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How to discern left- or right-handedness?


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My middler, ds (3) is showing LOTS of signs of being a lefty. How do I know for sure and where do I begin with teaching him to write? He uses his left hand to write and eat about 50-70% of the time. He hi-fives with his left hand & kicks a ball with his left foot. We've taught him to bat right-handed, but he can bat left-handed with ease, too. He *does* use his right hand/foot too, but he uses his left ones so often that people comment to me all the time, asking if he is a lefty.

 

My question is, how did you determine left-handedness and should I start teaching him to do things with his left hand as opposed to the right? Should I push for him to use his right hand, if he doesn't fight it? I'm a little confused as to where I need to start with this!

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Children that age switch all the time. He will eventually choose on his own. Try not to influence it at all!

 

If you are teaching him how to write, let him pick up the pencil on his own each time and go with whatever hand he chooses. Do the same with everything. You don't need to decide whether to teach him left or right. Let his own brain figure out his naturally dominant side.

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In all things, I would let him choose. His writing hand should sort itself out by kindergarten. If it doesn't, I might encourage one particular hand during kindergarten. At that point, put a pencil vertically in the middle of the paper and see which hand he uses to pick it up for writing - several times and on different occasions. For anything else, I'd let him use whichever hand he feels most comfortable. (I have two lefties, and one of them uses her right hand for random things, like scissors.)

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Let him use his left hand, if he chooses so.

 

My DH started out as a lefty and when he started school, his teacher would not let him write as a lefty. He now has *terrible* handwritting because of it.

 

J is a lefty, I am a righty and DH is a righty by force. It was interesting teaching J how to print, but he has fine motor delays which has NOTHING to do with being a lefty, but does make for OT interesting, lol.

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Children that age switch all the time. He will eventually choose on his own. Try not to influence it at all!

 

If you are teaching him how to write, let him pick up the pencil on his own each time and go with whatever hand he chooses. Do the same with everything. You don't need to decide whether to teach him left or right. Let his own brain figure out his naturally dominant side.

 

:iagree:

 

This is what we did as well. From an early age, DS seemed to show a preference for using his left hand but we weren't sure. We just left it all up to him (and had him pick up the pencil, fork, etc. on his own so as not to influence him) and he's now definitely a lefty! :)

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Just let her use which ever each time. But, know that sometimes it takes longer than usual. 1dd switched until 9; 2dd was 11 before she settle on her right (is still known to use her left occasionally at 16); 3dd used her right every single time from the beginning; ds switched until about 5.

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Why?

 

I'm a lefty but when my dds were young, I encouraged use of the right hand. If they switched, I didn't put it back in the right. It really is a right handed world although they make alot of lefty things now. But when I was a kid, spiral notebooks, desks in college were a couple of things that were a pain to deal with.

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I'm a lefty but when my dds were young, I encouraged use of the right hand. If they switched, I didn't put it back in the right. It really is a right handed world although they make alot of lefty things now. But when I was a kid, spiral notebooks, desks in college were a couple of things that were a pain to deal with.

 

I am a lefty, too, but because of that I can't imagine encouraging one hand over the other.

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I'm a lefty but when my dds were young, I encouraged use of the right hand. If they switched, I didn't put it back in the right. It really is a right handed world although they make alot of lefty things now. But when I was a kid, spiral notebooks, desks in college were a couple of things that were a pain to deal with.

I never had trouble finding at least one to five left handed desks in a classroom in college. I am honestly surprised that you nudged your children in a different direction. Being left or right handed has to do with which side of the brain you naturally prefer. I think it hinders children to nudge them either way and it is best to let them choose as otherwise they are always going to be going against their natural instinct.

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I am a lefty, too, but because of that I can't imagine encouraging one hand over the other.

 

:iagree: There really is no way to encourage the use of the weaker hand without really messing up the brain. The brain does what it wants :001_smile:

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I agree with the others who have already said to let it be his preference each time he picks something up.

 

My youngest switched back and forth before sticking to the left in mid-first grade. He still does many things right handed (everything but eating and writing.) He bats, kicks, and throws equally well with both hands, which makes him funny to watch in sports ("Wasn't that kid a lefty last inning/half?") I write and eat right handed and do everything else left, and my oldest is right-handed but still does many things left-handed every once in a while. It's not a big deal. Oddly, the one person in our family who has bad handwriting and trouble with directions is my middle dd, who is strictly a righty.

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I was thinking of this today!

 

My 3yo equally uses his left and right hands. It' sort of funny to watch. He'll scribble a few seconds with left hand, switch to his right for a few more seconds and keep switching the entire time he wants to use his crayon. One meal he may exclusively use his right hand and the next meal, he'll use the fork in his left.

 

So I'm no help, just right there with you!

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I was thinking of this today!

