Hiragana Practice for Left-Handed Children: Paper Position and Tricky Characters

Horizontal strokes in hiragana are written from left to right. With the right hand, that means pulling the pencil in toward the body as the line grows. With the left hand, the same line is made by pushing the pencil away. When a left-handed child seems to struggle with writing, this can be one of the reasons.

Stroke order is the same for left- and right-handed writers, and schools in Japan teach the same order to both. What differs is how the hand and the paper sit in relation to each other. This post covers how to place the paper when a left-handed child practises hiragana, and which characters tend to be harder.

Placing and tilting the paper

Right-handed children are often told that paper tilted a little to the left is easier. For left-handed children it is the other way round.

The UK handwriting site Teach Handwriting recommends tilting the paper 30 to 45 degrees to the right (clockwise) for left-handed children, with the lower right corner close to, but not crossing, the child’s midline. In other words, the paper sits a little to the left of centre, with its top edge turned to the right.

This puts the writing hand below the line being written. The reason for this position is that it makes it less likely the child will bend the wrist and hook the hand over the top.

The angle is a guide. Every child finds a different angle comfortable, so try a few and look for the one where your child writes with ease.

Seating and light

When a left-handed child sits next to a right-handed one, putting the left-hander on the left keeps their elbows from bumping. That is worth remembering when siblings do homework side by side.

Light coming from the right keeps the shadow of the left hand off the page. That is the reverse of the usual advice for right-handers.

When the hand covers the writing

Writing horizontally with the left hand, the hand passes over what was just written. The writing is hidden, and pencil dust gets onto the hand and the paper.

When the earlier strokes are hidden, it is harder to know where to start the next one. In け, for example, the second stroke, a horizontal line, has to sit in the right place against the first vertical stroke. If the hand covers that first stroke, the second one easily ends up too far away or too close.

In early practice, it helps to lift the hand after each stroke, look at the whole character, and then write the next stroke. Not rushing the child helps too.

Characters that tend to be harder

The hard parts for a left hand tend to be horizontal strokes, and strokes that sweep to the right or flick up and to the right. Both are push movements for the left hand.

• Characters with many horizontal strokes: き, さ, せ, た, ま, も, ほ. Several lines run from left to right, and they tend to wobble or come out short.
• Characters with a stroke that runs right and then turns: つ, て, そ. The pencil is pushed and has to change direction while pushing, so the shape easily goes out of line.
• Characters that end with a flick up to the right: し, い. At the end, the pencil is pushed up and to the right.

If these look hard for your child, try having them write those lines slowly. Pushed fast, a line wobbles. Pushed slowly, it can still be straight.

Characters whose stroke order itself is often wrong, for either hand, are in Hiragana Stroke Order: The Characters Learners Most Often Get Wrong.

Holding the pencil

Left-handed children are said to grip very close to the pencil tip, or bend the wrist and write from above, so that they can see what they are writing. With the paper tilted to the right, they can see the writing without bending the wrist.

The grip itself is the same as for the right hand, mirrored. How to teach it is in How to Teach Pencil Grip.

Should you switch the hand?

In the past, left-handed children were often made to write with the right hand. If a child chooses the left hand on their own, one view is to let them keep practising with it.

Writing is something a child will do for many years. At the start, what matters most is that they do not come to dislike writing itself. With the left hand too, paying attention to paper position and writing speed is enough to write neat hiragana.

Practising on an iPad

On an iPad, the same thinking applies. Laid flat on a table with its top edge turned a little to the right, it puts the left hand below the writing, so the character is easier to see. A flat iPad is easier to tilt than one on a stand.

StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer is an iPhone and iPad app for practising hiragana and katakana stroke order. When you choose a character, the model draws itself one stroke at a time in the correct order. Write one stroke with your finger or a stylus and lift, and the model for the next stroke starts to move. If a left hand covers the model, lifting the hand and watching the next stroke draw itself before writing shows its direction and where it starts.

The buttons on the practice screen run down the right side. While writing with the left hand, the child can press the redo or sound button with the free right hand. Turning on the cross guide shows the centre of the character, which helps line up horizontal strokes. There is no scoring or judging, so a child can rewrite as many times as they like at their own pace.

It covers 142 characters: hiragana and katakana with their dakuten and handakuten forms. Combined sounds such as きゃ and small characters such as っ are not included. It is a one-time purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases. On iPhone it runs in landscape; on iPad, in either orientation.

For the order in which to learn the characters, see What Order to Teach Hiragana In. For a first session, see Getting Started with StudyX Japanese Letters Tracer.