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I was wondering what age you noticed whether your child was right or left handed?
I thought early on that DS was right handed but some things - like using a spoon - he is much better at with his left hand. So I was wondering at what age they really start to favour one?
Nina (at 22 months) is still using both hands. For a while there we thought she may be left handed, but she's gone back to using both.
I have also noticed that DD is most likely going to be left handed. SHe uses her left hand for most things- eating, turning book pages, drawing. THough still uses her R hand too. I don't think handedness is set in stone until they are older, about 3 or so. But then I have also read that it's determined in the womb, so who knows!!
My DD is 2 1/2 and still using both hands aswell.
A few times I have been sure that she is a lefty but she usually goes back to using both again.
DD is definitely showing a preference for being right handed and she is not yet 2 1/2. She will "write" with her crayon and colour in using her right hand consistently. She was using both hands until she was about 2 and since then has been gradually using her right hand more and more.
Oscar uses both hands but he seems to use his right more than his left. With saying that he is confident with his left though. So he has me confused :lol: I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I was wondering about this too. I've already put down bet's with my family that Flynn is going to be a lefty. He is always shoving his left hand into his mouth. He shoves both in don't get me wrong but the left seems to be the favored one....guess we'll wait and see (I'm sure I'll be proved wrong! :) )
DD is still using both hands, but i always pass into her right hand, to encourage right-handedness (if she's left-handed i can't change it but if she's between the two i can), and she's gradually using it more and more over the left. She holds the fork in her left hand, but she manipulates the food onto it with her right. I think by the time they're 3 or so they're pretty much set in whichever hand is dominant.
Bx
Really? Why?:
DD is still using both hands, but i always pass into her right hand, to encourage right-handedness (if she's left-handed i can't change it but if she's between the two i can),
:lol: I tried to encourage Matilda to be left-handed.... I am and I love being left-handed. Its something that makes me "different". Alas... Matilda has always been strongly right-handed. *meh* it isn't something I've thought too much about.
Jovie is 20 months & not showing either side.
I noticed around the age of 2 that DS1 and 2 were using thier right hands more often, and DS1 at almost 9 is right handed. Ds3 uses his left hand for most things so we are pretty sure he will be left handed..
Usually they don't develop definite handedness until 3 or 4. By the time they start school they are usually either left or right handed. My DDs were at preschool before they were obviously right handed but DS seems to be left handed very strongly already as he does everything with his left hand.
Hi
DS1 is nearly four and is definitely left handed and has shown a strong tendancy towards this hand for about the last 18 months. DS2 has just turned two and he is also favouring his left hand more, although occassionally still uses his right but looks uncoordinated. So two leftys here. I am really interested to see if DD is also left handed. My DH and I are both right handed but my biological mother is left handed so I guess thats where it comes from.
I'd heard that they don't usually show preference until about 3yo, but DS has been a lefty for sooooo long LOL. Well before he was 2 he showed preference.
Me too Cai!
Many generations of women in my family are left handed. Darcy (yay) has shown an obvious tendency towards her left hand for a long time and she's just 2.
I can already see in Jesse at 3 1/2 months that he'll be right handed. He has alot more control with his right hand.
Jaz is ambidextrous. Can use both. Mostly uses her right, but can use her left. She's using the left hand less & less though. I'm completely useless with my left hand.
oh dear Hamish is 4 turning 5 this year and he still doesnt seem to have a favourite hand.
He constantly swaps, picks up with one hand then will change it half way through what he is doing.
Perhaps he isnt going to have favourite but thats ok with me. I tend to use both hands although i am stronger with the right. Hamish hasnt lent towards either.
Because it's easier and safer to be in the 90% of people the machines, roads, equipment and ways of doing things the world is set up for, primarily and also a little because the way a left-handed brain processes information makes learning a less flexible affair. It's incredibly handy to be left handed if you're in a car crash because things like motor and language skills are more spread out, over both hemispheres (rather than in one hemisphere) so you're unlikely to have more devastating effects from head injury, but equally you're more likely to be in a crash if you're left handed because the cars and roads and other drivers expect you to be right-handed.:
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DD is still using both hands, but i always pass into her right hand, to encourage right-handedness (if she's left-handed i can't change it but if she's between the two i can),
Really? Why?
I have nothing against left-handed people, but i think for her sake she'd be better off right handed IF she can choose. If she can't of course that's perfectly fine too.
