Handedness

[bright eyed]

My daughter is showing signs of ambidexterity...She writes with both hands, and dribbles the bball with both. Her teacher who has been teaching for decades has found this to be truly rare by her age of 4.5.

Who out there is ambidextrous? What were the consequences and/or benefits as a young child?

We are not pushing her either way but want to know what to look out for and especially if teachers or grandparents start trying to force one or the other.

My only current concern is that it may take her longer to learn to write since she uses both hands she's learning twice, and she's a perfectionist so that takes longer already!

 

[OAG]

Write left handed almost everything else right handed. I can remember the Nuns whacking me on the left hand with those 3 foot wooden pointers every time I tried to write with it (at least they don't do that anymore, do they?). Finally, they just gave up and "left" me alone -- insofar as writing went.

IMO you should just leave her alone -- she will do fine on her own. The problems IMO come about when someone in authority starts with "this is the right way" and "this is the wrong way" stuff.

 

[Deetso]

I voted that Im a righty- but I've got a wicked left footed shot.

 

[happy2bretired]

I'm a lefty but I cut with scissors with my right hand otherwise, I just sort of bend the paper. Maybe I should have tried finding lefty scissors. Been that way all my life. I have never had anyone try to make me a righty.

 

[linkerbink]

I write mainly with my right hand, although I can do it (and legibly!) with my left. I also eat, sew, draw and bat righty. I shoot (handgun, rifle/shotgun and bow), iron, and play field hockey and lacrosse lefty. Still can't figure out why.

 

[bright eyed]

i do almost everything except for typing w/ only my right hand and right side. I'm lefty impaired - it takes a lot of thinking and work to do things on the left, like kicking a ball w/ the left is more work than with the right.

there are some people who can do everything w/ both (hence the option in the poll)

then others do only certain things with certain hands or feet. that has something to do w/ a lack of hemisphere integration in the brain? which is why some people think lateral dominance is important (strongly preferring one side or the other).

wanted to see how this manifests in adults.

i'm trying to pay attention to see if my daughter does certain things w/ a certain side...

 

[Peaceful_Warrior]

I'm quasi-ambidextrous (as voted for the last option on the poll).

I write lefty, swing righty, cut scissors righty, throw a baseball lefty...

When I was a kid, my dad went on a business trip and brought me a baseball glove to put on my left hand. He said he thought I was righty because I always swing that way.

Some memories never fade...

 

[4EAXFM]

Lefty here in all ways, except I open jars with my right hand (right hand twists off the lid). What's up with that?

 

[Khan]

Extremely right handed, I can't even imagine how to do things with my left hand (write, use chopsticks, use knife/scissors).

I knew a guy who could write legibly in both directions (at the same time): right hand forwards, left hand backwards.

 

[runchman]

Lefty here in all ways, except I open jars with my right hand (right hand twists off the lid). What's up with that?

I'm the same except mirrored - right handed, left hand to twist off lid.

I read somewhere it's a sign of genetic superiority of quite a large magnitude.........

 

[bssc]

Mostly righty but eat with left hand as well as a few other tasks.

 

[gandalf42]

I knew a guy who could write legibly in both directions (at the same time): right hand forwards, left hand backwards.

Yeah, my mom could do that. She'd write backwards left handed messages for us when we were kids..we'd take them to a mirror to "decode" them.

 

[loosechickens]

A lefty....but things I was taught while young, many of them I do righthanded......shoot archery, rifle, I throw lefthanded but bat righthanded, play guitar righthanded, but most everything else, eating, writing, etc. is all lefthanded.

I use my computer mouse and TV remote righthanded.....it's kind of all the natural things are lefthanded, but things I've been taught righthanded, or learned to do righthanded allow me to function quite well with both hands.

All my life I waited to achieve something major, so they would write my biography and start it with "she was born on Christmas Day, at 1:11 a.m. and was lefthanded, so they could tell she was destined for greatness".......alas, much time has gone by, but no biography, or great achievements have occurred.....hope springs eternal. ;-)

LooseChickens

 

[bright eyed]

are the lefties more artsy?

 

[lets-retire]

I'm very left handed. I can't even scratch with my right hand very well.

Bright Eyed--I have no artistic ability at all.

