sr@u1100a.UUCP (11/09/83)
As the father of a two month old baby boy, I am a beginner at parenting. Naturally, at this point we are guessing about what will come to be. I would like to know if more experienced parents were able to see indications of preference for right or left hand in their children at such young ages.
ptw@vaxine.UUCP (P. T. Withington) (11/10/83)
All my information says you should definitely try NOT to determine your kids handedness and encourage equal use of both hands by always presenting toys, food, etc. along the midline. Subtle forcing of handedness has been linked to all sorts of learning difficulties in later life. 't` --Tucker (ptw@vaxine.UUCP) ~
dennis@beesvax.UUCP (11/10/83)
Having come from familys of right-handers, my wife and I began to notice that our son was developing a preferance for a south- paw. This didn't concern us, but we were (and still are) curious as to how this happened. After he turned 2 years old, our second son was born. My wife read an article in a parenting magazine on hand preferances that suggested a childs hand preferance could be learned and went further to say that this learning process could ocurr during a bottle feeding session. We bottle fed our oldest during his infancy and we came to realize (from bottle feeding the second child) that every time we fed him we tucked his right arm against our body which left his left arm free to grasp the bottle or fling it around and do whatever. So we decided to alternate the feeding position and let each arm be free at different feeding times. I don't know if our results are conclusive or not but the oldest boy is now 6 and a very definite left-hander. The second boy is 4 and a third boy (3 years) are definite right-handers. I'm not saying that this is the reason for the oldest boy's hand preferance, but this is our experience and it *may* have been a contributing factor. Dennis McCurdy Beehive International (..harpo!utah-cs!beesvax)
peg@linus.UUCP (Margaret E. Craft) (11/11/83)
One of my bringing-up-baby books claims that at an early stage in development, an eventual lefty appears to be a righty (and vv). In fact, I've noticed a switch in preference lately in my 10 month old. When she was learning to stand she would want to have her support controlled by her right hand and therefore used her left to explore/reach/etc. She also took food more often with the left than the right and, even when sitting, would tend to reach with the left. (A contributing factor here might be that she spends at least an hour every working day in the car seat, with me to her left, so she may favor that side for that reason. Also, since I'm a righty, I carry her in my left arm and she holds on with her right - again, leaving the left free to reach and wave. For long walks, the back pack gives her both hands...) I was always careful to offer things down-the-middle so as to keep from forcing the issue. (I bought one of the easy-for-baby-to-use spoons, with the curved handles, only to realize that it is ONLY useable by right hands!!) Anyhow, now that's she's walking well, she seems to be tending toward the right hand. She turns knobs with the right hand, plays her "musical busy box" with the right, etc. So maybe there's something to it. Anyhow, as ptw said, it's got to be best to just let the kid decide. Being left handed has some disadvantages (like softball gloves and scissors) but none that are worth chancing disrupting her/his development. peggy
nessus@nsc.UUCP (Kchula-Rrit) (11/15/83)
Please DO NOT force your children to "conform" by using their right hands
when they show a leaning towards left-handedness!! It is best that they use
which hand they are most comfortable with. I've known too many people who have
been MESSED UP by such things. I was fortunate that my family did not try to
make me right-handed.
I have no trouble with {right-handed} scissors; in fact I cannot use left-
handed scissors. This created a few problems in school, but once again I was
fortunate. Softball gloves are a great disadvantage for me not because I am
left-handed, but because I both throw and catch with my left hand. This
"problem" I solved by playing not wearing a glove while playing softball. I
never played baseball with a "hard ball" for this reason.
In primary school, I used to imitate the people around me, with the one
exception wrt use of the right hand. I merely substituted the left hand for the
right hand whenever I could get away with it. Being left-handed has never
stopped me from doing whatever I wanted to do in life.
If I have any wierd feelings on growing up left-handed in a right-handed
world, it is the unthinking engineers/designers of a lot of equipment in not
considering the possibility of a user that may use the other hand. Numeric
keypads come to mind immediately because the terminal I use has one on the right
side of the keyboard. Can openers are another household item.
Anyways, this is getting rather long.
Kchula-Rrit
menlo70!nsc!nessuspking@uiucuxc.UUCP (04/12/84)
#R:u1100a:-38700:uiucuxc:31400001:000:1435 uiucuxc!pking Apr 12 11:27:00 1984 my first two childern showed little or no preference for either hand until they began to use spoons themselves, and crayons to draw, each were right handed, much to my disappointment, i am left-handed and it has become difficult over the years to teach my right handed childern to write, to play ball, to tie their shoes, etc, because what i do seems backwards to them, i am forced to leave the teaching to their father and grandparents -- (i am the only left-hander as far back as anyone can remember in my family) --- my last child began showing a preference for her left hand at a very early age (2 months) when given a choice everything would be taken and held by the left hand -- as she grew older she continued this trait--she is two now and decidedly left-handed she eats left handed and color/draws left handed, she may pick something up with her right hand (earlier she held her bottle in her right hand to leave her left hand free for other things she wanted to do) but usually she is using her left hand --- so at last i have a child i can teach to write, and help do all the things i couldn't with the other two --- by the way-- my first child began making his letters similar to the way i made mine in an effort to copy my style when he was first learning to write, what resulted was a right handed child making his letters look properly but going about it backwards -- i agree that each child should have a choice .