Handedness

[auntevil]

In my and OT's opinion, DS1s handedness was never truly established by 1st primary school. They decided he was RH and he was made to write with his right hand.
Roll on to Y4 (different school) and he has just finished an excellent NHS funded course of sensory integration where the OT commented that when she did some writing practise with him, it still was not clear if he was RH/LH.
During the holidays so far, we have been doing handwriting practice each day and I have to say that I cannot tell the difference in writing without checking the cover to see which hand he did it with.
It could be that he is equally LH and RH - ambidextrous. He has asked me what will he do when he goes back to school, can he/should he mix it around to ensure he uses both and maintains this ability?
His dyspraxia means that his hands tire very easily, his hypermobility means that he can over-stretch his ligaments without knowing and after a short amount of work have very painful hands - so both might be an advantage?
Any experiences? Any advice?

ds2 is in yr 5 & his handedness he is only just consistantly using a dominant hand at school, he has difficulty with bilateral integration. His sensory & motor OT's said that it is largely to do with two side of his brain operating seperately form each other.
It is something that may establish itself in time but was advised to allow him to use whatever hand comes naturally BUT wherever possible make sure pens/pencils/cutlery are postioned neutrally infront of him rather than to one particular side of him.

Ds uses whatever he feels like. He's going into y6, and now predominantly uses his right hand for writing, but his left as the prime for a number of other tasks. He didn't start to establish a preference until y3, and even now will sometimes just pick something up and start using it with the opposite hand to the one he usually uses for that task...

I can't get too excited about it. Dd2 would be right handed, but because of the pattern of her brain damage has to be functionally left handed. She took waaaaaaay more ot and physio than ds did. still does.

I don't think you should make him do anything. Just let him work out on his own what he finds easier for any given task.

DS uses different hands for different tasks anyway - I've never been that bothered. I just wondered how school might re-act if I say same task (writing) either hand as he feels fit to use.
Wondered if school might be of the opinion that seeing as they agreed to him using a laptop to complete lengthy pieces of work as it tires him, why go down the route of potentially using both hands if one gets too tired.