Should I encourage/push right-handedness?

[Hunter]

Neuroplasticity, crossing the midline, and all sorts of other stuff I've read, but didn't totally understand, just lets me know there is still so much we don't know.

 

Abusing children for disobedience was common in the past. Sometimes the abuse had a LOT less to do with writing with the left hand as it did with disobedience. I think as we re-evalute this topic we need to separate the abuse from the issue of lefties writing with their right hands. There were TWO things going on here.

 

Also there is quite the spectrum of how one-side dominant some people are. Some people can easily adapt to switching hands. Others cannot do it at all.

 

Certain cursive hands are more difficult for left-handers, than for right-handers. SOMETIMES a teacher who teaches these hands intensively MIGHT want to give a TRIAL of each lefty using their right hand.

 

There are therapists that require patients/students to use both hands for all sorts of activities.

 

All I know is just enough to know that this is NOT a silly question. :D

[PeterPan]

I know that doing something with your non-dominant hand or foot is beneficial in a spatial awareness of your body sort of way. Based on the very limited reading I've done on hemisphere dominance and coordination and tasks such as writing that require the use of both sides, I think it could also be useful for mental activities too.

 

Actually, based on the number of lefties that, as you said, already use their right for other things, there are probably a lot of right-handed people who would benefit for that knowledge of spatial awareness. When a person has one side as heavily dominant and their hemispheres aren't coordinating properly, I would imagine using the other side to remediate may have some use. I'm not sure if strengthening your ability to use your non-dominant side would also strengthen that hemisphere's ability to do other things. I know that "crossing the midline" activities that require the coordinated use of both sides of your body are useful for future reading.

 

I wouldn't suggest it for a child young enough to need to think about how letters are formed.

 

 

We've done OT and whatnot for midline issues. No one ever suggested using the left-side or trying to build proficiency there. Usually when they work on midline, they're trying to get thought to cross from one side of the brain to the other, so they construct activities that blend. For instance my dd can read the notes on a sheet of music and tell you the name OR she can strike the key when you tell her a note name. What cannot actually read the music on the page and in one fluid motion then strike the correct key on the piano. That apparently requires info to cross the two sides of the brain. Pretty nutso, and we may try to work on it more this summer. Also typing has been hard for her. She's 20 wpm (which in her case is 50%) faster when typing her own thoughts than she is if she has to transcribe.

 

When she ice skated, they had many skills they had to do on each side, so you saw dominance showing up. It requires more practice to build proficiency in the non-dominant side, yes. Doing that doesn't confer any benefit as far as bilaterality and corpus callosum development. She ice skated, went through many levels, took private lessons, etc. for years and still had significant bilaterality issues. So working on the non-dominant side will be a splinter skill, something where you build proficiency that is isolated and doesn't necessarily improve you overall. (Splinter skill is a term our OT used.)

 

And yes, if you have a young dc with midline issues, you would absolutely begin as early as you realize it. I've begun my ds working on the metronome with me doing simple things like attempting to clap to the beat (54 bpm). As soon as he can do that comfortably, I'll begin to challenge the clapping patterns and introduce some bilateral patterns. When he can do those comfortably, I'll add in working memory with digit spans and distractions.

 

Not that any of that has anything to do with the op. :)

[Hunter]

Textbooks from may back in the late 1800s and early 1900s stressed working both sides of the body. Two-handed symmetrical drawing on the blackboard was common. Waldorf schools sometimes still continue the activity. Knitting is used to heal the brain because it uses both hands.

 

Walking is brain healing, because it uses both sides. Children who walk and run more appear to have less of some types of learning disabilities.

 

I don't think these discussions are off topic from lefties writing with their right hands. It's all part of it. The idea that all lefties MUST write with their left hands, or the teacher is an abuser, just isn't fair or accurate.

[Lindi]

My father was forced to write with his right hand in school although he had a definite left hand preference. He hated it and feels his school work suffered. As an adult, he could write (and do other things) well with either hands but always used his left. So, when I had a left-handed son, I let him be left-handed. As a parent and teacher, though, remember that left-handedness does have its downsides. If possible, give him extra room at the dinner table. And buy him left handed scissors! The scissors are something I didn't realize - he wasn't cutting as well as other children until I had a "duh" moment.

[twoxcell]

I read one time that left handedness may be caused by a traumatic birth which would be true for my dh and my dd. The ultrasound thing does not make sense though. I had a bunch of ultrasounds with dd but I don't think my MIL had any for dh.

[LucyStoner]

I read one time that left handedness may be caused by a traumatic birth

 

 

Oh good grief. People can theorize anything but the trouble hits when they try and prove it. A certain percentage of the population has always been left handed.

