Early handedness?

[kmum]

My daughter is very right handed & has been since she was about 9 or 10 months old. I know kids should favour one side but doesn't this seem a little early?  Could it be a sign of a problem?

thanks for your help

[tatianna]

no if fact it's a great sign
you want to encourage her to use her right hand now that is has chosen a side

[DomanMom]

From reading How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb I recall that being totally left- or right-handed is a sign of neurological organization, so that would indeed be a good thing to reach early.

However to be completely left- or right-handed, he will not only consistently use his right hand but also consistently use his right foot to kick a ball and use his right eye to look through a hole, such as a telescope.

According to Doman the average child reaches this stage at six years of age, but advanced children (hence children who have been doing his programs) usually reach it in half that time or less.

To see how she's doing in this always place things directly in the middle of her - place her spoon in the middle of her body and let her choose which hand to pick it up with, place a ball in the center of her body and see what foot she uses to kick it, and let her try out a telescope and see what eye she uses. Often times parents unconsciously tend to give our child utensils, etc. to one hand. Try not to do this because her brain needs to figure out which side is best on its own, I'm told.

If she's not totally right-sided yet, don't worry, she's got a ways to develop. In the meantime, encourage lots of physical activities (like the ones mentioned in Doman's book) to speed her development.

[nhockaday]

Wow, Gabriel has favored his right hand since he was only a few months old. I had no idea that was early.

[KL]

Felicity has favored her right hand for quite some time too, but occasionally still uses her left hand. My feeling was to never discourage her to use her left hand as I felt that it would be a good "all-brain" training.

So when I do see her using her left hand on rare occasions, I'm actually happy about it.

Hmm... This would be a good topic for Maddy to write about!

[nhockaday]

Yeah, Gabriel occasionally uses his left hand too. Like you, I am glad that he does.

[heyblue41]

My 16 month old has been showing handedness for quite some time.  I am not sure but I seem to remember at like 6 or 7 months thinking she showed handedness.  I have to say the Physically supberb book is really great.  I got it back in July and started doing the passive balance program it recommends very sporadically.  It involves spining your child in like ten different positions 3 times a day for upto like 30 seconds in each position.  Well we do it maybe once a day in about 8 of the positions for about max 10 seconds because I get to dizzy!  Any way we went to this farm picnic this weekend and they had a hayride.  It was basically a trailer with a row of hay on each side to sit on and an aisle down the middle.  My 16 month old would not sit on the hay so she stood up the entire ride.  About a minute in she decided she did not want to hold my hand.  She balanced the entire ride.  The only time she stumbled was when we were going around a curve up hill and we hit a bump that pitched the opposite way.  I was really impressed.  What was even neater was that several other moms noticed her balance and asked what we did, so I got to tell all about Doman and early reading and such and even threw in a pitch for Little Reader!  Hopefully some will join!

[kmum]

Thanks everyone! Because K has down syndrome I worry more than I might otherwise.  Maybe I'm looking for a problem where there isn't one.

[Sapna1322]

I have read in Tony Buzan's book that kids using left hand are more towards logical thinking.mathematics,etc and those who use right hand are more creative,emotional,dancing,singing etc.So Tony Buzan says that you should always encourage your child to use both hand and legs to do same activity.So inorder to develop his whole brain.And so i always encourage my child to use both the hand while coloring.writing,eating etc

Sapna

[DomanMom]

I actually think that if you're right-handed than it is the left side of the brain that controls your body, if you're left-handed it is the right side of the brain that controls your body. This is why when someone has a severe injury to the left side of their brain than the right side of the body becomes paralyzed, or vice-versa.

People talk about the different "personalities" that are exhibited by "left- / right-brained" people but my dad had 8 kids and 3 of them are left-handed (and, hence, "right-brained") and none of those 3 are the really "artsy" type of people as the personality tests say they're supposed to be. And none of us our ambidextrous (or "both-handed"), yet the artists and musicians in my family all happen to be right-handed. It's interesting, but I think that the brain is a lot more of a "whole" than most people think, which would explain why someone can have an entire half of their brain removed and still function pretty close to "normal".

[LukaMaxMom]

Hi there,

I really don't want to scare anyone, but early handedness is not a positive sign.  My oldest son showed mild left handedness starting at 4-5 months and it turned out he had had a stroke in utero, diagnosed by MRI at 8 months old.  Even very mild handedness can be a result of brain injury.  Kids should not show hand preference before the age of 1 (1-2, depending on which article you read). 

Again, I don't want to freak anyone out, I just find it hard to believe that our doctors aren't looking for this.  1/4000 neonates/newborns have strokes, and there are many other causes of brain injury.  It's important to get it checked out asap.

Sincerely,
Heather.

[kmum]

LukaMaxMom, thanks for the response.  I would rather know even if it is not good news. 

 I mentioned this to K's pediatrician & he was not too concerned, but it is one of those things that has been nagging at me.  Are there other signs to watch for?

I think the most important thing - brain injury or not is to be proactive.  Do you have any suggestions?

Again, thanks for replying, I think it is better to raise awareness even if it risks upsetting someone.

[Kappasweet]

Everyone tells me my 9 mo old is left-handed.  He seems to be.  We do baby-led finger feeding, and he prefers using his left hand to eat.  He uses his right hand, but really only to pick up and move things.  He is mostly working on his pincer grasp with his left hand.  I hope it is all in all a good sign. 

Luka, did your baby show other signs of having had a stroke?  I can't imagine mild handedness would lead your doc to order an MRI, maybe it did.  If it did, I would like to know so I can point things like this out at my next WBV.

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