Stefan Bradley
TODAY is International Lefthanders Day, which for Maffra West Upper resident Kate Axford is the perfect time to raise awareness about the challenges left handed children face throughout their education.
Kate Axford is part of LEFT-IN which is a global interest group formed in 2021 with the aim of improving the information and education available to the educators of left-handed children around the world.
In late 2023, the Victorian Education Department updated its Literacy Teacher Toolkit to include detailed and referenced instructions for teachers’ instruction of handwriting to left handed students in response to an appeal by Ms Axford.
Ms Axford had observed the teaching methods in her son’s early learning centre for left handers, saying they had there was “little-to-no direction and incorrect information for teachers to be able to teach and support the basics of literacy being letter formation, paper placement and pen grip”.
“My concerns were raised as my first son is left-handed and being a new mum I was unaware of this until he was three-years-old. I found the system had failed me right from get go,” she told the Gippsland Times.
She said that education not understanding the correct way to develop left-handedness was causing frustration for the kids, who were getting a bad experience in the classroom.
“I was sure that I couldn’t be the only one going through this and further investigations into the matter I found that not only was I not supported, neither was my son in his further progression into kindergarten and primary school.”
Ms Axford liaised back-and-forth with the Department of Education for about 18 months before they took the initiative on board, and she hopes the rest of the country would adopt a similar approach in the future.
“With rural Victoria already at a disadvantage in deliverance of education, I feel no child should be left behind especially when (left handedness) isn’t a choice,” she said.
“It’s natural and still we fail to accept, recognise and treat them as equals and the worst is that teachers who are not given enough credit for what they do are left in the dark with no resources to be able to teach left-handed students or accommodate them.”
During International Lefthanders Day, it’s important to remember that about 10-12 per cent of the population is left handed.
Head to leftys.com.au for resources for left-handed students.