[LucyStoner]

 

Abusing children for disobedience was common in the past. Sometimes the abuse had a LOT less to do with writing with the left hand as it did with disobedience. I think as we re-evalute this topic we need to separate the abuse from the issue of lefties writing with their right hands. There were TWO things going on here.

 

 

That's a chicken and egg question. Teacher says "don't use your left hand." Student does because that is all they can use well and then they are in trouble for disobeying. But the "disobedience" doesn't exist in the absence of the teacher insisting a child do something that is unduly difficult for many people who are heavily left handed.

 

I am not arguing that people saying that a lefty child should use their right hand are all abusive, I am saying that people who say a lefty child should write with their right hand are most often creating a problem where they need not be one. It's as pointless as insisting a right handed child use their left hand. Especially now that typewritten work in the norm by late elementary school so the concern about messy handwriting is less of an issue than ever. Also, if teachers didn't try to teach handwriting the exact same way to both groups, then the bad handwriting thing can be averted by teaching lefties to get the same results with a different technique. My lefty husband is a talented calligrapher- he just has a different technique.

[GoVanGogh]

I read one time that left handedness may be caused by a traumatic birth which would be true for my dh and my dd. The ultrasound thing does not make sense though. I had a bunch of ultrasounds with dd but I don't think my MIL had any for dh.

 

My child did have a traumatic birth and is left-handed.

DH and I are both right-handed and always assumed child being left-handed was from husband's side of the family.

He was recently diagnosed with a mild brain injury and specialists are now saying it actually appears that child was right-handed, but switched to left as he has better control with that side of his body. His body is much stronger on right, but left has better muscle control.

If you had asked me, I would have said he started using his left hand very young. I do have pictures of him writing with his left hand around age 4 and 5, but over the weekend I found a number of pictures at age 5 of him writing (nicely!) with his right hand.

Anyway. In my child's case, the traumatic birth did play a role in his hand dominance, as it caused the brain injury that lead to the muscle control issues.

[albeto]

Really? Can you cite a reference for me? Apparently He didn't have a problem with Ehud, the left-handed man He raised up to deliver Israel - Judges 3:12-30.

 

 

Keep in mind I didn't say God had a problem with lefties, but that historically speaking Christians made that presumption. The association in the scriptures with the left being bad or wrong is found in both Jewish and Christian scriptures (ie, Genesis 48:13-19; Matthew 25:33-41). I suggested Christians evidently found this scriptural context to presume God has a problem with being left handed. Various superstitions, like being left-handed being the mark of the devil, and art portraying Satan as left handed, reminds us of this historical belief.

[Kathryn]

The idea that all lefties MUST write with their left hands, or the teacher is an abuser, just isn't fair or accurate.

 

 

Where on earth did you get the idea that anyone thought that? The topic is whether a left-dominant child should be refused the ability to write with their left hand, instead being forced, through whatever means, to use their right hand exclusively.

[twoxcell]

Oh good grief. People can theorize anything but the trouble hits when they try and prove it. A certain percentage of the population has always been left handed.

I agree. I just found it interesting was all. ;)

[unfrumpable.]

Neuroplasticity, crossing the midline, and all sorts of other stuff I've read, but didn't totally understand, just lets me know there is still so much we don't know.

 

Abusing children for disobedience was common in the past. Sometimes the abuse had a LOT less to do with writing with the left hand as it did with disobedience. I think as we re-evalute this topic we need to separate the abuse from the issue of lefties writing with their right hands. There were TWO things going on here.

 

Also there is quite the spectrum of how one-side dominant some people are. Some people can easily adapt to switching hands. Others cannot do it at all.

 

Certain cursive hands are more difficult for left-handers, than for right-handers. SOMETIMES a teacher who teaches these hands intensively MIGHT want to give a TRIAL of each lefty using their right hand.

 

There are therapists that require patients/students to use both hands for all sorts of activities.

 

All I know is just enough to know that this is NOT a silly question. :D

 

 

 

I very much disagree that a lefty should have to undergo any sort of "trial" to see how they write with their right hand. That's disturbing. The teacher should be able to teach cursive to those using either hand. If I can figure out how to do it with my son (he's a righty), than I'm sure a teacher of a class full of students can figure it out as well.

 

As far as the abuse goes, I can remember my grandparents telling me that the nuns in school would slap the hand of anyone using their left. How is that disobedience? The other cases of abuse (much worse than my example) listed in this thread alone have nothing to do with disobedience.

 

Silly question or not, your comments disturb me greatly.

