Learning

What goes on in a 4-year kid's mind when she writes full A-Z like a mirror image?

Answered by Team ParentCircle

Dear Parent,

As a 4-year-old your child is probably in kindergarten. Writing is one of the most important skills she will learn for life, therefore you must take great care to make it an enjoyable experience for her. Patience and gentle encouragement work best. Scolding, punishment, and long hours of writing practice will take away the joy of learning and she will try hard to avoid written work. This can have long-term negative effects on her academic progress because she will have a lot of written work to do through her school years.

Mirror writing is common among many children and usually disappears around classes 1 and 2. There is no harm in helping your child to write the alphabets correctly, provided you do the following:

• Let your daughter practice writing one alphabet at a time till she makes much fewer mistakes. Then move on to the next one.
• It is very important that you relax, stay calm, and be very patient with her.
• Make the learning experience light-hearted, fun, and relaxed. If you become tense, angry, and impatient, she will become afraid of you. Learning through fear is very unpleasant and scary for a child.

If the mirror writing persists beyond 6-7 years of age, talk to her teacher and work together to help your child. Many parents believe that mirror writing is always a symptom of dyslexia, but that’s not true. Sometimes it’s a visual-spatial difficulty where a child has difficulty with the form and spacing of the alphabets. If the mirror writing persists even after her teacher and you have tried to help, you can have your child do an academic assessment with a qualified special educator. Before you take this step do consider getting your child’s eyes tested to rule out any vision problems.

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