 

[Coach]

I'm a lefty but I cut with scissors with my right hand otherwise, I just sort of bend the paper. Maybe I should have tried finding lefty scissors. Been that way all my life. I have never had anyone try to make me a righty.

I'm a lefty, and having gotten used to right-handed scissors, left-handed ones are difficult to operate. Don't bother with 'em!

I open jars right-handed too. I think you can just get better torque with that one. But it's just one more example of how those damn rightys design everything for their own benefit! Leftys unite against the oppressors!

That was an attempt at humor -- there's nothing wrong with rightys. Some of my best friends are right-handed.

Coach

 

[FinanceDude]

Lefthanded for writing.

Most sports, I get more power from the right, but I can switchhit, bowl with either hand, etc.

I eat with the left, but cut with scissors right handed. I open jars with the right hand because I have more power.

Seems weird, but when I used to armwrestle guys for beers, I did better with the left hand............

 

[HelpMeRhonda]

Right-handed:
Throw a ball
wirte
Hammer a nail

Left handed:
eat
scissors
open jars.
shoot a rifle
Hammer a nail

I serve in tennis right handed, but immediately switch to my left after serve.

Kind of screwed up, really.

 

[Sandy]

I would disagree. At 4.5, using both hands is very common, expecially among those who become lefties. (I am a lefty, as is most of my family). My daughter, who is lefty also used both for a long time. I do not know of any delay in developing writing skills by letting children develop naturally. Forcing one hand or the other, however, can delay skill development.

As you can see from the responses, there is a continuum. Neuropsycholgists, when testing for many brain processing problems may first assess handedness for 10 different activities (writing, scissors, sweeping (which hand is on top) , threading a needle (which hand moves), etc.) since handedness is somewhat related to how the brain processes information and where in the brain these skills "reside". The continuum can run from +10 (do everything righthanded) to -10 (do everything left handed). Few, if anyone is completely ambidextrous on all tasks.

You may be interested to learn there are some protective factors to being left handed. Both women and those who are left handed (even more for left handed women) often have better recovery from strokes, because their "skills" are more diffusely organized in their brains.

 

[bright eyed]

i think her teacher was saying that based on her experience (not data) that she had rarely seen it - she has had lefties who were more dominant lefties by that stage.

last nite was open house at her school and she showed me all the "work" they do (it's montessori) and here's what i found...

she wrote mostly w/ her left (still switched hands a couple times)

she cut w/ her right

other tasks depended on how it was presented - so if she was pouring something it depended on which side the beans were on first and she could do both sides well.

i will throw something at her in a year or two to see which hand she catches it with...

overall her handwriting is improving so i'm not really concerned...

i think i'm just fascinated too because i'm so strongly a righty and now i see how many people switch for various tasks...guess my right brain is underdeveloped/underwired

 

[loosechickens]

I'm finding this thread on handedness really interesting. Interesting because it looks like many people are somewhere in the middle of the continuum rather than strictly at either end.

I suspect it is something like sexual orientation, where some are absolutely and definitely homosexual, some are absolutely and definitely heterosexual, and a large number of people have some tendencies toward both, and could function as either, or fall in love with someone of either gender, depending on life experiences........

Too bad we aren't as able to accept that sexual continuum with the same equanimity that we accept handedness. Wouldn't our society be a lot more peaceful and accepting if we could?

Of course there was a time in history when lefthandedness was seen with the same sort of horror as homosexuality awakens in some today. Perhaps in the future, such an attitude will seem as antiquated as discrimination against "lefties" seems today.

Just a Friday afternoon musing........LooseChickens

 

[bright eyed]

or political orientation it seems!

 

[bssc]

[Fencing]
Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don't know.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo Montoya: I... am not left-handed.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage]
Man in Black: You are amazing.
Inigo Montoya: I ought to be, after 20 years.
Man in Black: Oh, there's something I ought to tell you.
Inigo Montoya: Tell me.
Man in Black: I'm not left-handed either.

 

[HFWR]

Mostly use the right hand, but sometimes switch to left for a change of pace...

 

[Sarah in SC]

Lefty for everything but jar-opening. Only lefty in my family. I found a book at the library on left handedness that said we die earlier, because of industrial accidents with equipment designed for rightys. Oh, and in car accidents, we jerk to the left instead of right, causing us to run into oncoming traffic instead of off the road. So we've got that going for us....

Sarah...who works for two lefty bosses...odd demographic