Encouraging right handedness in toddler

[Pearlsaplenty]

My 2 year has been showing a preference to using his left hand so I have been encouraging him to use his right hand by passing him thing to his right hand, kicking balls to his right side etc. I know it is very bad to force right handedness and I would never do that.

I would prefer him to be right handed as I know it is easier for general everyday living and also I have family members/friends who have said that it is more difficult to be a left handed when it comes to music eg learning guitars upside down if there is no left handed one to use.

Would I be unreasonable to ask his nursery to also encourage this?

With a son who is very severely dyspraxic, I am furious that anyone could even begin to think to do this. We have spent years working with my son and learning to adapt to the specifics regarding sight dominance, hand dominance and foot dominance (and the relationship between them). There is very clear scientific research on how these levels of dominance affect brain development and impact conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. We work with his natural inclinations and not against them, because to do otherwise would be damaging.

By trying to encourage even ambidexterity, let alone right hand dominance, you are playing games with his neurological development.

15-20 minutes? Blimey, mine lasts 15-20 seconds then it's a race between him and the dog over who eats the crayon first!

If I just put them in front he would use them incorrectly or just use one thing
But this is normal. It is called exploration. My son would only ever use black paint at first. Everyone said he must be depressed, but he has grown into a lovely happy young man.

Randall if he lasts that long, it's usually because he's been busy eating several crayons and drawing all over himself, the table, the floor...

Are you generally over anxious op? Try and chill a bit, let him be 2. I have a right handed boy and a left handed boy, DD undecided as yet. I have never once considered how to pass them something, my brain does not have space for these worries

Also, make your own playdoh, it doesn't matter if he eats that

the nursery will refuse. it doesn't matter a jot.

Jimi Hendrix is another leftie guitar player. He managed ok. My brother taught himself from watching Hendrix play.
In certain sports, it's an absolute advantage to be a leftie - Bruce Dickinson took his fencing instructor with him on an AC/DC world tour to teach him to fence L handed. I have a friend who's a left footed footballer. His 9 yrs in the premiership showed it wasn't too much of a disadvantage.

You need to step back and learn to let your child explore and make mistakes. If you keep going like this you will drive your self mad by the time he reaches school and are going to spontaneously combust by the time he hits the year 1 phonics check!

I say this as someone who also likes to control everything, you just have to learn to step back sometimes. Its good that you have accepted that you cant make him right handed, It also has many advantages. Let him do his crafts his way, there is no such thing as wrong.

Ah yes, walls are the best aren't they?

From the bathroom the other day I could hear DS saying "up and down, all the way along" and "now we're squiggling", over and over again.

I've never pee'd so fast

YABVU...... I can't actually believe this thread is for real. Poor kid, his own mother is already demonstrating prejudice towards his natural left handed preference.

Op what century are you living in? Stop this its wrong and unfair on your son. His already got lots of learning and development to do without you making it even more difficult. Not sure where you , your friends and family get your ridiculous ideas about left handed people but you seriously need to educate yourselves and get a grip.

Poor little kid.

We had children in Nursery who ate playdoh. It was homemade so we were not too worried. We started putting extra salt in which helped to stop them.

Don't force it. Your child will be what they are. If you want them to grow up able and confident don't try to force them down an unnatural path.
Our 5yo DS is left handed for writing and right handed for sport and a mixture of the two for everything else. We are both right handed.
We've encouraged him and where needed bought him the right tools (although he rarely uses anything special). He has fab neat handwriting - much better than his dads and is really starting to get the hang of things like piano where he uses both hands.

I'm a leftie and when I was at school I played the drums, violin and flute and I managed just fine. I also don't think life in general is any more difficult than it is for a righty. Your son won't know any different tbh. He'll learn to do everything with his left hand and won't give a single thought as to whether it'd be easier if he was right handed.

Please don't try and train him to be right handed. You're just going to confuse him.

Get a grip! What does it matter? My dd2 looks like she'll be left handed, so what! There are lots of products you can buy specifically for left handed people if they struggle with certain things. It can be incredibly damaging trying to force them to change their dominant hand which is what you are trying to do! Don't you have real things to worry about?

If the nursery were to agree to your request, I'd have serious doubts about its competence

Leonardo da Vinci was left handed, he was a pretty clever bloke, who was good at crafty stuff as well.

Yabu my ds used both hands until he was six he used left and right handed scissors and wrote with both hands and his school were not concerned he is now 7 and right handed

op I write right handed and eat left handed. so do all of my children. I think it's great.

I think you may need to talk to someone about your anxieties and I mean that nicely.

school is only concerned so that left hand scissors are available. that's the end of the concern as it's a non issue.

have you interfering older parents/relatives who are stuffing you up with this left handed nonsense?

Surely children learn to do crafts and drawing by watching, copying and experimenting - not by being guided or steered. Do you just 'place' things in his hands, or do you guide his hands too?

As an adult I took snowboarding lessons and couldn't figure out why I kept falling over and couldn't go in a straight line. Turns out I'm left footed despite being right handed, as soon as I switched I could magically stay on my feet, and incredibly frustrating if someone tried to make me go the other way!

YABMassivelyU if you continue to overthink like this. I can honestly say it has never crossed my mind which way I pass my 2yo pencils etc, in fact I probably use my left hand more often than not as that's how he passes them to me!

And he's another crayon eater. Slightly unnerving the first time I looked up to see what looked like flecks of dried blood all around his mouth.

Op, you are getting lots of stick when all you are being is a really attentive mother, trying to do the best for your child .It is wonderful that you put so much effort into your child.
But, like every single other poster has said, too much attention isn't a good thing. Quite the opposite. Leave him be, and don't worry about pushing him already (which you seem to be doing).

re the guitar, OP, DP is left handed but plays guitar right handed, not a problem

Blimey what a load of hysteria over nothing.

One of my twins is left handed.Toddlers can often use both before settling so I did the same to double check but never forced like the op.

Left handedness can be a barrier as hand writing is more difficult due to the hand covering words written and the pushing instead of pulling movement.

As a teacher I often had left handed kids struggle with writing initially.That said my DS has beautiful handwriting and got his pen license early.His lovely writing is due I'm sure to my acknowledgement of the issue and working with it.

Toria left footed, that's a new one on me, how interesting and how did you find out? from the instructor?