Confused right or left-handed?

[overthebar]

My Son ASD (4.3) is having trouble writing or holding pen. This is ok as school are working on this with him and OT visit due in about 4 weeks. We thought he was left handed but now he seems to switch between both. Is there any way of finding out? Thanks

I read somewhere that most ASD kids were left handed.

OT did an assessment on my DS's skills when he was a similar age. The tests were varied - not many had anything to do with holding a pen. From scarce memory there were cutting with scissors, posting cards in a box, threading, putting in order types of games. The games are timed and accuracy noted. DS scored the same times bizarrely with both hands. They did note that his left hand was more accurate, and the right hand faster, but because he had to re-place things, meant it was the same speed.
DS nearly 8 now and i still catch him using random handedness in lots of tasks!

DS is Nt but used either hand randomly up until he was about 6 until he was asked at school to decide which hand to use and practice using only that hand.
At 12 he still does not have a preference generally but has become habit to write with his right hand.

DS2 is only a little older than your DS and he hasn't really shown a strong hand preference, yet. He'll often scribble with both hands at once!

DS1, by contrast, showed a very strong preference for his right hand by 9 months - which is funny, since DH and I are both lefties!

I read that no hand dominance can be related to dyspraxia, although like spinkle I will run off incase I am wrong.
Some children do take longer to favour a particular hand though.

Spinkle... if you remember where you read that let me know please, both my [possibly] ASD Dd's are lefties!! I have always been curious about links between quirkiness and leftiness. [ducks to aviod the flack LOL].

Oh and both my lefties were difficult births too!!

Ineed2 don't duck - the DS i mentioned is dyspraxic - so it goes with your theory. There has always been a not quite the norm opinion of lefties in society. Sinestra ((can't remember the spelling now) is the latin for left and gives us the word sinister. That is why many people were made to write with their right hands even though they were naturally left handed. No wonder it either drove them mad or made them into complete geniuses for being able to do it!

ds is a leftie (and has asd and dyspraxia). He was an obvious leftie from about 6 months of age . However when he started school (at 4.2 months) he went through a really difficult period of being confused about which hand to use. He also even had trouble holding a pencil (held it in a fist) Looking back, I think school was actually confusing him. He would be encouraged to write by people putting pencils into his right hand or had to use a right-handed pencil sharpener or scissors .

Perhaps it just needs a bit of adjustment time for him to work out what hand he feels best doing all these new tasks in ...or perhaps you need to have a word with the teacher (ds's teacher had no idea he had problems sharpening pencils for instance....you can get left-handed sharpeners if needed).

Can he do things like touch his right hand to his left ear or his left hand to his right knee ( copying you obviously rather than following directions) Or can he draw himself or put together cut out body parts in the right places? he may have general poor body awareness or no awareness of left & right. If so, it will probably take a while for him to decide which hand he wants to use

Thanx auntevil... I have always thought there is a fine line between madness and genius anyway!!LOL. There are some really bright but completly nutty people in my family, quite a number of them lefties, hhhmmm, Food for thought!

a simple way to test favored hands is to play a simple game of catch

toss a soft ball to him something light enough to grab single handedly

the dominent hand should try for the grab first

especially if its to the same place

should is the keyword as i switch depending on oriantation of the incombe object but im a freak

My ds, asd, is 4.3 and still has no hand preference which was confirmed by physio last week. She said that children with asd can be late in developing this due to the developmental delay.

Hi,

My little boy has a definite left preference. However he's having OT at the moent and is far more dextrous with his right!

He also writes with his left but then changes to his right. When we explored this with hi it seems that his hands get tired very quickly (he will probably need a laptop in school)and that's why he changes between hands. He has low hypotonia and hypermobility syndrome.

xx

Ds1 (ASD) didn't really show a preference until he was around 5'ish. He writes with his right hand but everything else is a mixture, eg he picks his pen up with his left hand and then transfers it to his right hand to write. He has a lot of dyspraxic traits though so this may be related to that.