Hand Dominance: When Will I Know, What Should I Do?
Author: Dr. Anna Kaplan
Hand dominance simply means that a person prefers to use one hand for most things involving motor skills, especially smaller, more intricate skills.
Ninety percent of people, more or less, are right-handed, and around 10% are left-handed. The tendency toward using a particular hand may be genetic, but there are multiple genes involved. It is not a straightforward trait like brown eyes. If you are left-handed, your child may or may not be left-handed too.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with children or adults that are left-handed. It was once believed that being left-handed meant there was damage to the brain that forced a person to use the left hand. We now know that is not the case.
People use the hand that they prefer for fine motor skills, as well as other things. A person can be left handed and do most things with that hand, from writing to throwing a ball to brushing their teeth. Other people do only some things with their dominant hand, whether it is right or left. The ability to use both hands equally is called being ambidextrous.
By the time your child is 18 months old, he or she may be showing a hand preference. To get an idea, watch and see what hand your child uses to grab things. Look and see which hand holds the finger food or spoon. What hand does your child use to pick up blocks?
Whichever hand your child prefers, that is his or her dominant hand, and there is no reason to make any attempt to try and change it. It is true that it is harder to get things for left-handed people, like scissors, but there are more and more products available. You cannot make a left-handed child do as well with the right hand, and you will just be causing stress for both your child and yourself. Trying to change hand dominance just slows down development of things like writing.
Although hand dominance usually starts to appear by 18 months, some children take longer and are not yet sure at 4 to 6 years. If they are starting to write, they will probably prefer a hand and you will see it then.
Some people can be left-handed and left-footed (preferring to kick the ball with the left foot). Others are just left-handed.
For a right-handed child, you buy regular products like scissors, and if you are right-handed, you teach your child to do things the way you do, like tying shoelaces.
If you are right-handed but your child is left-handed, there is actually an easy way to teach them. You sit across from them and tell them to do what you do. That is like looking in a mirror and they will automatically do things with the left hand as you do them with the right hand.
There are places to look for left-handed tools, baseball gloves, guitars, and other things your left-handed child will need. Try an Internet search and you will get an idea of how much is now available.
Just to demonstrate that it is normal to be left-handed and that a left-handed person can be successful in any area he or she chooses, here are is a list of a few famous left-handed people:
- Paul McCartney
- Jimi Hendrix
- Buzz Aldrin
- Michelangelo
- Robert DeNiro
- Greta Garbo
- Jay Leno
- Oprah Winfrey
- Queen Victoria
- Larry Bird
- John McEnroe
- George H.W. Bush
- Bill Clinton
- Barack Obama
- Albert Einstein
Whatever your child wants to do, being left-handed will not stop him or her. Being right-handed is okay too. If your child is truly ambidextrous, that can actually be a big advantage in some areas like sports. If you have a "lefty" who is worried, make sure he or she sees this list and others with many more people. Whatever your child's interest, there is going to be a left-handed person who has succeeded in that area.
