and numbers that I would reproduce them by the rules I was taught about the character.
For example, the letter “J” starts at the top, goes straight down, then curves up at the bottom.
Ok. So I’d write a vertical line that curved up at the bottom. Except it would curve to the right. Probably because most other characters were drawn left to right.
Perhaps I had a fault in my learning or my recall or in the instructions given in that I wouldn’t also add the directionality to the rule – “…then it curves back up TO THE LEFT”.
My brother did this when he was in the first grade. My mother had his eyes examined and he needed glasses. He got them and immediately stopped. He only wore them for about six or eight months and never needed them after.
They’re learning. You do things wrong almost right, but not quite right, at first. Then as you go along you adjust the errors, dot the i:s and cross t:s if you will, and then you’re done. You’re learned.
I do not know the exact reason behind this but I can tell you it is extremely common. As a former elementary school teacher nearly all my kiddos did this when they were first learning numbers/letters.
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