Does anyone else have an ambidextrous child?

[Cranberry]

As far as I can tell, my son, age 3 is ambidextrous. Can write letters with either hand, has always sucked either thumb, bats with whatever hand, throws balls with either.

 

I think it's great, but I'm not sure if I should be encouraging him to pick one hand for handwriting, or just always let him use whichever he wants. He's really wanting help writing all the letters lately, and wants to know the right way to do each one.

 

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

And by the way, I'm a wee bit jealous of him. I am completely right handed and can't do a darn thing with my left hand. I can't even hold babies as comfortably with my left hand!

[Carrie12345]

I consider my 5 year old a lefty, but she's known to switch back and forth. When I see her using her right hand, I casually mention it might be easier to use her left.

 

I don't really care which hand she uses, but my grandmother is always telling stories about calling the school to remind them they were forbidden from "switching" my left-handed mother.

 

When she was younger, I just observed. Now I mention it b/c she *seems predominantly lefty. When she ignores me, I figure she's doing what works best for her.

[mellifera]

My oldest daughter was like that when she was 3. When I started teaching her writing, she would start a letter with one hand and finish it with the other. I told her she needed to pick one hand and stick with it. If your child is writing with one hand one time and the other hand another time I'd just let them continue. However, if they are doing something like my dd1 was, then I would say to pick one and stick with that choice.

[camibami]

My youngest is, I guess. Or really a lefty, but I got sick of her switching hands and arbitrarily picked right to teach her to write at around 5. Now that she is older, she does more things left than right. Whoops! Her handwriting is fine though, so I am abiding by the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra.

 

It drives her gym coach crazy, because she catches with one hand on one skill, the other hand the next skill.(Its rhythmic gymnastics so they use hand apparatus.) She too has just given up and assigned her hands for different skills.

[gardening momma]

I am either ambidextrous, or I'm a lefty who was taught to be a righty. I have found that everything I was taught to do I do with my right hand. Everything I picked up on my own I do with my left hand. I was taught to write and to bowl (bowling) with my right hand. I taught myself how to hold a bat, throw and catch a ball and how to hold a golf club (mini golf) the way a lefty does. Those feel more comfortable to me (edited: more comfortable to do "lefty" than "righty").

 

I used to try to practice writing left handed, and I could do ok, but it would take a lot of work now to do a decent job of it. I'm comfortable with my mix of hand assignments, so to speak.

[Heather in Neverland]

My ds was ambidextrous until about age 6. The he became more of a righty. The main problem I see is that since he didn't develop good fine motor skills with either of his hands until later, his penmanship is atrocious.

[Aggie]

My ds was ambidextrous until about age 6. The he became more of a righty. The main problem I see is that since he didn't develop good fine motor skills with either of his hands until later, his penmanship is atrocious.

 

This is our older dd. Her handwriting did improve, though.

 

She does certain activities as a lefty now, but writes with her right hand. I'll have to watch and see if she's like gardening momma with her self-taught activities being a lefty. :)

[lighthouseacademy]

My son at 3 was ambidextrous as well. For most things, he has picked lefty and the rest is righty... I never made mention of it figuring he would choose a hand eventually. If I try to teach him something, I try to honor his choice of left, but I am right handed and there are some things (like archery) I just can't figure out how to teach left handed so he learned it right handed.

[Rose in BC]

By the time he started handwriting he began to use his right hand. Interestingly, he has terrible handwriting to this day. Maybe he picked the wrong hand! :glare:

[Starr]

My son was ambidextrous at 3 as well. It was useful when he was young because he couldn't open anything. :) I started putting silverware on the right just because it's more common. I doubt it made a difference. He slowly has become slightly right handed. When he was 8 or 9 I walked into his room and asked why he was writing with his left hand. He promptly said, "Oh, that's why I'm having so much trouble!" I laughed and laughed. He still switches but so does my mother.

[Cranberry]

thank you everyone for your responses. Who knew this was so common! It's interesting how this has resolved differently for people. I do notice that at one sitting, he will switch hands, but usually not mid word or letter, so I think that's ok. It is hard to know how much to set him up with things. I usually put his silverware in the middle of his plate when I give it to him and let him figure out which to use. But things like batting, that I'm helping him with, I feel so uneasy that I'm picking the wrong hand. Well, hopefully he won't be in therapy for years as an adult because of this! :tongue_smilie::001_huh:

[LisaKinVA]

I have three definite righty's... and one who used both hands all the time (sometimes, with a crayon in each hand, so she could draw/color faster!).

 

I thought it would resolve itself, and prepared to teach a lefty. However, she still hadn't chosen a dominant writing hand (would right lefty on the left page and righty on the right page). I eventually just bit the bullet and taught her to write with her right hand (easier for me). She still occassionally uses her left to draw and things like that, but more and more she's using the right hand.

 

She also throws with her right hand -- so maybe I picked the "correct" one for her. OTOH, my dh writes lefty, but plays baseball, golf, etc. righty!