[wapiti]

FWIW, there is a theory that connects some form of disruption of blood flow in utero to right-brain learners with left-brain weaknesses. Under this theory, the right brain is somehow more protected from such a problem than the left brain. See e.g. Linda Silverman - not sure if I can find a citation.

 

(Of course, this wouldn't explain my twins, one of whom is a lefty and one of whom is a righty, though the lefty happens to have been small-for-gestational-age with much more extreme strengths and weaknesses, i.e., "his brother ate all his food" LOL)

 

Anecdotally, left-handed kids seem (to me) to be more likely to have right-brain/visual-spatial learning preferences. (My kids all tend a bit toward VSL, though my two lefties happen to have much stronger spatial skills than the two righties. We can't be sure about the two youngest yet but so far they seem to use their right hands.)

[Hunter]

Where on earth did you get the idea that anyone thought that? The topic is whether a left-dominant child should be refused the ability to write with their left hand, instead being forced, through whatever means, to use their right hand exclusively.

 

I very much disagree that a lefty should have to undergo any sort of "trial" to see how they write with their right hand. That's disturbing. The teacher should be able to teach cursive to those using either hand. If I can figure out how to do it with my son (he's a righty), than I'm sure a teacher of a class full of students can figure it out as well.

 

As far as the abuse goes, I can remember my grandparents telling me that the nuns in school would slap the hand of anyone using their left. How is that disobedience? The other cases of abuse (much worse than my example) listed in this thread alone have nothing to do with disobedience.

 

Silly question or not, your comments disturb me greatly.

 

I was responding mostly to the OP, not those who are responding to her. The OPs child is too young yet to be sure which hand is dominant or if she even has a dominant hand. There is nothing wrong with a parent TRYING to have a student use their right hand, ESPECIALLY when the student is merely favoring their left hand, and no one yet knows if the child is even left dominant at all, never mind how much.

 

Explicitly TEACHING handwriting to lefties is quite an endeavor. Not all teachers know how to do it. I know how to successfully teach a vertical hand to left-handed students, but not a right-slanted hand. I've conversed with "experts" and read quite a bit about slanted hands, but still don't know how to explicitly teach any type of slanted hand to lefties. The scripts that I currently own don't work for them.

 

I never said the children shouldn't have disobeyed the teacher! I just said that when children did disobey, children were beaten. They were beaten for all sorts of unfair reasons. Despite the unfairness of children being beaten for using their left hands AFTER being told not to, there are still TWO issues being discussed here.

 

At the school I attended as a young teen, students were beaten for wearing the wrong color socks. The beating wasn't about the socks and whether they should have been able to wear whatever color socks they wanted. It was about the fact that they were not doing what they were TOLD to do.

 

The definition of disobedience has NOTHING to do with fairness! Obedience is submissive compliance. Disobedience is refusal to submissively comply.

 

I'm sorry if my comments are disturbing. The most disturbing thing about this thread is the way a fairly new member has been responded to. People shouldn't have to fear asking questions that they don't know the answer to.

[jenn-]

I stopped switched with my oldest twin son when he was about 8 months old. I would hand him his spoon into his right hand and he would throw it down to pick it up with his left. He has been extremely left dominant since he first started grabbing for things.

 

My youngest son is ambidextrous though. I waited as long as I could before I nudged him towards writing with his right hand most of the time. He does have better penmanship with his right hand which is how I chose. Even now though if a problem is on the left side of a page, he is 50/50 on writing in the answer with his left. He also switches back and forth while eating depending on where the food is on the plate.

[LucyStoner]

I agree. I just found it interesting was all. ;)

 

Just to clarify, the good grief was directed at those who postulated this...not you. :) It is interesting all of the things that people have theorized for left handedness:

 

insanity

evil

lack of intelligence or having extra intelligence

exposure to (insert many things) during gestation

parental abuse

too much testosterone exposure in utero

Being a twin

women carrying their infants on their left arm/hip instead of the right

etc

 

Not that it matters but I have two right handed kids in a family tree that is dominated by left handed or both handed people. My older son had a very rough birth and NICU stay. My younger son was born early by c-section due to pre-eclampsia. My brother is left handed and had a very traumatic birth and injury resulting in CP. He's a lefty, but so were my parents, my siblings and most of our cousins, aunts, uncles etc. :)

[Butter]

 

Oh good grief. People can theorize anything but the trouble hits when they try and prove it. A certain percentage of the population has always been left handed.

 

This! My lefty was my *least* traumatic birth. He differentiated at *8* months. He is totally and completely a lefty, much to the delight of his left-handed grandmother, should have been left-handed grandfather, and several left-handed cousins. People even commented on his first birthday how he was so clearly using his left hand and not his right to feed himself his cake. He used his right hand, of course, to hold the cake and smush it, but he never once lifted a piece to his mouth using his right hand. He was my earliest child to differentiate.

