Handedness?

TJ1979 · December 2013

E seems to prefer using her left hand to operate her fork and spoon. At first, I thought it was because I was preloading it and handing it to her with my right hand, into her left hand. But she is making the choice on her own to pick up the utensil with her left hand.

Her father is a strict righty. I write with my right hand, but always did everything else (eating, sports, etc) with my left hand (until I shattered it to pieces and got it put back together with plates and screws.)

Is it too early to predict handedness? What do your kids do? Amy parents of lefties? Are you and YH lefties too?

pb_bride · December 2013

The teachers at M's "class" (they are PT/OT and used to work in EI) told me that the "handedness" don't develop fully until age 2. They may start to show preferences around 18m.

M picks up food with his left hand 90% of the time (we haven't started utensils yet). This has been going on for months. I even deliberately put the foods on the R side of his tray (eg, cheerios/puffs) to encourage him to use his R hand, but he'd rather reach over with his L. The teachers observed him and said he does this b/c his L hand is more efficient in picking up the food.

Another mom friend of mine said her DD (same age as M) also exclusively uses her L hand to self-feed.

None of us are lefties.

The teachers told me that I can try holding M's L hand, which will force him to use his R to self-feed, just to make his R hand as efficient as his L. I do that occasionally, but in all honesty, I'd rather let him do things "naturally" his own way.

I do notice that M uses both hands equally when playing, so I'm not worried that he's favoring one hand for everything.

phishgirl29 · December 2013

I'm a lefty and my mom said she knew early on that I was going to be (my older brother is as well). A part of me hopes that O is too but I'm not getting any vibe from him yet.

That and he's only 6 month old

pantsarella · December 2013

We're both righties and DD definitely prefers her left at this point (4.5 months). She reaches for everything with the left, always chews on that hand, etc. I'm dreading her being a leftie because I can't do anything with my left hand so it's foreign to me. (That said, I know she'd be totally fine.)

CarrieB. · December 2013

My DH is left handed. He said that when he was in kindergarten, he was told that he was left handed by the teacher.

DD1 mostly eats with her left hand, but uses both hands to color and play with.

Ruthie04 · December 2013

I heard something about true hand dominance not being determined until preschool age, but I think DS1 might be a lefty. Lots of left handed family members on DH's side and DH's piano teacher said he should have been left handed, but that it seemed he had been forced into using his right. DS1 sucks his left thumb and will always reach for food with his left hand. He plays with toys with equal use of hands, but everyone comments on it. DS2 seems to use his right hand. How weird if they were different!!

kzawisl · December 2013

DH is a lefty. Molly uses both hands, but frequently if I put something in her right hand, she switches it to the left. The twins are almost 18 months old.

Cwhitaker27 · December 2013

I personally think its too early to tell. We thought the same thing about DS. He would always choose to do things with his left hand but recently he has become more of a righty and he's almost 2.5. DH and I are both rightys but my dad, aunt and grandpa are all leftys so we thought maybe DS was too. But now I'm thinking otherwise.

TJ1979 · December 2013

How fascinating! I'm glad I brought this up. It doesn't matter to me either way which hand she uses. I was just curious what is going on at everybody else's house. Very interesting stuff!

queenbone · December 2013

Another vote for 'too early to tell.' DS1 used his left hand a ton when he was a toddler. FIL was convinced he'd be left-handed like my BIL. But he eventually grew to favoring his right hand.

imoverit · December 2013

Too early. Reasearch shows that Kids start showing dominance around preschool age which by 5 should be well developed and fully developed by 6. So cool if E is a lefty.

mcgeeva · December 2013

I haven't the slightest on this! Dh and I are righties. Ds however is 20 months and eats, hits and draws with both hands. So I don't try to correct bc I have no clue what is more comfortable for him

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