 

My 3yo equally uses his left and right hands. It' sort of funny to watch. He'll scribble a few seconds with left hand, switch to his right for a few more seconds and keep switching the entire time he wants to use his crayon. One meal he may exclusively use his right hand and the next meal, he'll use the fork in his left.

 

So I'm no help, just right there with you!

 

My 11 year old is still like this. He does not even realize he is switching hands unless I point it out to him.

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We've known our dd was a lefty since she turned two. She uses her left hand for everything, and we've never tried to encourage her to use the other one.

 

I was just reading something about this the other day, actually. It said that left-handed people have an intellectual advantage, because they tend to use both hemispheres of their brain together more than righties. Something like that.

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put the pencil, scissors, spoon on the table in the middle and let the child pick it up with whichever hand they choose. This gives their brain the complete freedom to use whichever is correct for them. A child often switches hands until K, though some become very obviously one or the other earlier-I had a definite lefty by 3 yrs old.

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How do I know for sure and where do I begin with teaching him to write? He uses his left hand to write and eat about 50-70% of the time.

 

 

Unless your child is unusually gifted in fine motor skills and has an enormous amount of self control, he is too young to learn to write.

 

When he does get old enough (start playing around age 4) - you teach him the same way you teach your right handed children. There isn't anything special about it. I never received any differentiated instruction. His hand position may look unusual to you at first, but as long as he has a good grip, then don't worry about it. Left handedness isn't a big deal.

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I would celebrate a lefty with all my heart and not treat them any differently! Being right handed is in no way superior to being left handed, so there is nothing to be frightened of!

Nor is it any disadvantage to be left handed in today's society. I am strongly left handed in some ways (writing and fine motor skills) and ambidextrous in others (cricket, tennis). My mother likes to tell the story of when I was a baby and they would put a rattle in my right hand and I would change it over to my left. My dad is left handed also so I was not discriminated against by my family! I was sent to the principal as a student because of my messy handwriting, in 1st grade. My mother came to the school and was furious to find out I was seated on the right side of a right handed kid so we were knocking elbows, so I scrunched my arm in to my side. After my mum stood up for me, my handwriting improved and it is very neat now.

I was a little sad one of my kids was not born left handed.

Nothing to worry about at all! Its not like its a disability! Its a blessing :)

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I've got a lefty. He showed clear preference much younger than his right handed twin but I can't remember when we knew for sure. My left handed hubby was thrilled to have a another lefty in the family. It will be clear with time and until it is I would not try to steer him in either direction.

 

I didn't do anything special to teach him to write. Left handed kids will make their cross strokes (for a capital J or a t for example) right to left. But a lefty will just naturally do that. Left handed kids can tend to have a hook wrist position and if that happens you'd want to work on paper positioning and grip to correct it. My lefty didn't struggle with that but my right handed child did/does. It's fixable or at least addressable either way. My lefty grips the pencil higher than the right handed child. I can't think of any other differences. It's really not a big deal.

 

Cutting though was as struggle for him until I was informed that "universal" scissors are not. The blade is wrong for use in the left hand no matter what the package says. I think the child is better either learning to cut right handed (I was uncomfortable with that though now I'm not sure how I feel) or cutting with actual left handed scissors. Fiskars sells child left handed scissors but online rather than at Walmart and the like.

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Scissors are definitely not universal. I am a lefty but cut right-handed. I've never even tried left-handed scissors. It would just be too weird at this point. My dad is a lefty. Out of the four kids, two of us are lefties. I don't know why but I was a bit disappointed that neither of my boys turned out to be lefties too.

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If your son is using his left foot you may want to let him be lefthanded. It is important that the eye, ear, hand and foot all have the same dominant side. The brain works much better this way. Also, the mechanics are better when the dominance is all on one side. Those who are eye dominant with a different side than the hand have a harder time with handwriting and reading while copying. Hand him an empty toilet paper or paper towel roll to look at Mommy through and see which eye he holds it up to. Hand him a phone to say Hi to Grandma and see which ear he holds it up to. Hand him these things at midline. The last test doesn't necessarily work with an older kid as we train ourselves to use our left ear so we can write things down with the right hand while on the phone.

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Wow! Thank you all for your opinionsand experiences! It is great to know that my gut feeling is right on and there is no reason to "make him choose" at this point! I felt like I (and in turn he) was being pressured to supply an answer when asked if he's left handed. I thought maybe we should "know" by now. It's great to know some kids don't choose until later, all on their own. :)

 

I was thinking of this today!

 

My 3yo equally uses his left and right hands. It' sort of funny to watch. He'll scribble a few seconds with left hand, switch to his right for a few more seconds and keep switching the entire time he wants to use his crayon. One meal he may exclusively use his right hand and the next meal, he'll use the fork in his left.

 

So I'm no help, just right there with you!