 

I find it interesting, the talk that right-handed people could benefit from using their left hands for things. The fact is, right-handed people have never been told they must do things with their left hands (aside from OT for specific issues... I'm talking general population here), but lefties have long been told they need to use their right hands. Even still I have had some comments that my Adric should be taught to at least use his right sometimes because it is, after all, a "right-handed world." One person even told me I had better "fix" his problem (being left-handed) before it was too late. Um, no. Nothing to fix there!

[Hunter]

 

I find it interesting, the talk that right-handed people could benefit from using their left hands for things. The fact is, right-handed people have never been told they must do things with their left hands (aside from OT for specific issues... I'm talking general population here), but lefties have long been told they need to use their right hands. Even still I have had some comments that my Adric should be taught to at least use his right sometimes because it is, after all, a "right-handed world." One person even told me I had better "fix" his problem (being left-handed) before it was too late. Um, no. Nothing to fix there!

 

SOME left-handed people who are NOT strongly left-dominant benefit from doing SOME activities with their right hand, because we live in a world that is designed for right-handed people. Being right-handed is not superior to being left-handed! If the number of left-handed people were larger than the number of right-handed people, then you would have right-handed people using their left hands more often.

[Candid]

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but my husband has pointed out that left-handed athletes make more money than right-handed ones. Where he got this little tidbit, I don't know.

[Paige]

SOME left-handed people who are NOT strongly left-dominant benefit from doing SOME activities with their right hand, because we live in a world that is designed for right-handed people. Being right-handed is not superior to being left-handed! If the number of left-handed people were larger than the number of right-handed people, then you would have right-handed people using their left hands more often.

 

 

I'm assuming you are not left handed, right? I'm not attacking and want this to sound non-argumentative and gentle. As a left handed person, I have never felt the need to try anything other than cutting with scissors right handed to make things easier for myself. The idea that the world is right handed and that makes things difficult for us lefties is for the most part false. Yes, the world is right handed, but no- it's not that hard to deal with. We don't need people to feel sorry for us, worry about us, try to make things easier for us, or anything. It's a non-issue.

 

I don't think anyone without a disability should be encouraged one way or the other about hand preference because there are much more important things to spend time and breath on. Time spent seeing if a lefty can switch is time spent not doing other things. I don't think it will hurt the lefty, but I think it would be a waste of time. Trust me. If a lefty is having a hard time, he or she will automatically switch. It's not that hard. If it is not instantly easier, then we switch back and figure it out. I'm sure right handed people find some things awkward here and there. Perhaps it is awkward teaching a lefty handwriting if you are right handed? That's ok. Awkwardness happens. Would you suggest handwriting teachers learn to write left handed so they can teach it more effectively? I doubt that would work any better than persuading a lefty to use his or her right hand to learn. I understand your point about people that are not strongly dominant one way or the other, but that person, if left alone, will figure it out.

 

My daughter is left handed. We suspect that she may have been right handed if she hadn't had an injury weakening that side of the body. Her identical sister is right handed and they aren't mirror image twins. With her, we do work on strengthening her right hand. We force her to use it when she would not choose to use it. That's because of an unusual situation and weakness, however. If we leave it alone, her arm and hand would see little use. Most left handed people don't have any disabilities in their right side and would not benefit from the interventions we do with our DD. If she happened to be affected on the other side of her body, we would be doing the same activities to encourage her to use her left hand.

 

I'm sure you're basing your claims on good intentions and good sources. I don't question your intentions, intelligence, or your facts. I do question the benefits claimed. Statistical significance does not equal substantive importance. So, some lefties changed to right handed or increased their use of the right side because of gentle encouragement and are happy about it? Ok. Would they have been just as happy without the intervention? Probably.

[Hunter]

Paige, I have to run some errands, and may not be able to respond until tonight. You asked some interesting questions, and said some interesting things that I would like to respond to.

[vonfirmath]

I have actually encountered left handed-ism. LOL. I am only 30, but was forced to cut with my right hand in school. Let me tell you, that messed up my cutting skills for life. Later I mispronounced the word island and the substitute teacher told me it was because I was 'left handed.' My grandfather also had his left arm tied behind his back as a child. It's crazy to think people are that afraid of a person being left handed ! I think it's awesome being left handed. I like to quote that joke about left handed people being the only ones in their 'right' mind. Haha. To the OP, I would just let your daughter use the hand she wants. Why force her to be something she is not ? ! P.S. I also have a left handed twin, who is equally as awesome :D

 

 

My husband and son are both left handed. My husband is insistent that my son learn how to cut right handed, though. As a lefty, I have bowed to his wisdom.

