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Behaviour/development

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Original poster

Left-handed or right-handed - At what age do children usually 'decide'?

38 replies

coppertop · 19/09/2004 12:33

Ds2 is 19 months old and has been very obviously left-handed for a long time. I first noticed this when he was about 10 or 11 months old but assumed he was going through the usual process of trying out his left hand before switching to his right and then back again etc. He does use his right hand if he's doing something that needs both hands but otherwise is very definitely left-handed.His fine-motor skills are excellent and he can already do a lot of things that ds1 (4yrs) can't.

It's not that I mind him being a leftie. Dh is left-handed and so is BIL. I'm just concerned that this is a little early to be so obviously one way or the other. When did your child 'decide' one way or the other?

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KateandtheGirls · 19/09/2004 12:34

That sounds about right to me. My 2 year old is right-handed and has been very obviously so for a long time.

suedonim · 19/09/2004 15:13

I realised dd2 was going to be left-handed from before a year old. Dd1 is also l-handed and I remember noting at about 15mths that she used her l-hand a lot but didn't think much of it as we did't have a history of l-handers in our family. Ds1 used both hands a lot until he was about 4yo, istr, but eventually went over to using his right hand. Hth.

MUMINAMILLION · 19/09/2004 16:24

Think they were about 15/16 months by the time it was obvious they preferred using their left hand. My health visitor argued that they were not left-handed, and they would most certainly revert to their right hand, making me feel silly that I had mentioned it. But I was right, and she was wrong (how often have I heard that!)

popsycal · 19/09/2004 16:25

my 2 year old is right handed and it has been obvious for quite a while now (was 2 in august)

efmach · 19/09/2004 16:42

My daughter has always shown a strong preference for her left hand in every thing that she does since she was tiny (painting, scribbling, feeding, etc) and I assumed this to be her dominant hand. Not so, she is now 4.5 and in the last two months has started to write with her right hand.
My son has a strong left-sided preference when he plays sports, kicks with his left foot, throws balls and bats left-handedly but is also righthanded when it comes to writing. Very confusing!

lavender1 · 19/09/2004 16:47

my ds is left-handed and it showed from about a year when he held a crayon to draw.

lavender1 · 19/09/2004 16:49

efmach they must be ambidextrous (can't spell it)...i'm right handed but do lots of stuff with left hand

Lonelymum · 19/09/2004 17:19

Ds1, who is LH, used his LH over his R when he was a small baby, but I understand that is coincidence more than anything else. I will be interested to find out if DS3 is LH though as he uses his LH a lot (now aged 19 months)

Lonelymum · 19/09/2004 17:20

BTW Efmach, everyone is left and right everything, eg hand, foot, eye, and it is common for it to be different with different parts of the body (eg I am RH but very clearly left footed!)

posyhairdresser · 19/09/2004 17:57

My dd is 5 and uses both hands equally which puzzles me a lot!

lipsty · 19/09/2004 19:08

Is there any evidence that lh or rh is hereditary? I'm both and dh is VERY left handed.

wilbur · 19/09/2004 19:29

Ds has been left handed since he first realised he had hands, I think. Left thumb sucked, pushed up on his left hand to roll over as a baby, kicks with left foot etc. He is 3.8 and def LH as is dh and most of his family. Dd (15 mos) is currently swapping happily between the two which I think is more the norm for her age. We also have LHness in my family although further back. Lipsty - an education psych friend of mine said that LH definitely runs in families, although of course a little leftie can pop up anywhere.

MUMINAMILLION · 19/09/2004 19:35

Lipsty, not sure if there is any evidence. But as far as we are aware there is no-one on either my side of the family or dh's who is left-handed. My older dds are rh, but younger 2 are lh. Wasnt there something in the news a while ago about scans in pregnancy possibly causing an increase in left-handedness?

onlyjoking9329 · 19/09/2004 19:41

i have identical twin girls, one is left handed like me and the other is right handed like her dad.

suedonim · 19/09/2004 21:08

Yes, there was MIAM. I had my two R-handed boys in the 70's before scanning was available and my l-handed girls in the 80's/90's and was scanned in both pg's. That's only an anecdote, of course, but it made me wonder. Mind you, older women give birth to more L-handed babies, apparently. If you're over 40 your baby is 128% more likely to lefthanded.

Onlyjoking, about 20% of identical twins have one L and one R hander, as you have. Apparently, it's due to the stage of development the embryo had reached when it split into two.

Lonelymum · 19/09/2004 21:23

onlyjoking - that is so interesting about your identical twins. I once heard a theory (on a reputable programme such as Horizon) that implied for every LH person, there would have been a potential RH identical twin very early on in the pregnancy. That sounds really far fetched now I have written it down but I would love to hear from other parents of identical twins whether they have "one of each".

Lonelymum · 19/09/2004 21:24

Oh sorry suedonim, I should have read your post before writing mine.

onlyjoking9329 · 19/09/2004 21:28

my hubby an identical twin but they are both right handed, i read something about mirror image twins, that fits with the one left and one right i think

Lonelymum · 19/09/2004 21:32

This daft theory I mentioned may not be so daft when I think about it. Ds3 looks like being LH and he had a twin that was lost early in the pregnancy........

Dizzylizzy · 19/09/2004 21:42

dd1 and dd2 starting started prefering to use their left hands between 18 months and 2 years, dh is the only right hander in this house.

Prettybird · 20/09/2004 08:31

There is a genetic element to left handedness - as well as other aspects such as age of parents (mother?). It's not a "clear" one like colour of eyes. If, for example, both parents are left handed (as dh and I are) then there is only a 1 in 3 chance of children being left handed, and in fact ds (4) is right handed. So the odds are increased (from about 1 in 10 or so) - but not engouh to make being left handed a dead cert. My dad (doctor) said when we were talking about this recently that that it will be because the genes have "variable penetration" - but that was as much as he knew (he was a radiologist not a geneticist).

Ghosty · 20/09/2004 08:50

All of my family (Mum, Dad, brothers, sister, me) are right handed. DH is weird ... He does everything one handed with his right hand (writing, playing tennis, bowling a cricket ball) but he is left handed with everything he does with two hands (golf, batting a cricket ball, chopping wood with an axe). DS looks like he is exactly the same ... he is nearly 5 and clearly prefers his right hand for writing but prefers playing mini golf and cricket left handed.
SIL is left handed so there is clearly a strong 'Leftiness' in DH's family.
DD is too young to tell yet but she tends to chew her left hand more than her right and reach for things with her left hand more (she is 7.5 months)

elliott · 20/09/2004 09:57

Interesting. ds1 is nearly 3 and I'm still not sure if he's left or right handed, so I'm surprised that it seems to be clear much earlier for most kids. I have been watching, too, since dh and I are both left handed. nursery think ds1 is right handed and I think that on balance he does use the right more often, but its by no means obvious.

Egypt · 20/09/2004 11:12

read this is prima baby mag this week - "Whether your baby is LH or RH may be determined in the womb. Using scans, scientists recorded whether foetuses were sucking their left or right thumbs. All right thumb suckers were RH and two-thirds of left suckers were lefties."

Original poster

coppertop · 20/09/2004 11:20

Ds1 is 4 and still completely ambidextrous in everything he does. I suppose this is why I was so concerned about ds2 being obviously LH at such an early age. It's good to know that he's not the only one who is so obviously LH/RH at an early age.

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