My 6 1/2 year old daughter has always had a little bit of an issue writing letters/numbers backwards, i.e. writing a 2 that looks like a 5, etc.; also certain letters like b and d. Sometimes even items that don’t have a clear counterpart, like 7, she will write the “wrong” way. Of course, at first I immediately thought “dyslexia”, knowing nothing about the subject beyond crass humor in Farrelly Brothers-type movies. But her teachers have reassured us that this is not unusual at her age, that kids mix up their letters from time to time, don’t sweat. So I don’t.
Today she is writing in chalk on the driveway. She writes “I love you” completely backwards. Like “Redrum” in The Shining. She turns the whole sentence around – it reads “<backwards> you, <backwards> love, I”. She even gets the “e” correct (i.e., it looks like a normal “e”), which is funny in a way because she puts it backwards quite frequently when she is writing “normally” (i.e. she got it backwards when she was writing it backwards!).
This just seems like such a bizarre thing for a child to spontaneously do, even my daughter, who is already quite an artistic, free-spirit type even at a young age. I mean, she just decided “Hey! I’ll mirror-write!”, like DaVinci(? – or was it Michaelangelo?).
Not that I think I should be getting child-behavioral advice from the Teeming Millions any more than medical advice (though I love you all), I just gotta ask – has anyone seen anything like this? Do they know what it means? Or is it just “one of those things” that is part of the mystery of children? (Note: She is my first of two).
My daughter did the same thing when she started learning to read and write, I worried too. Both the teachers and the doctors told me that it’s normal and after she gets a little more used to it, she’ll change. She did !
I did the same exact thing when I was 6-7 years old. Never was dyslexic - in fact, I was reading far ahead of my grade level. For that matter, I can still mirror-write with almost no effort, and occassional do as a party trick.
What the deal is - I have an usually well-developed ability to visualize things in three dimensions. While I’m writing in reverse I mentally turn it around… oh, bother, it’s hard to explain. What it boils down to is that I have unusually well developed spatial abilities.
As long as your daughter is not having trouble reading (which is the real mark of dyslexia or related learning disoders) don’t worry about it. Cripes, folks what to make everything a pathology these days. She may later develop artistic abilities. Or she might go into engineering, where such a talent is quite useful. Get her involved in puzzles and model building stuff like that if she’s interested. Let her have fun with her talent, because that’s what it is.
My 8yo daughter did the same thing, and sometimes still does on occasion. It is bizarre, because she doesn’t even notice that she has written backwards. I just attribute it to her left-handedness, but who knows.
Sadly being able to read doesn’t rule out dysgraphia or agraphia. I’ve got a kid who is reading waaaaaay above age level but who still struggles with handwriting to the extent he uses a computer to write. Yay for technology. His spelling doesn’t even qualify as creative. When spell check is stumped by every second word you know you’re in strife.
But don’t worry until the kid is past 8 and not making progress. It sounds well within the norms for a 6 yo and rather cool. My 4 yo is regularly doing letter reversals and number reversals and is fairly consistent with which ones he reverses. I’m confident (or deluded) that this will sort out with age and time.
When you think about it, it isn’t that hard to understand. If she’s writing on paper, she may naturally start on the edge of the paper closest to her writing hand (assuming she’s right-handed) and just go in the only direction available. When you start to read and write, you do it letter by letter, not so much word by word. The direction isn’t as important as the order of the letters. The more you read, the more you begin to see words as objects or entities, and the left-to-right thing becomes more important.
This is a theory I just came up with on the spot, it could be complete rubbish.
I know when I first started writing, the only thing I could write was my name, which I always wrote backwards. Not sure if I was mirroring the letters though, since my name is Tim - All symmetrical letters… All of of my old belongings are proudly labeled as property of miT though…
I wouldn’t really worry as of yet. But keep an eye on it, and if things don’t look right, talk to a specialist. My best friend is a dyslexic and his stupid teachers didn’t catch it untill he was in the sixth grade. By then he was so far behind, he almost couldn’t catch up.
Does her school have a reading specialist or other diagnostic folks available? Is her teacher worried? See what’s available in your local school system.
Just to add another data point, my 3 1/2 year old daughter likes to write her name backwards (mirror style). For what it’s worth, she does seem to have above-average spatial ability. It also might have something to do with the fact that she’s being taught a little Hebrew.
In any event, Mrs. Lucwarm is kinda freaked out about it, but I’m not too concerned because my daughter can recognize the difference between forward and backward. I figure that if she knows the difference, she’ll eventually write in the proper direction (when appropriate).
My daughter is 5, and she’s done the same thing more than once. Her preschool teachers were never concerned about it–I don’t know if she’s done it in kindergarten yet. Her preschool teachers told me that it’s just something some kids do.
Yes, it was DaVinci who did mirror-writing in his journals. In fact, after seeing an exhibit about DaVinci once, I tried mirror-writing, and it was surprisingly easy for me. So, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that my daughter would have the same talent. h.sapiens, I think your theory has merit, especially since my daughter herself has told me as much–“I just decided to start on this side of the paper!” She is left-handed, though…but that may be part of it, too.
However, my husband had a very difficult time learning to read and making his letters correctly. It turned out that the problem was that he has astigmatism, and needed glasses to correct it. Therefore, regular eye exams, etc. are important, too.
Is she by any chance left-handed? Mirror-writing is not uncommon in left-handed children, while they try to process doing with their left hands what they see others doing with their right. When you think about it, if you were to write exactly the same way with your left hand as you see people do with their right, you would mirror-write. Many young lefties spontaneously do it and it’s no cause for alarm.
Has it occured to you to just ask her about it? Maybe she doesn’t realize it’s backwards, in which case there might be some sort of problem. Or maybe she was just doing it to be deliberately silly or creative, in which case you might have a budding artist on your hands.
Also, you say that the individual words were forwards, but the word order was backwards? I.e., “you love I”, rather than “uoy evol I”? And did you see in what order she wrote it?
I got my b’s and d’s mixed up all the time at that age for the same reason. Also, IIRC from an article in Skeptical Inquirer sometime last year, backwards writing isn’t a sign of dyslexia at all. You should actually start worrying if your child can’t produce rhyming words. Hopefully that’ll set your mind at ease a bit, though of course it won’t rule out other learning disabilities.
raises hand
Another left-handed backward writer here. Well, at least I use to be whe I was learning to write. And I turned out just fine. In fact, I was in the ‘gifted’ class in gradeschool. I wouldn’t worry about your daughter’s handwriting ‘talent’.
It is normal. When i was 6 i was learning ro write and did the same thing. plus my american family has a little firl and she does it too so im guessing it is normal.