Bx
Oh Gosh now I am worried about both my boys being left handed :).
So why does it making learning harder or should I say less flexible if you are left handed?
I was prepared to swear DS was a lefty by the time he was about 4 months old - he really seemed to favour the left. However he is now 21 months and most definitely a righty. When I gave him textas and crayons to draw with at about 12 months he went straight for the right hand and never draws with his left hand. He also throws things with his right hand, not his left.
Interestingly, when he kicks a ball, he favours the right foot but not nearly so obviously as with his hands.
I think left handedness is cool but I understand it can make life a little less convenient given that most things are built for right handed world (think about the way your fridge door opens, the button that opens the microwave door, etc etc). I have read a little about it though and there is no need to "worry" about lefthandedness, studies have shown that lefties are no more accident prone or have a higher mortality rate than righties.
Jemima in most schools the teacher will stand at the front of the lesson teaching. When writing on the board, doing maths or writing skills, he or she will turn his back to write on the board. A teaching assistant will sit beside the child to help (if they have a teachers assistant).
A left-handed child is thus trying to do what is being done in front of them backwards, because they lead with their thumb when writing, not their little finger. To teach a left-handed child a motor skill (like shoe-lace tying or writing), if you yourself are right-handed, it's best to sit opposite them, make yourself their mirror, and they won't have any trouble. But people don't. They tend to cater to the majority and try to teach the same way. Left handed people i know ALL had problems with skills like tie-tying, lace-tying, drawing, any fine motor control basically. They ALL caught up eventually. Some studies suggest that the fact that motor control in left-handed people is in both hemisphered makes them less-apt at such things, but i truthfully think it's down to how these things are taught that makes a difference.
Life is set up for right-handed people. It's not just little things like tools - if you go to hospital for an operation it's VERY unlikely you'll have a surgeon who operates with his left hand, even if he IS left-handed because ALL of the tool, implements, medical machines, beds and operating theatres are set up for right-handed people.
In addition left-handed people's brains ARE concretely different to right-handed people. They tend to be highly creative rather than analytical, and do well with verbal skills and maths, perhaps because their right hemisphere, where such tasks are dealt with, is more active because of their motor centres being in that part too(?), BUT they frequently have problems with written expression (for the reasons above) and some studies have suggested that the teaching styles in mainsteam teaching are less useful for left-handers than right. Again, it's not insurmountable, it's just irritating for them to have to deal with.
There have been studies which found left-handed people are over-represented in both high IQ and autistic/developmental delay groups. Because the left-handed brain is less hemispecific than the right-handed brain it could be that SOME left handedness is BECAUSE of brain damage, whereas other left-handedness is not. If that makes sense.
Left-handed people are also in SOME studies, over-represented in dyslexia, but i do wonder to what extent that is poor teaching style which doesn't work well for the left-handed child. Prematurity and difficult births are associated with a slight increase in the likelihood of left-handedness, it's hard to know if a difficult birth causes the left-handedness or if the left-handed brain approaches birth differently.
Basically, to re-iterate, if DD or any of my kids turned out to be left-handed, that's totally fine by me, but i was ambidextrous as a kid (very handy when i broke my right wrist at 11) and for all the reasons above if DD is the same i will teach her to favour the right. It will make her life easier, that's all.
Bx
You can make lefties become righties. DH is a prime example. His mum made him righthanded by making him use his right hand for everything. Which explains why his writing looks like he's using the wrong hand LOL.
And in the good ol' days, left handed kids used to get hit with a ruler and made to use their right. So you can influence their handedness if you really want.
I don't really care if DS is left or right handed :) but if he's a lefty - he got it from his dad.
Just remember - only left handed people are in their right minds ;)
Thanks heaps Hoobley. You are always a wealth of knowledge :D
Liz did you know if BOTH parents are left-handed there's still only a 26% chance their child will be.
Interestingly in cultural groups where using the left hand is saved for "unclean" activities left-handedness is not heard of. Everyone uses the "proper" hand, rather than the preferred one. Clearly God was right-handed, since he kept his favoured saints "at his right hand" and took Adam's left side (opposite God's right hand, also seen as the lesser or unimportant side) to make Eve...
My brother (a dyspraxic premmie) was also a lefty forced to be a righty. He laughingly considers himself antidextrous - crap with both hands... Interestingly he is brilliant with computers which use maths but don't differentiate between hands in operating...