[beaners]

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but my husband has pointed out that left-handed athletes make more money than right-handed ones. Where he got this little tidbit, I don't know.

 

Southpaw pitchers anyone? ;) My friend's brother played minor league baseball, and he would bat right but pitch left.

 

Perhaps it is awkward teaching a lefty handwriting if you are right handed? That's ok. Awkwardness happens. Would you suggest handwriting teachers learn to write left handed so they can teach it more effectively? I doubt that would work any better than persuading a lefty to use his or her right hand to learn.

 

I did. :o My lefty is very much a "rule-follower," and she insisted that she needed to write the same way I do and that the models she has seen for handwriting are drawn. If she didn't do it exactly the same, it would be *wrong* according to her. I haven't kept up with it since she learned how to form her letters, but I wrote left-handed in front of her for a very long time.

[beaners]

We've done OT and whatnot for midline issues. No one ever suggested using the left-side or trying to build proficiency there. Usually when they work on midline, they're trying to get thought to cross from one side of the brain to the other, so they construct activities that blend. For instance my dd can read the notes on a sheet of music and tell you the name OR she can strike the key when you tell her a note name. What cannot actually read the music on the page and in one fluid motion then strike the correct key on the piano. That apparently requires info to cross the two sides of the brain. Pretty nutso, and we may try to work on it more this summer. Also typing has been hard for her. She's 20 wpm (which in her case is 50%) faster when typing her own thoughts than she is if she has to transcribe.

 

When she ice skated, they had many skills they had to do on each side, so you saw dominance showing up. It requires more practice to build proficiency in the non-dominant side, yes. Doing that doesn't confer any benefit as far as bilaterality and corpus callosum development. She ice skated, went through many levels, took private lessons, etc. for years and still had significant bilaterality issues. So working on the non-dominant side will be a splinter skill, something where you build proficiency that is isolated and doesn't necessarily improve you overall. (Splinter skill is a term our OT used.)

 

And yes, if you have a young dc with midline issues, you would absolutely begin as early as you realize it. I've begun my ds working on the metronome with me doing simple things like attempting to clap to the beat (54 bpm). As soon as he can do that comfortably, I'll begin to challenge the clapping patterns and introduce some bilateral patterns. When he can do those comfortably, I'll add in working memory with digit spans and distractions.

 

Not that any of that has anything to do with the op. :)

 

Fascinating stuff. What I do know, I've gleaned from articles or I'm half-remembering from my biopsychology class almost a decade ago. (Which means, essentially, that I know nothing, and what I think I know is probably wrong. :lol: My memory is not what it used to be.)

[twoxcell]

I did. :o My lefty is very much a "rule-follower," and she insisted that she needed to write the same way I do and that the models she has seen for handwriting are drawn. If she didn't do it exactly the same, it would be *wrong* according to her. I haven't kept up with it since she learned how to form her letters, but I wrote left-handed in front of her for a very long time.

I have it easier. If I'm trying to demonstrate something to my dd and she isn't getting it I just ask my dh to show her. Works like a charm. ;)

[the4Rs]

No one within two generations on either side of my family or my husband's family are left handed....yet both of our kids are dominant left handed since birth. As in, from the time they could begin to grab for things as a baby, they reached with their left hands. My husband's family really pressured us to make our eldest a right hander and we fought them on it. They would force her to use her right hand for things when we weren't around. Needless to say we nipped that in the bud quickly. Neither had a traumatic birth, both are quite intelligent, and are perfectly normal children. I know this is a right handed world but my kids know nothing else so they are adapting just fine thus far. I have never understood forcing hand dominance in a child. My dad was right handed but broke his right hand in Kindergarten and learned how to write with his left during the critical "how to write your letters stage" and to this day he prefers writing left handed but he does everything else right handed. So he truly isn't a left hander.

[Hunter]

Paige,

 

My left side is stronger, but I find it easier to do fine motor skills with my right hand. I really don't know what I was born with, and I don't remember if I was pressured in any way. My early childhood was eventful, and to be safe, I learned to be very compliant and to figure out what people wanted before they even asked. Was I told to use my right hand? I'm not sure. But I was REALLY good at compliance, and was usually gifted enough to do the impossible, when I needed to. If I noticed the teacher talking to another student I would have immediately switched before she came near me. End of story.

