Are Left-Handed Scissors A Thing?

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Have you every wondered, "Are left-handed scissors a thing?" Yes, absolutely! Left-handed scissors are essential in helping left-handed kids develop their fine motor skills.

Many lefties over the years have adapted to using right-handed scissors. Either they learnt to cope with the awkward cutting motion when using heir left hand. Or they used their right hands for cutting and their left hands for writing. Neither of these options is ideal.

This page aims to show you why it is important for your left-handed child to use the left hand for scissor cutting and to cut with left-handed scissors.

are left-handed scissors a thing?

Understanding The Need For Left-Handed Scissors

Left-handed scissors are not a fad; they are specially designed to meet the unique needs of left-handed individuals.

This picture shows left-handed scissors (red and blue handled) and right handed scissors (blue handles).

As you can see, the blades of left-handed scissors are attached in reverse when compared to the blades of right-handed scissors.

the blades of left-handed scissors are attached in reverse compared to the bladed of right-handed scissorsLeft scissors vs Right scissors
  • The reversed blades result in a more natural cutting motion, and your child will be able to see the cutting line more easily.
  • This means your child will be less awkward when they are cutting out with scissors, and they will be able to cut more neatly.

Left-handed scissors are therefore a necessary resource to help lefties gain confidence in cutting with scissors.

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Why Lefties Should Cut With The Left Hand

Cutting with scissors is one of the best activities to strengthen the hand muscles, especially the finger muscles that are used to control a pencil for handwriting.

However, when a left-handed child is using the right hand to cut with scissors, the left hand is not getting the fine motor practice it needs to become strong and specialized. Handwriting and other fine motor skills may then be affected.

It is therefore in the child's best interests to provide lots of opportunities to successfully cut with scissors - which is why left-handed scissors are really a thing for lefties!

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Why Consistent Hand Preference Is Important

When your child can easily control a pencil with a consistently preferred hand, your child will be more able to write efficiently and effectively.

They can pay more attention to thinking about what to actually write, rather than focusing on holding and controlling the pencil.

left handed child writing with good left hand writing positionWriting with the left hand

An issue that occupational therapists often see, is that when left-handed children have been using their right hand for scissor cutting tasks, the left hand might not be strongly specialized, and is thus less ready to master pencil control for handwriting.

Giving your left-handed child lots of opportunity to cut with the left hand, will help develop stronger left hand specialization, which can free the brain up for other cognitive tasks, such as writing good essays and computing math problems!

Read more about hand preference / hand dominance here.

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Are Left-Handed Scissors A Thing? Yes! So Now What?

Get proper left-handed scissors

These are readily available in most stationery aisles and school supply shops. I have linked to two on Amazon for your convenience:

I've written more about left-handed scissors and why to avoid ambidextrous scissors here.


Get some resource packs!

The principles of how to hold scissors, and how to cut along the line, and how to cut out shapes, all apply in exactly the same way for lefties. All of the scissor cutting tips, information and resources on my website are equally applicable to left- and right-handed kids.

If your child is used to cutting with right-handed scissors, they may still look awkward as they adjust to new left-handed scissors. But with practice and encouragement, they should soon adapt and love the more natural feel of left scissors!

Here are some printable resource packs that are popular with parents and teachers:

scissor-skills-square-promo.jpg

So, are left-handed scissors a thing? Absolutely, and they are essential for left-handed children to develop all of their fine motor skills effectively.

By investing in true left-handed scissors, you can help your child master scissor cutting with confidence and success.

Even older kids and teens who are lefties can still benefit from switching to left-handed scissors for crafts and sewing, and learning how much more enjoyable a task can be with the appropriate tools!

are left-handed scissors a thing?

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Related Pages

Although not specifically geared to lefties, all the information on these pages of my site are applicable for all children who need to develop their fine motor and handwriting skills!

Scissor cutting activities - tips, activities and printablesScissor cutting activities for kids
essential foundations for the development of a child's fine motor skillsFine Motor Development
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