Reversals can happen when a child has poor working memory. For example, he can't remember what a letter exactly looks like. It can also be caused by visual processing issues, like when young children can't tell the difference between similar letters (like b and d, or p and q) or the direction they should face.
Mirror writing is when someone writes letters and words in reverse, creating a mirror image of the text. While it may seem puzzling at first, it's important to know that mirror writing is not a cause for alarm. In fact, it could be an indicator of a gifted child with advanced cognitive abilities.
As any nursery or primary teacher knows, mirror-writing is very common amongst children learning to write. These productions are not mere confusions of legal mirror-image characters (such as 'b' and 'd') but can involve the reversal of any character, and even whole words and phrases.
mirror writing is often a symptom of nerve disease; but the disease need not be the cause of the existence of the faculty, but only the cause of its discovery.
Reversing letters or mirror writing isn't necessarily a sign of dyslexia. Some kids with dyslexia have trouble with it, but many don't. In fact, most kids who reverse letters before age 7 end up not having dyslexia. For older kids who continue to reverse letters, there are a few other potential causes.
Mirror writing is an issue that many children face, hence is not specific to children on the autism spectrum. The important question is whether one perceives the image in reverse, or perceives it the right way but makes a mistake while carrying out the action of writing.
Mirror-writing arises during childhood because of an innate tendency for the brain to generalise across mirror-image forms and actions. For most objects we encounter, and actions that we learn, the mirror-image versions are equivalent.
The term mirror writing specifically refers to the act of writing letters and words in reverse, something commonly seen in kids from age 3 to about 7. If you were to attempt to read what's written, the letters are formed from right to left, rather than the left-to-right orientation of the English language.
The most common form of mirror-writing happens in childhood. Look at any child's first spelling books, and you'll often see individual letters and numbers written back to front, or even a whole name written backwards. "The mirror reversals you get in childhood are a completely normal part of development.
If you're concerned that a child is writing their name backwards or mirror writing, please be reassured that in the majority of cases this is a common, even arguably normal occurrence. Also, it is something a large number of children do, and rarely a sign of any underlying issues.
Letter reversals, when children write letters backward or upside down, can be common up until the age of 7 years. It is often called mirror writing. This is due to poor working memory as well as weaknesses in visual processing skills. Children typically reverse the letters b, d, q, p, and the numbers 9, 5, and 7.
Fluent cursive mirror writing appears to be an innate ability. It may be possible for a young person to learn to mirror write with much practice, but why would anyone bother?
Ability to write mirrored text
15% of left-handed people have the language centres in both halves of their brain. The cerebral cortex and motor homunculus are affected by this, causing the person to be able to read and write backwards quite naturally.
Mirroring movement is a simple play activity that involves copying someone's movements, like you're in a mirror. Mirroring movement activities help children with disability, autism or other additional needs improve their physical coordination and gross motor skills.
Mirror Agnosia is a condition where even though the person knows that he is looking at mirror as evidenced by ability to identify the frame and the glass of the mirror, he fails to recognize the objects that are reflected in the mirror as reflections.
As Kayla and her brain see more models of her name written correctly, she'll first say "Hey, that doesn't look right!" and later, "It's backward!" as the concept develops. However, if mirror writing persists as she gets to be about six or older, then we might have something to worry about.
Often the concept of reversing letters is immediately associated with a dyslexia diagnosis, but that's a bit of a misnomer. In fact, dyslexia is a condition that affects how people read letters and words, while dysgraphia is the condition in which kids reverse their letters while writing — they're quite different.
At age 5 and 6, it's normal for kids to write numbers backward. But it is still important to begin working with them to understand which way numbers face.
Most people think that dyslexia causes people to reverse letters and numbers and see words backwards. But reversals happen as a normal part of development, and are seen in many kids until first or second grade. The main problem in dyslexia is trouble recognizing phonemes (pronounced: FO-neems).
Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder characterized by writing disabilities. Specifically, the disorder causes a person's writing to be distorted or incorrect. In children, the disorder generally emerges when they are first introduced to writing.
Essentially, mirror neurons respond to actions that we observe in others. The interesting part is that mirror neurons fire in the same way when we actually recreate that action ourselves. Apart from imitation, they are responsible for myriad of other sophisticated human behavior and thought processes.
Writing Backwards
The purpose of his mirror writing is unknown, but one idea is that it may have kept his hands clean. People who were contemporaries of Leonardo left records that they saw him write and paint left handed. He also made sketches showing his own left hand at work.
Dysgraphia is a neurological condition and learning difference in which someone has difficulty with writing for their age level. This can range from issues with the physical act of writing to issues with translating thoughts into written words.