How do you determine handedness?

[Distracted]

My dd is 3 1/2 so I would have thought it would be obvious by now whether she is right or left handed, but I'm not sure?

I remember when she learnt to eat with a spoon first she was better with her left hand, but then it seemed to swap and, although she used both, she was more adept with the right.

She starts school next September and is just starting to want to try to write letters and numbers but seems to be equally happy to use her left or right hand. Surely by the time she starts school we need to know whether she is left or right handed and probably now she is learning to write we should be focussing on one or other hand?

she could be ambidextrous.

dd is definitely left handed and i've never "focused" on one hand.

Some children are ambidextrous, some take a little longer to really develop a preference.

My niece is 6 in December. She usually writes with her RH, but usually draws with her LH.

It would make life easier if she were completely consistent and predictable, but her teachers and parents know that they have to let her find her preferences in her own time. If she is pressurised it could have a negative effect.

ok that makes me feel a little better. I certainly haven't tried to pressurise her so far, just let her do as she wants. However, I thought school would expect to know one way or the other. If school will let her do her own thing as well, then I suppose that's fine.

There is a way, apparently, that our SENCo used to get us to do if our Reception children were undecided, because it is preferable if they are decided by Year 1.

Give the child a tube to look through - such as the cardboard inside of a kitchen roll.

Whichever eye they put it to is supposed to be the side they are more dominant and should be encouraged in handedness.

HTH

i read that they swap until 4 years old. and it was like this with DD and now she is definitely left handed.

Two of my four are l-handed but it was pretty obvious by the time they were about 18mths. I can't really see that it matters too much, even at school, which hand they use to start with. Ds1 used to use his r hand on the r-hand side of the page and his l hand for the l-hand side. He eventually became r handed.

Catflap, I don't think that test is accurate. Eye dominance doesn't necessarily reflect handedness. Everyone has a dominant hand, eye, foot and ear. Because you are l-handed doesn't mean you are l-oriented in any other way, it's a mix-and-match thing and you can have any combination of l and r. My ds is r-handed but plays cricket l-handed - weird!

Distracted

Sounds exactly like my dd (also 3 1/2). I was convinced she was going to be left-handed (like me) but she now seems to prefer the right hand for drawing/writing, although she sometimes swaps to the left to do the left-hand side of a picture! She still uses her left hand a lot for eating. I asked her nursery teachers about it and they just said to leave her to sort it out for herself. Since she is now fairly consistent in using her right hand for drawing, though, I do consciously try to put the pencil into that hand (if I remember). I think I may have been unconsciously encouraging her to favour the left, because that looks 'normal' to me. On the other hand, my dd1 (now 5) has always been totally right-handed, no question about it.

Interesting about the tube, Catflap. I am very very short-sighted in my left eye and can't see that well through it even with glasses/contacts, but I realised that I had always instinctively used that eye for taking photos, so that would bear out the link between handedness and, um, 'eyedness' (?).

My daughter was completely left-handed from day one. Showed very strong preference at all times with her left side including sucking thumb, feeding with a spoon, holding objects, throwing ball etc. Held crayons, pens, paintbrushes in her left hand at all times. Started school and within 3 weeks of reception, out of the blue, swopped hands and has remained right handed eversince. She's nearly 6.

My son writes with his right hand but seems to have a dominant left side. Kicks balls with left foot, holds bats with his left hand, throws with his left arm. Pushes off from scooters and bikes on the left side.

None of it makes sense to me!

DD2 (18mths) seems to be a lefty but DD1 was the same until she went to school and was pushed towards using her right hand as such she is slow with writing and quite aloppy