After a stroke, a hand or arm injury, surgery or an amputation, or for the weeks a cast keeps the usual hand out of use, the other hand has to take over the writing. Most often that means a right-hander learning to write with the left hand. The everyday jobs do not wait: a signature on a delivery slip, a name and date of birth on a clinic form, a shopping list, a phone message that someone else has to read. Yet almost everything printed for handwriting practice assumes a right hand, or a child.
This page covers left hand writing practice for adults: two free pages to download (the setup page and the first letters page, l, i, and t), a direct answer to how to write with your left hand, how the support on each page fades, and how the full 120-page workbook is organized. There is no standardized test behind this format, and the page says plainly what the workbook is and is not.
Download the free left hand writing practice pages
Download the PDFWant more pages like this? Left Hand Writing Practice Workbook for Adults (Full Book, 120 Pages) $6.00 See the full set
Two pages from the Left Hand Writing Practice Workbook. Setting up your left hand covers paper, grip, wrist, pen, and surface, with a diagram of the 45 degree paper tilt. Line letters: l i t has a model box showing where each letter starts, a row each for l, i, and t (three gray letters to trace, three dashed letters to follow, then start dots alone), four All together rows, and a self-check. Fifteen to twenty minutes of practice. Free for personal, classroom, and session use.
- Level: Part 2, first letter family
- Letters: l i t
- Rows: 3 letter rows plus 4 mixed rows
- Session: 15 to 20 minutes
- Paper: US Letter
How to write with your left hand
Set up before the pen moves, then build in order: control strokes first, then letters one stroke family at a time, then size and spacing, with speed left until the writing is neat. Keep sessions to 15 to 20 minutes on most days, and judge each page on neatness rather than pace. That is the order the workbook follows.
The first free page covers the setup, five things to check before writing:
Paper
Put the paper to the left of your body's midline, tilted about 45 degrees to the right, with its left edge in line with your forearm. The diagram on the free page shows the angle.
Grip
Hold the pen between thumb and index finger, resting on the middle finger, about 1.5 in (4 cm) from the tip. Far enough back to see the line you are writing on.
Wrist
Keep the wrist straight, with the hand below the line rather than hooked over it. This also helps keep ink off the hand.
Pen and surface
Use quick-drying ink or a pencil, press lightly, and try a closed binder under the page to make a slope. Many people find the slope helps early on.
Expect writing with your non-dominant hand to feel slow and awkward for the first weeks, and expect the new hand's writing, signature included, to look different from before. That is why every practice page ends with the same line: neat first, speed later. Switching to your right hand instead? Every page is laid out for a left-handed writer, but the setup page says to mirror all of it, and a right-hand switcher can use the book too.
Is this a handwriting assessment?
No. Left hand writing practice does not borrow its format from any standardized test, and none is implied. In clinical practice, occupational therapists use standardized handwriting and fine motor assessments, alongside a history, to understand how a person writes and what gets in the way. A practice page cannot do that job.
Which hand to practice with is a separate decision, and also one for a professional. If your usual hand may still get better, talk it over with your therapist or doctor before switching; the workbook says the same on its opening pages. Many people use it while a cast keeps the usual hand out of use, or when the change is long term, and it can sit alongside therapy for the usual hand.
These pages are practice materials. They are not an assessment and not a therapy program, they do not identify any condition or predict how writing will change, and nothing here is a substitute for an evaluation by a qualified professional. What they offer is structured handwriting practice for a hand that is new to writing, in an adult format, with the support faded one step at a time.
How the left hand writing pages are graded
Every letter in the workbook moves through the same three levels of support, and the free line letters page shows all three in a single row:
Trace the gray letters
Three solid gray letters open each row, to write over so the hand feels the whole movement first. The model box at the top of the page numbers each stroke: the line before the dot on i, the down stroke before the cross on t.
Follow the dashes
Three dashed outlines, each with a dot marking where to start. The shape is still there, but the pen has to find it.
Start dots alone
The rest of the row is start dots only, and the four All together rows mix the letters as lit, itl, and tli. The next page in the family drops the gray letters, then moves to smaller lanes as control builds.
