Left handed?

newbeginning_2

Sounds like my son, he's 9 now but until the age of about 6 he'd switch from side to side. I was a little concerned but only because he couldn't seem to decide which to use, He writes left handed but still does quite a lot including eating right handed.

Like others have said, he'll decide in his own time.

NEH

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I'll have to tell DD she is a witch then, she'll love it :cool: (I mean seriously she would love the idea lol)

I am right handed, my left hand writing slopes all over the place and the words turn out in various sizes. Though I always eat with my fork in my right hand and knife in the left (which I'm told is the left handed way of eating?) I always pick things up left handed, do my hair left handed.

Just a shame I'm not artistic, as I heard that left handed people tend to be more creative?

No big deal either way what DD is, if she wants to play guitar we will just have to restring the err strings?!

Found this and all the myths surrounding left handness....

http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/lh-info/myths.html

moodydonkey

WestonDave wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback - we also had a chat to someone who runs one of the left handed support type websites, and it appears that a "mix" is perfectly normal. School are not concerned as his writing is developing well, and they did give us some sheets to practice both left and right handed letter formation with him as a test - he was far better left handed.

I guess it was just the anomaly that he seemed so right handed other than his writing, but we now understand that is normal. We don't really want to cause him stress forcing him to do something which is against his natural instincts - which was really the concern in the first place that somehow he'd got trapped into using his "wrong" hand and felt too far gone to start again with the other hand.

We'll keep an eye on it and discuss it with his teachers when we next talk about his progress, but it seems from what everyone is saying that its just one of those indivdual things that makes us all different and not something we need to stress over.

Wouldn't life be simpler as parents if kids came with a proper instruction manual!

I'm 34 so old enough to have been at school when things were very favoured towards right handed people.

I write left handed as for other things I don't know! Sometimes left, sometimes right, I couldn't tell you what I automatically use.

You're right, it really is nothing to stress over at all. You use whatever comes naturally at that time, in my case it's different hands.

My daughter is a lefty too and I stil do find it funny when people say ooh you're a lefty like it's something amazing :T

retro_bluebell

WestonDave wrote: »

Wouldn't life be simpler as parents if kids came with a proper instruction manual!

Yes but it would be boring then wouldnt it?

NEH

moodydonkey wrote: »

I'm 34 so old enough to have been at school when things were very favoured towards right handed people.

I write left handed as for other things I don't know! Sometimes left, sometimes right, I couldn't tell you what I automatically use.

You're right, it really is nothing to stress over at all. You use whatever comes naturally at that time, in my case it's different hands.

My daughter is a lefty too and I stil do find it funny when people say ooh you're a lefty like it's something amazing :T

I get that, i think it's because we are special :rotfl:

moodydonkey

NEH wrote: »

I get that, i think it's because we are special :rotfl:

Nobody even notices my second head :rotfl:

Lunar_Eclipse

My youngest is 8 and left handed. She was an obvious leftie from about the age of 2, but does some things right handed, including eating (sadly I think that's because it didn't occur to me to lay her cutlery out differently until after she'd got used to it !)

She plays a lot of sport. Hockey has to be played right handed and after an interesting 6 months watching her dance around her stick a bit, she's finally cracked it. She is also double footed in football, but left handed at racket sports such as tennis. Interestingly she still finds scissor work a bit hard, even with left handed scissors.

Whilst I wouldn't worry about it in the slightest, you should be able to work out which hand he prefers, which should be fairly indicative. Which hand would he use to pick something up out of reach, brush his teeth with etc. I would find it very hard to do either of these things with my left hand.

ETA: If there's any doubt however, bear in mind that the world is geared to right handed people. It's ridiculous but sadly the way it is, having witnessed this first hand with my daughter.

Lunar_Eclipse

Buttonmoons wrote: »

Just a shame I'm not artistic, as I heard that left handed people tend to be more creative?

I have heard that too and I have to say that my left handed daughter is very creative, imaginative and artistic. Her literacy work at school is superb; her brain definitely works differently to the rest of our family. In comparison, we are much more structured and approach things in a traditional and logical way.

Also, you can buy left handed guitars for left handed people; it's on my DD's wish list.

robin_banks

NEH wrote: »

Left handness wasn't accepted in schools many moons ago, i think even in my day 25 years ago it was the norm to teach to write with the right...

I think it also had some moral or religious side to it as well but i may be wrong....Something about being a witch or the devil or something...

There's a case here in east London where a toddler would pick up food with thier left hand.

Thier parents being religious tried to train her to eat with her right hand, it ended up with her not eating at all. Family support and Social Services quickly became involved.

I'm not making this up.

Indie_Kid

NEH wrote: »

I get that, i think it's because we are special :rotfl:

Strange, you mean?:p