Bx
My DD is very much a left hander and she favoured this hand fairly quite early on. You could tell very easily when she was a toddler.
She has always had great fine motor skills, and it has not slowed her down at all really. She has some very experienced teachers in her Montessori Kindy, and they are helping her establish correct pencil grip for a lefty, and sitting opposite her etc, to demonstrate activities etc. She has always been a detailed drawer and her writing is very good and she is not even 4.5 years old yet and she can write many words if you spell them out to her, but she does have a tendency for mirror writing and that will be common place until she is in about grade 1 or 2. She will grow out of it, but it is a natural thing to do, as that is the way she is wired. She can write whole words in mirror, not just a few letters. Sometimes, this can be mistaken for dyslexia, but it is not. It is just one of those young left hander things and they will grow out of it. Actually, it is quite rare to have the skill to write entire words in mirror too. I think it is 1 in a few thousand (I can't remember the exact number I read). Many young lefties do a bit mirrored, but entire words is a bit different. It is a skill that Michelangelo & Leonardo Di Vinci had. Di Vinci in particular was renowned for his excellence and perfection in mirror writing.
But Hoobly makes intersting points and that is along the lines of what I have read too.:D
Interesting about the birth experiences as being an apparent reason for left handedness too. I have come across that, but don't know what to think of those findings. I have also read that transvaginal ultrasounds are said to contribute too. But who knows?..Maybe it is just one of those things and that is also what I have read as well. But we're all happy here and my DD has no worries at this stage. We are fortunate that she has some very cluey and experienced Kindy teachers who have already gotten onto the correct ways to teach a lefty how to do things like reading and writing, lacing (they do this as part of the Montessori programme, so she has already been learning quite early how to tie bows and do laces etc as part of the practical life section etc etc.). A lot of her activities at eth kindy are hands on, and this works well for her development and her left handedness has not been a hinderence at all.
Interesting.. I can write in mirror writing! I used to take notes that way just for the novelty LOL. I'm not a lefty tho, maybe I'm just weird LOL.
Perfect mirror writing has been attributed to genius :) ...:
It is more dominant in the lefties to that, as that is the way they are wired naturally, but righties can have the skill as well. My maths teacher did, and he was a rightie. He was a very very intelligent man :D
all the lefties i know are all doctors, whom i used to work for.. anyways
DD is 5 and still uses both, however the left more less so..
DH regrets his prep teacher telling him to "JUST CHOOSE ONE" and wishes he could still use both, understandably so.
LOL - would love to know the field that I'm a genius in! Nothing is apparent so far! LMAO. So far it's just a party trick :)
I can do it too Liz, also upside-down-and-back-to-front. And i can read upside down as fast as i can the right way up too. I think some of it (how it feels to me) is about spatial awareness, it's just about rotating what you want to read/write through space in your head.
Dust i was ambidextrous too and eventually "picked right" but if i practice just a little bit i can still write with my left hand - feels awkward though, especially because the spiral-bound notebooks i favour have their wire where it gets in the way of left handed writing. Your DH's brain might be a bit rusty but practice will bring it back.
I am left-eye-dominant, so clearly my brain is a wee bit ecletic when it comes to some things.
T&G'sMum Montessori are an excellent resource for children who are left-handed or indeed have any kind of difference. The method relies on looking at the individual child's needs and not on teaching in a "lowest-common-denominator" way which other schools are unfortunately forced to do.
Bx
Yeah DH is amazed at my reading upside down. I'm good at those spatial puzzles and things too.. guess I'm one of the few girls that CAN read road maps! LOL.
Oh yes! We have been so impressed with Montessori and they way in which they cater to the individual child's needs and interests. My DD just adores her time at Kindy too. Love it! :D:
Just curious about something ladies - I read a while ago that right-handed children generally have a strong clockwise crown in their hair, whereas left-handed children have either a counter-clockwise crown or no clear swirl in the crown at all. This sounded strange to me, and I haven't been able to prove or disprove it. All my kids are right-handed, and have a strong clockwise swirl.
I always figured God used Adam's left side to make Eve because that was where his heart was....? :)
I suspect Oliver will be a lefty - he almost exclusively prefers to suck on his left hand, and tends to grab for things more often with the left or both hands rather than the right. Hubby is a lefty, I'm right handed.