getting child to use right hand

Poppy9

Have the child make an X, put one end of the shoestring through the X and pull tight. Most children do not have a problem with this. Then make two long bunny ears, make an X with them, put one through the bottom part of the X and pull tight.

apprentice_tycoon

A previous contributor mentioned that left-handers often learn to do things right-handed...true...I'm left handed but as my mum was left-handed too she wasn't phased by this and just let me do what I wanted to do. I use my right hand for using scissors (there weren't left hand ones when I was a kid and just learned to use them in the right hand) holding a cup and playing guitar. Each child will find their own way and there's no point in interfering. I have a left hand cheque book though!

ribenagirl

You can learn to do stuff right-handed if you're a leftie, but neurologically you'll always be a leftie.

At work, when we assess people who've had a stroke, we sometimes use the Edinburgh Handedness Test - yes, such a thing exists! . (The reason we do this, is because some left handed people have different representations within the brain for speech and language to right handed people, which means the pattern of impairment will be different).

Anyway, the EHT asks questions like, 'If you had to open a jar, what hand would you use?' and, 'If you put your hand out to stop yourself from falling, which hand would you use?' Because, even though you can learn or be taught to do things right-handed, in spontaneous situations you'll always use your dominant hand

Love_Weddings

My four year old son is left handed. Initially it crossed my mind that I would have preferred it if he was right handed as I was concerned that there might be things in life he would find difficult.

But then having spoken to a colleague who was put under a lot of pressure to use his right hand, and the feelings he experienced as a young child feeling he was not good enough somehow, I dropped that idea straight away.

I'm just happy to have a gorgeous 4 year old - left handed or not.

Haize

I am shocked that there are still people around that worry about children being left handed! My dad was forced to write right-handedly whilst a child, and very few people can understand his writing, something he decidedly blames on it being unnatural. I am left handed, but use scissors with my right hand, possibly due to a lack of left handed scissors at first school, or something. But with things like that, you just learn to cope. You don't need special pens - the only important thing there is not to share pens with someone who writes with the opposite hand, as some pens seem to take a set to them after a while, and don't work for other people!

Regardless of whether a child turns out to be left or right handed, forcing them to change will have no effect on how they turn out intellectually, so why worry?

However, I think the occasional external influence (like only having right handed scissors) had two effects on me: a) I learned full coordination MUCH slower - I literally only became any good at catching about 5-7 years ago. b) I now am more dextrous with either hand than many people. These appear totally contradictory, and I'm not sure whether my advice would be to make sure a child has all the equipment they want at hand so they can go ahead with their preference, or to encourage them to make use of both hands. Learning the piano greatly helped me, I think.

PS thanks apprenticetycoon for the mention of left handed cheque books. I vaguely recall having heard of them before, but had completely forgotten. I shall order one immediately!