 

Yes, I have been writing with my left hand to be a better handwriting teacher. I'm also trying to learn to knit left-handed. More than half of my tutoring students are left-handed, and also require EXPLICIT handwriting instruction and MODELING. Giving them a handwriting sheet and expecting them to INFER how to draw the letters like the samples won't work. They ask me to tell them specifically WHY their letters look different, and I need to go over the individual strokes and scripts with them.

 

Forcing a strongly left-dominant student to switch hands is entirely different than a teacher automatically assuming that ALL children merely favoring their left hand MUST be denied the CHANCE to participate in a school's/family's rigorous handwriting curriculum that was written for right-handed students. If a rigorous handwriting curriculum of this type is not being used, it's much easier to provide left-handed instruction along side the right-handed instruction.

 

I've been using a vertical cursive hand that is almost as easy for both right and left handed students. I've been working on probably switching to a right-slanted hand, but need to do some more self-education with BOTH hands before making my final decision.

 

This response is a mess, but I have to get offline NOW. I'm sorry. I did my best to quickly respond, but maybe should have waited.

[Hunter]

I know some people don't struggle at ALL and love being left-handed, but some of my students are also dealing with other learning issues and DO find it a burden though. These particular students are not adaptive people or problem solvers, and they struggle, and look for ME to do the problem solving, and...often I don't know how to help as much as I wish I did. The left-handed issues on TOP of the OTHER learning disabilities is what makes it so difficult I think.

 

It took me way too long to learn that when pens don't work for them, it's because of some push-pull thing that I don't understand. :banghead: I'd grab the pen, scribble with it with my right hand, and hand it back to them saying, "It's working fine now." DUH! How stupid was that?

 

Do any other right-handed teachers/mothers just feel so stupid and mean when teaching their left-handed students who DO struggle?

[unfrumpable.]

Huh, I wouldn't think that was stupid. I've never had a problem with a pen not working just because I'm using my left hand vs my right, but I also don't have any learning disabilities. I assume that is the crux of the left handed issues you're dealing with?

[beaners]

Huh, I wouldn't think that was stupid. I've never had a problem with a pen not working just because I'm using my left hand vs my right, but I also don't have any learning disabilities. I assume that is the crux of the left handed issues you're dealing with?

 

 

My mother is left handed. She has the most indecipherable writing ever. It isn't sloppy. It's very straight and angular. You just can't read it. It's because those are the strokes that work with the way she uses a pen. I don't know if she holds her pen at a different angle or if she hooks her wrist or if it's something else entirely.

[Tullia]

FWIW, I'm a lefty born in the days before ultrasounds and my mother refused X-rays which were sometimes done to check fetal development. It can be challenging to translate directions for manual tasks such as knitting. I also have a tendency to think that the left side is the "right" side in the sense that it's my frame of reference and so I have to remember to translate. One day when I was driving my car onto ramps in the garage, my poor dh who was guiding me shouted No--Your OTHER right!!! I am able to use scissors designed for the right hand, but would have a hard time using a spoon with my right. I'd be afraid to even try using a fork with the right hand. :laugh:

 

The only real problems I remember having in school came from teachers who tried, albeit gently, to get me to switch. My penmanship was and still is execrable; because of efforts to "fix" my left handedness I never settled on a system that worked. I always received "C's" for penmanship in elementary school and the teachers were being kind to give me that. However, in defense of my teachers, many of them grew up using soft pencils and fountain pens which made writing without blotting the page difficult for left handed people in those days. They didn't take into account that newer pencils and modern pens are less likely to cause problems.

 

I'd like to think being left handed forced me to be adaptable, but sometimes it did produce anxiety in school. I learned to distinguish left from right by using the clock on the wall as a "dividing line" until the teacher turned the desks around mid year. :glare: One of the benefits is that there aren't many lefties in my family so at large family gatherings I always get a corner seat at meals. :lol:

 

ETA: I was able to switch for some things, but not most. I did try to learn to write with the right hand but simply could not do it.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Tullia

[HS Mom in NC]

No. Diane Craft has seminars on the right brained vs. left brained issues. Children forced to use the right hand when they favor the left have increased risk with other learning issues because you're fighting how their brains are wired. This bizarre obsession some people have about making everyone right handed is nonsense. Don't jump on that bandwagon-there's no good reason for it.

 

I have 2 righties and a lefty. My lefty has beautiful handwriting and no problem doing anything that the righties do. Neither do my two left handed brothers who were never forced to use their right hands. One of them is left handed for writing and most of his drawing and painting but is naturally ambidextrous in all other things. He's an artist and I've seen him on occasion paint with a brush in both hands at the same time.

 

Some children, the archery coach and violin teachers will tell you, have a different dominances in their eyes, hands and feet. Skilled coaches and teachers know how to work with that.