 

Thank you for the commiseration! This is Caleb, exactly!

 

Unless your child is unusually gifted in fine motor skills and has an enormous amount of self control, he is too young to learn to write.

 

When he does get old enough (start playing around age 4) - you teach him the same way you teach your right handed children. There isn't anything special about it. I never received any differentiated instruction. His hand position may look unusual to you at first, but as long as he has a good grip, then don't worry about it. Left handedness isn't a big deal.

 

Ok, GREAT to know his fine motor skills are ok at this point! We've not been doing any formal handwriting, just pre-writing skills like drawing lines, dot-to-dot & mazes, etc...Drawing a straight line is a stretch at this point!!! But I do notice he has way better control with the left hand so I didn't know if I should go ahead & stress using his left, or not. I wouldn't ever stress against his natural preference but at this point it seems his mind may not be made up! ;)

 

If your son is using his left foot you may want to let him be lefthanded. It is important that the eye, ear, hand and foot all have the same dominant side. The brain works much better this way. Also, the mechanics are better when the dominance is all on one side. Those who are eye dominant with a different side than the hand have a harder time with handwriting and reading while copying. Hand him an empty toilet paper or paper towel roll to look at Mommy through and see which eye he holds it up to. Hand him a phone to say Hi to Grandma and see which ear he holds it up to. Hand him these things at midline. The last test doesn't necessarily work with an older kid as we train ourselves to use our left ear so we can write things down with the right hand while on the phone.

 

This is SO interesting! Thank you for pointing this out. :) Makes a ton of sense too!!!

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Ok, GREAT to know his fine motor skills are ok at this point! We've not been doing any formal handwriting, just pre-writing skills like drawing lines, dot-to-dot & mazes, etc...Drawing a straight line is a stretch at this point!!!

 

It sounds like you are on the right track, then. I had visions of handwriting workbooks when I read your message, glad to know that's not the case.

 

You might find this book helpful. There are many easy to do activities that will strengthen his hands and help his fine motor skills develop. I used this book when I taught a Fine Motor Fun class in our co-op.

But I do notice he has way better control with the left hand so I didn't know if I should go ahead & stress using his left, or not. I wouldn't ever stress against his natural preference but at this point it seems his mind may not be made up! ;)

I remember the OT talking about this when my ds was going. There was an age where she recommended that a child be asked to pick, but I don't remember what that age was - six or seven maybe?? The reason she recommended settling on one hand had to do with helping a child reach different developmental milestones. I wish I remembered more. I'll try to read some today to see if I can figure it out. Edited by TechWife
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Ok, GREAT to know his fine motor skills are ok at this point! We've not been doing any formal handwriting, just pre-writing skills like drawing lines, dot-to-dot & mazes, etc...Drawing a straight line is a stretch at this point!!!

...

But I do notice he has way better control with the left hand so I didn't know if I should go ahead & stress using his left, or not. I wouldn't ever stress against his natural preference but at this point it seems his mind may not be made up! ;)

 

I found the book from the handwriting training clinic that I went to when ds was first starting OT. This is what is says about hand preference:

 

"If a child is switching hands often during activities, try and observe which hand is being used most in coordinated tasks. Use gentle persuasion if the child consistently switches hands for writing and the child is older than 4 years of age. Sometimes this behavior continues because of difficulty with mid-line crossing an poorly developed postural reactions (balance).

Recommendations: Throughout the day observe the child in various occupations. Try and encourage hand preferences during all activities. When a task is clearly meant to be performed with one hand (a more dominant hand), help the child make a consistent choice. When the child engages in a two handed task, help the child use his/her preferred hand as the hand that 'does the work' while the other hand holds or stabilizes as a helping hand. The activities listed below will help develop hand preference and crossing midline. They are additional strategies that can be supportive. The most important recommendation for facilitating hand preference is helping the child make a choice of using his left or right hand consistently during daily occupations.

 

  • place stickers in various positions on paper and have the child draw from one side of the paper to the other
  • have the child perform large movements that demand the body to rotate. Have the child reach with his right arm as far left as possible and vice versa.
  • Have the child perform the 'infinity' sign on a vertical surface and if necessary use masking tape to mark a spot on the floor to discourage the child's feet from moving.
  • Provide an activity that requires the child to reach across mid-line. For example, have the child use rubber stamps on a long piece of paper that extends across an entire area directly in front of the child. Start stamping on the far left side and finish on the far right side."

 

Here is the "developmental progression of drawing" from the same clinic that shows the typical development by age:

 

A child should be able to imitate drawing a:

scribble 1-1.2

vertical line 2

horizontal line 2.5

cross 3

square 3.5

triangle 4.5

diamond 5

 

A child should be able to copy a:

circle 3

cross 4

square 4.5

triangle 5

diamond 6

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