Life in the left hand can be tricky for children living in a predominantly right-handed world. If they are lucky enough to have a parent or teacher who is left-handed or that can help teach them how to do the essentials such as writing and cutting, they can find themselves trying to do things with their right hand or using right-handed instruments and struggling.
My nine-year old son is left-handed and although now he has beautifully neat writing, it has taken years of support and using the correct equipment to get him to that point and I discovered in the first few years at school that life was much easier for him if I invested in pens, pencils and scissors that are especially made for left-handers.
Maped Helix have a great range of products for left-handers and we were sent a few to give them a try. Each product is designed ergonomically and logically to be used correctly and easily by left-handers.
The Maped Visi Pen is a ball point pen which is designed in such a way that it gives the writer more visibility when they are writing. It is also anti-slip which is great as I find that L grips pens a lot harder than the others. L really like these pens and said that they were really comfortable to use and he like the feel and the style.
The Helix Left Handed Ruler is a genius idea and something that I haven’t seen before. Again, designed to function for the way that left handers would use it, the centimetres and inches run from right to left. L was fascinated by this as he has always used regular rulers but agreed that this would be much better. It is also shatterproof which hopefully will help it survive in the school bag every day.
I am ashamed to say that I haven’t ever bought a pair of left-handed scissors for L, he doesn’t often use scissors at home and when he tried the Maped Sensoft 3D scissors, he started off using them in his right hand. When I pointed out to him that they were left-handed he swapped over and said that it was much easier to cut using these scissors and that usually he didn’t bother with left-handed scissors in school either. He added that he was ‘rubbish at cutting’ and I explained that maybe with the correct scissors, this might change.
Hopefully, now that he has these, he will keep them in his pencil case and any time he needs to use scissors, these will make life a little bit easier for him.
Another new idea for me was a the Maped Igloo left-handed pencil sharpener. This sharpener has a reversed blade allowing you to hold the pencil in your left hand and turn it counter-clockwise which is a much more natural movement for left handers.
Both L and I are really impressed with the left-handed range from Maped Helix and with L starting secondary school in September, it is essential that he has the right equipment in his pencil case as he has to be more independent. I hope that these products will help him to feel more comfortable doing his schoolwork as they are much better for him than trying to adapt to right-handed products all of the time.
See Maped Helix full ranges here www.mapedhelix.co.uk, Maped Helix products can be bought from all major retailers as well as independent retailers.
We were sent these products as part of this review. All opinions and images are my own.