[Sugarfoot]

I'm a lefty and so are 2 of our 4 kids. None of us "hook," which as I understand indicates an actual brain dominance that leads to left-handedness. That is, a person who writes with their left hand but hooks their arm over to do so actually has the same brain dominance as a right hander. One of my lefties DS17, is dyslexic, but my other, DD6, isn't.

 

FWIW, my handwriting is gorgeous. :cool:

[boscopup]

Boscopup, when our VT doc checked, she did the more sudden, not thought out checks, like she said Give me 5! and looked at which hand he raised. Things like that where she's trying to dig into what's deeply wired vs. what is his ability to do with both hands and experimenting with both hands (scissors, thumb-sucking, etc.).

 

 

Hmmm... I tried this today with DS2 (righty) and DS3 (lefty-leaning, but still ambidextrous)....

 

This morning, after doing a phonics lesson, where DS2 read nonsense words just as quickly as he reads real words (yay!), I told him to give me 5, and he used his left hand. Note that he's right handed and has never given any inclination toward being left handed (he's VSL, has speech issues, etc., but he has always used his right hand for everything... and he was a right-thumb sucker).

 

I did the same test with DS3 (the lefty-leaning but still ambidextrous left-thumb sucker), and he used his left hand this morning and his right hand this afternoon.

 

I don't think these tests helped me at all! :lol:

[Paige]

Hmmm... I tried this today with DS2 (righty) and DS3 (lefty-leaning, but still ambidextrous)....

 

This morning, after doing a phonics lesson, where DS2 read nonsense words just as quickly as he reads real words (yay!), I told him to give me 5, and he used his left hand. Note that he's right handed and has never given any inclination toward being left handed (he's VSL, has speech issues, etc., but he has always used his right hand for everything... and he was a right-thumb sucker).

 

I did the same test with DS3 (the lefty-leaning but still ambidextrous left-thumb sucker), and he used his left hand this morning and his right hand this afternoon.

 

I don't think these tests helped me at all! :lol:

 

 

It's more about the pattern than a one off test. You'd want to ask him to give you five or watch him pick up a pencil 10-20 times and a clear preference would become evident then if dominance has been established.

[Paige]

I know some people don't struggle at ALL and love being left-handed, but some of my students are also dealing with other learning issues and DO find it a burden though. These particular students are not adaptive people or problem solvers, and they struggle, and look for ME to do the problem solving, and...often I don't know how to help as much as I wish I did. The left-handed issues on TOP of the OTHER learning disabilities is what makes it so difficult I think.

 

It took me way too long to learn that when pens don't work for them, it's because of some push-pull thing that I don't understand. :banghead: I'd grab the pen, scribble with it with my right hand, and hand it back to them saying, "It's working fine now." DUH! How stupid was that?

 

Do any other right-handed teachers/mothers just feel so stupid and mean when teaching their left-handed students who DO struggle?

 

 

I am having a hard time grasping what the left handed issues would be. It could be that you are attributing their difficulties to being because they are left handed when the reality is that they would struggle with the same issues if they were right handed. So far, all I've seen as complaints are hand writing and pens. Are there others? Maybe I'm so used to it that I don't even notice I am adapting. It's very common for people to have mixed dominance. I wouldn't assume that a right footed kicker who writes with the left hand is less left handed than a left footed kicker.

 

For handwriting, I find it ridiculous to use a curriculum that is inaccessible to left handed people. Just use something else. About 10% of people are left handed. Why deliberately choose something that will cause problems? There's lots of other choices. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time understanding how a left handed person would be unable to copy any script. Sure- maybe not with a fountain pen, but with a pencil, anything should be possible. Could you post a link or a picture of a script that can't be written left handed? I want to try.

 

Ballpoint pens sometimes freeze up because they are meant to roll as you pull them along the page. When a left handed person writes, he or she pushes the pen into the page a little instead of pulling it and it sometimes causes problems. Some pens are better than others. Usually the cheap ones give me more problems. Most of the time you can fix it by scribbling to the side and starting again. If that doesn't work, grab a new one. It's not more than a minor inconvenience IMO.

[boscopup]

It's more about the pattern than a one off test. You'd want to ask him to give you five or watch him pick up a pencil 10-20 times and a clear preference would become evident then if dominance has been established.

 

I was just responding to OhElizabeth saying that catching them off guard with a "give me 5" was better than thumb sucking, etc.