Each of the six letter families gets four pages: the letters, a fading-support page, a words page with 10 words to trace and copy, and a review. Every practice page ends with a self-check, and wherever the book asks you to score your own writing, it uses the same five-item legibility checklist: formation, size, spacing, placement, and slant, where upright is fine. Four benchmark pages, one before Part 1 and one at the end of Parts 2, 4, and 5, ask you to copy the same sentence for one minute and count the words written and the words a stranger could read.
What is in the 120-page workbook
The full book runs in five parts, from first strokes to everyday writing, in US Letter and A4:
- Control (12 pages): lines, circles, arches, and loops, then four timed precision paths that count each touch of the channel wall.
- Letters (36 pages): all 26 lowercase letters in six stroke families (line, curve, arch, dive, slant, and combination letters), a direction check for the letters and numbers that flip, then capitals and numbers.
- Size, spacing and steady writing (13 pages): the three zones, gaps between words, upright writing, and boxes and form fields.
- Speed (11 pages): nine one-minute pages that count only what is legible, a speed table, and neat-at-speed practice.
- Real-life writing (14 pages): a new signature, your details, an appointment form, lists, phone messages, a note, and an envelope.
| What you get | Free sample | Full workbook |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | 2 | 120, in US Letter and A4 |
| Setup | Setting up your left hand | Setup, warm-up, and a start-here guide |
| Control and precision paths | None | 12 pages |
| Letters | Line letters (l, i, t) | 36 pages: all six families, capitals, and numbers |
| Size, spacing, and speed | None | 24 pages |
| Real-life writing | None | 14 pages, from a new signature to an envelope |
| Benchmarks, plan, and practice paper | Self-check line | 4 benchmarks, a 12-week plan with a log, and 17 paper sheets |
| Repeat sessions without reusing a page | One page | Weeks of practice |
Using it in a session or at home
- Set up first, and recheck when ink smears. Check paper, grip, and wrist against the setup page before writing. If the hand curls over the line or picks up ink, bring the wrist back below the line and recheck the tilt.
- Warm up, and skip anything that hurts. Shake out the hand, open and close it slowly five times, and roll the shoulders, as the workbook suggests. Stop before the hand aches, and loosen a grip that has crept tight.
- Start where the model shows. Find the numbered start in the model box before each new letter, and keep the stroke order it shows.
- Judge neatness, not speed. Circle your neatest three letters at the end of the page. The letter pages are not timed; speed has its own part later in the book.
- Keep it short. One or two pages is a full session, 15 to 20 minutes on most days. Coming back often matters more than staying long.
- When words are hard, copy. After some strokes, finding or spelling words gets harder. Every task in the book gives you something to copy, and a speech-language pathologist can help with language itself.
Need paper for the writing in between? We also offer seven sheets of free left-hand practice paper on our tools site, with writing lanes in three sizes (XL, L, and M). No sign-in and no email, just print the sheets you need.
Who uses left hand writing practice sheets
- Adults writing with their other hand after a stroke, most often right-handers moving to the left
- People after a hand or arm injury, surgery, or an amputation
- Anyone whose usual hand is in a cast for weeks, with forms still to sign
- Occupational therapists and hand therapists who want adult pages laid out for a left-handed writer
- Family members and carers who help with practice at home between sessions
Other handwriting pages that pair with it
- For print letters on single sheets, the free curve letters worksheet practices the next family, c, o, a, d, g, and q, with numbered stroke arrows.
- For everyday writing once letters are steady, the color-coded handwriting paper gives every line a job, in four sizes.
- If joined writing is the goal later on, the Cursive Handwriting Workbook for Adults takes strokes, letters, joins, and capitals through to everyday writing.
The free pages above are two of 120. The full Left Hand Writing Practice Workbook for Adults has all five parts, the four benchmarks, the 12-week plan, and the practice paper, in US Letter and A4. Print handwriting, cursive, and the paper are all in the Handwriting collection, and our guide to handwriting worksheets for adults explains how they fit together.
These materials support handwriting practice. They are not medical treatment or an assessment, and no specific therapeutic outcomes are claimed.
