Write or Wrong? Getting a Grip on Kids' Handedness
Sarah Mowery is a righty. Her husband is a righty, too. But their 3-year-old daughter, Annabelle, acts like she’s going to be a lefty.
“I think she’s going to be a lefty, but she kind of uses both hands right now,” says the mother of two from Antwerp, Ohio.
Two of Annabelle’s grandparents are lefties, so a genetic link likely has played its hand. But Mowery wonders whether environmental factors are affecting the outcome.
Genetic, but Flexible
Marianne Gibbs is the occupational therapist and educator behind Write Out of the Box!, a Texas-based program that teaches fine motor skill development to young children. She says most parents don’t know much about handedness, and how their actions could unintentionally encourage their kids toward using one hand when writing, eating and throwing a ball.
“We really can do irreparable damage with our own igno- rance on children’s handedness,” she says. “It’s critical that parents know what they’re dealing with.”
Handedness is “pre-wired,” Gibbs says. It’s determined in utero, but can be influenced as a child learns and grows. Kids usually have their dominant hand set by the time they’re 4 1⁄2 to 6.
“It’s later than a lot of people think,” she says.
Parents and educators should let children do what feels right, and let the dominant hand develop naturally, Gibbs says.
“Always let them have the knee-jerk desire to grab with the hand they choose,” Gibbs says.
“Let them have a hands-on life. Don’t steal opportunities for them to determine dominance. If they start to fluctuate or alternate, it’s normal.”
Go With the Flow
Present kids with toys or utensils at their belly button or midline of the body, Gibbs says. This can help gauge which hand they will reach out to you with.
Also, try switching up which hand you use to give a toy. Or simply ask your child which they feel more comfortable using.
Never force them to use one hand over the other, which Gibbs says can lead to long-term negative effects.
“It leads to children who are very insecure,” she says.
“People who have been biased don’t always feel confident in their approach to tasks.”
This hesitancy may lead to a child who needs approval, or always seeks to please a parent. It also can hinder speech development, creating a stutter or stammer, Gibbs says.
“Respect the dominance as it is emerging,” she says. “Don’t worry about ‘normal.’ Writing is hard enough, so if they’re using another hand, it’s even harder.”
Cursive Handwriting: A Dying Art?
More schools are moving away from teaching cursive in favor of keyboarding and computer skills. Occupational therapist Marianne Gibbs says the relationship between handwriting, technology and teaching is complex.
“Some are not teaching cursive because they don’t have success in teaching it, or they don’t have a curriculum on it,” she says.
“We know it’s really tough to teach, so they say, ‘Let’s just jump to keyboarding.’ I’m very pro-keyboarding, but it needs to be appropriately placed.”
When educators opt for keyboarding over cursive, the children often are too young and have not yet developed the visual skills nor the hand spread necessary to utilize a traditional keyboard, Gibbs says.
When taught well, cursive requires 15 minutes of instruction per day, Gibbs says.
“Manual transcription—print, cursive or a combination—contributes not only to the quantity of writing a child will do later in life, but also the quality of the composition,” she says. “That’s why it’s so important that it’s not left out of the loop.”