 

My youngest uses his left hand for writing more often than his right hand, but he still uses both, switches in the middle while writing (doing top half of the page with one hand and then switching for the bottom half... and one time he used his right hand on the left side of the page and his left hand on the right side of the page). He can trace and free write letters with amazing accuracy, given his age - either hand equally well. I do think he'll end up settling on left handed, as he does that a BIT more, but it's definitely not completely clear cut.

 

Going by pattern, I think he leans left handed. But the test OhElizabeth suggested was inconclusive (and just plain wrong for the right-handed child who has already well established dominance).

 

But then again, some things you do with either hand, including giving 5. I even use a fork with my left hand sometimes, just because I get lazy if I'm having to cut meat with a knife. I'll just leave the hands as is instead of switching back and forth. :)

[Kathryn]

 

 

I am having a hard time grasping what the left handed issues would be. It could be that you are attributing their difficulties to being because they are left handed when the reality is that they would struggle with the same issues if they were right handed. So far, all I've seen as complaints are hand writing and pens. Are there others? Maybe I'm so used to it that I don't even notice I am adapting. It's very common for people to have mixed dominance. I wouldn't assume that a right footed kicker who writes with the left hand is less left handed than a left footed kicker.

 

For handwriting, I find it ridiculous to use a curriculum that is inaccessible to left handed people. Just use something else. About 10% of people are left handed. Why deliberately choose something that will cause problems? There's lots of other choices. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time understanding how a left handed person would be unable to copy any script. Sure- maybe not with a fountain pen, but with a pencil, anything should be possible. Could you post a link or a picture of a script that can't be written left handed? I want to try.

 

Ballpoint pens sometimes freeze up because they are meant to roll as you pull them along the page. When a left handed person writes, he or she pushes the pen into the page a little instead of pulling it and it sometimes causes problems. Some pens are better than others. Usually the cheap ones give me more problems. Most of the time you can fix it by scribbling to the side and starting again. If that doesn't work, grab a new one. It's not more than a minor inconvenience IMO.

 

This lefty wholeheartedly agrees.

[foxbridgeacademy]

The only thing I would do is to make sure I had right and left handed "tools" available. That way she can choose which fits her best.

[SereneHome]

My husband (a lefty) was sad our DS is a righty because he had dreams of raising a left-handed baseball pitcher. He half-joked about tying his right hand behind his back... ;) My husband wishes that someone had encouraged him to learn to cut right handed because left handed scissors stink and aren't always readily available. He can do many things right-handed, but scissors baffle him.

 

 

That is so funny, in my family it's the opposite. My DH is right-handed and when our oldest was born, it was SO evident that he was going to be left-handed. My DH kept trying to change it. Like he would give him spoon in his right hand and he would try to hold his right hand while walking, little things like that. Didn't do ANYTHING. Boy is left-handed. So, now my DH has to figure out how to teach him wood-working and all other handy stuff bc according to him most of the professional tools are for right-handed people.

 

My second son is 100% right-handed and again, it was obvious since birth

 

My third one - I think also right-handed, but it's not as obvious.

 

My mom is actually left-handed but was forced to write with her right hand in school. So, writing and eating are the only two things she can do with her right hand

[lailasmum]

My mum is one of the lefties forced to write right handed when she was a little girl in the 40s. She is basically ambidextrous now which as others have said is extremely usefull. I have many lefties in my family. I personally think they should be left to be what ever they are.

 

I am personally cross dominant and dyspraxic. Differences are good. Yes I struggle in some areas but I am also (not to blow my own horn) highly creative and able to work with 3d crafts and objects to make, repair, design things in a way that most people can't. I think it is very much related to the cross dominance.

[Hunter]

My mum is one of the lefties forced to write right handed when she was a little girl in the 40s. She is basically ambidextrous now which as others have said is extremely usefull. I have many lefties in my family. I personally think they should be left to be what ever they are.

 

I am personally cross dominant and dyspraxic. Differences are good. Yes I struggle in some areas but I am also (not to blow my own horn) highly creative and able to work with 3d crafts and objects to make, repair, design things in a way that most people can't. I think it is very much related to the cross dominance.

 

I just looked up cross dominance. I think that is what I am. My left side is stronger, but I write with my right hand. I cannot serve a volleyball to save my life. It drove my gym teachers batty.

[lailasmum]

I know that alot of my mum's family were left handed, I'd say the majority of them from what I remember, but many did say they were right handed due to having been told that it was bad and being trained to write with their right hand. I know my mum had a long running argument with her cousin about his being left handed and saying he was right handed whenever asked.

 

I have a relative who did research into handedness, he died in the 80s but I think his work is still considered important. I guess though that the linking of left handedness with genetic diseases and other issues is what makes people continue to even think about it as an issue to worry about rather than just an interesting difference.