getting child to use right hand

mutley74

thanks to you all for your replies. Some very interesting points have been raised. I did not think once that it may inhibit his devolpment at all, i was thinking that it may encourage more.

He can use his left hand quite well, and a little of his right hand, i just wanted to encourage more use of that.

vanoonoo

you could perhaps try to present him things gravitating towards his right hand - but you may find that the natural bias is for him to reach with his left or that he will switch from right to left.

as has been said - if you start to make him think that one is wrong and the other is right then it could lead to all sorts of problems. far easier to let him do what comes naturally

good luck though and if he does turn out to be left handed - he's part of a very special club

Spendless

aren't some very famous and talented people left-handed?
does anyone know of any examples?

SaraSeahorse

famous left handers
http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/famous.html

jockettuk

my daughter is left handed which surprised us as no one in the immediate family is left handed .. seems my late grandmother might have been.. her writing was a bit scruffy but getting better and i asked at the school if i should do or buy anything different they said no as she will find her own way in doing things.. this she has mastered she might only be as she says nearly 10 but she doesnt have a problem with it so im not going to make it a problem... we have other things to fight over lol

MATH

Sounds like you're right handed chipz.

When teaching a right handed child to tie laces, do buttons, use scissors etc you stand behind them with your hands wrapped around them to the front so they see exactly what their hands should be doing.

When teaching a left handed child stand infront, facing them so they see the mirror image (the left handed way) and they will learn much quicker.

I have two righthanded and one left handed child, you soon get used to it and automatically pass things to their dominant hand.

The only thing I have encouraged my left hander to do the right handed way is in using cutlery and flatware, cos I think it would put him at a social dissadvantage not to be able to follow dining etiquette. (Most left handers I know do not re-arrange their place settings).

Good luck and enjoy watching him/her develop

jellyhead

i was the only left hander that i knew of in my family, and strangely the only one in my class at school too. everyone tried to make me right handed and i'm still incredibly clumsy as a result of not knowing how to use my hands correctly. the clumsiness upset me far more than being left handed! my reactions are very slow because i unconsciously waver over which hand to use for things. i remember a teacher when i was 7/8 who was convinced that i was only pretending to be left handed, that year was a nightmare!

my son had no preference but school/occupational therapist tried to get him to choose one or the other by the end of the reception year, he's left handed mostly. school has left handed scissors but he also uses the easy grip scissors they have for dyspraxic children. his writing is very scruffy but might improve over time. hubby is happily ambidextrous and is not clumsy at all. my 8 year old can't tie shoelaces yet and can't really manage buttons either. i don't know how to tie shoelaces the proper way but can make a bow out of bunny ears. i once bought a book 'tie a bow ben bunny' because i thought maybe i could learn from a childrens book and then help my son to learn, but they did the bunny ears method in that book - doh!

it's surprising how many kids still struggle in school because teachers don't think to put all the left handers sitting together. in the class i help in the kids sit in rows, so we have to have one row for the left handers. it seems to be 1 in every 5 children in that class and is the same for the other class, so left handedness doesn't seem to affect academic ability a great deal although most of the dyspraxic or dyslexic children are left handed.

Pink.

My middle child is very left-handed and the only thing he sometimes has difficulty with is scissors, which as someone previously posted is easily resolved.

I have never made an issue of him being left handed, so neither does he, however, I have, like man_about_the_house, for social reasons encouraged him to use cutlery in the normal (?) way.

It is probably nothing more than coincidence, but my left-handed child is very very much brighter than his right-handed siblings.

If I was you chipz, I'd let nature take its course and let your son choose for himself.

Pink

ashmit

In a music class I used to be in, right handers like myself were in a minority - about 60% of them were left handed. Doesn't prove anything, but makes you think!

deedee_3

Please,please,please don't make your child do things right handed.

I am a leftie, the only one in my family, and my great grandmother was always at my mum to tie my hand behind my back and was always doing it when she wasn't around. Mum went spare, apparantly GG thought it meant that I was infected with the devil??

I have never had a problem with learning things being a leftie and am quite arty, which is a strange thing in my family. So Vive la diferance.