United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Ok, so I went to my son's parent teacher conference on Wednesay. He is doing really well for the most part. As I was waiting to speak with his teacher I noticed that she has some samples of the kids' work displayed. I was thumbing through and was very impressed with how well the kindergarteners were writing and drawing. I got to my son's piece of work and am sad to say, but it was horrible compared to what the other kids were doing. I don't usually compare my son with others, but he has the worst handwritting in the class. He is RBPI and right hand dominant, but because of the injury is forced to right left handed. Has anyone had any success in getting your child to write with their affected hand? His therapist thinks we should just focus on strengthing his left hand more so that he can write better. Because he uses his left hand, he also has a tendency to write from the right to the left. He knows which side of the paper to start from, so I don't think he's dyslexic, I just think that it has to do with the fact that he is right hand dominant. Any suggestions????

I am right obpi - I write with my right hand... I think know one knows for sure with hand should be dominate with an obpi. I have Horner's so you cannot tell by my eye. As and adult I have small motor cordination in both hands.... I cannot write on paper left handed but write on blackboards left handed. I found learning to right with obpi hand difficult... but also it is a problem to be switched... this is a tough call.

Here are some pages on the subject thanks to Rich or Jenny NZ.

http://www.linkshaender-beratung.de/english/index.htm
hhttp://www.linkshaender-beratung.de/english/Am ... /index.htm


Kath

We worked with my son Alek who is now 9 on learning to be a lefty. Be patient it is not easy. We do a lot of fine motor stuff with him still now, and he still dosen't have great hand writing. I am also a teacher, realize that he may not have the best handwriting in the class, but have him stay encouraged!!
It will make a world of difference. One thing we found with Alek is taping his papers down, helps eliminate the "Chase". Good luck to you!

My daughter has LBPI, and is very left dominant, she is only 2 1/2, but we have encouraged her to use her left hand all she wants. Our therapist insist that we DO NOT encourage her to use her right hand in writing. Changing a childs dominant hand in writing can happen, but it is very difficult. If your child has no control over the injured hand, then I understand the change, but if the child can control the dominant hand somewhat, why not encourage that? That is therapy without a lot of work, if you understand what I am saying...the dominant hand is a natural effect to a person, and although the writing will be sloppy, it will help the child with control. I don't know your exact situation, but in my case, if left is what Julia wants to be, then left she will be. I would rather spend my time making positive changes on her left dominant, but injured arm, than trying to waste time teaching her to write with an arm that already works fine, but just happens not to be the dominant arm....

I just had to jump in for a minute. My son who is 31 had a terrible car accident 9 years ago while away at college. Among other injuries he suffered nerve root avulsion and lost the use of his right arm/hand. He had to learn to do everything with his left hand which included writing. His handwriting isn't the best by a long shot but he went back to college and got his degree in Business and is now working. So, what I am trying to say, don't worry about bad handwriting. This is the least of the problems our children have to deal with. Just don't worry yourself over this. Some of the other kids in the class may have beautiful handwriting but your child may travel to the moon with not the best handwriting!

I am so glad that you added in. You know, I think we can all get caught up in what others think or might think, or do or don't do, and sometimes we need reminded that we all have miracles that will make their own way to the stars!

Hi , my son is now 12 years and his writing is very poor - slow, sloppy and he gets the letters all messed up even for words he can spell verbally - the brain connection is impaired to the hand so it made the process of trying to learn spelling with writing out the words very ineffective - it became more troublesome as he got further up in the grades because he could not write fast and neat enough for the tests and assignments and lost marks due to messy, or not enough time to write the answers down that he did know, or taking off marks for spelling even though the answer was right in the concept. I really had to advodcate for him and make the teachers aware that this is not lazy or slack but that it is part of the disability of the hand and to not deduct for messiness, and to allow extra time or let him verbally supplement - in grade seven the note taking was awful for him he couldn't keep up and then we could hardly make out what his notes were supposed to say but when I got the teachers on board and they started to verbally test and allow more time his marks shot up and he was way more happy. The best yet is that Dr. Pape recommended a lap top for notes in school and that has made all the difference - he now is finished the notes ahead of everyone and his arm doesn't hurt and of course we can actually read it! In the real world Dr. Pape pointed out as long as you can sign your name and the date most of the rest of writing can be done on the computer so we should not focus on and stress out about the hand writing so much - we also got him the Dragon Speaking so that when he has to write a story or an essay he just talks it into the microphone and the computer types it. So we practice key boarding rather than hand writing as this is definitely the way that my son will enjoy success and it will allow him to do everthing he needs to - so I would say don't worry too much about the hand writting and make sure the teachers don't beat him up too much about it and get him feeling defeated and then as soon as he is old enough get the key board going and go computerized do it! just protect and help him lots through those tough early years when the key board and computer are not practical yet. My son is really happy now that we took Dr.Pape's advice and focussed on the computer - and he spends way less time doing homework now and has straight A's. So hand writing is not the big key to success at all - it just seems like it in elementary school- I found it helpful to take copies of others postings from UBPN to show the teachers so they would see we were not just making excuses and that this really is an issue for BPI kids - all the best and just keep his spirit intact until he can take off with the computer - in retrospect I would of spent more time on the typing practice and got him computerized sooner -like grade five or six - but I still had feelings like this was something he really needed to develope more - thank God for sending Dr.Pape across my path to set me straight on that one!

Thanks to all of you for the tips and stories. Tyler was just scheduled for Mod Quad so we are really going to focus on getting him prepared for that right now.

Hello!

My daughter has RBI and she is in preschool she started learning her name and she writes with her left hand. Her teacher and I talked about it and we decided to enforce her to learn to write with her left hand. It is not an easy task but you can start by using small motor projects for example. lacing and stringing even eating with his left hand will help my daughter practices her name every day she will be going to kindergarten soon so we are trying all we can to help her...
I know how it feels to see other children's jobs "better" than our child but always keep in mind that he is with you that you can see him everyday other mothers don't have that.. My daughter doesn't have a shoulder blade and when she wears a bathing suit or anything with spaghetti straps I feel bad because she looks a little deformed but I thank God I have her with me.
I hope this words help you a little...
try small motor activities with his left hand so it will be easy for him to perform in school ok...
well bye
god bless your family

My daughter has the injury on her right hand and she is right handed, since she was little i have trained her to use her right to eat, write, color, play tennis, ect. it works! Right hand no excuses.