[lafemmedesfemmes]

ds1, who is now four, had settled on being a rightie by the time he was two. ds2, who is 23 months, still hasn't settled on a hand yet. dh and i each have one left-handed parent, so we'll definitely be surprised if none of our eventual children end up left-handed.

anyway, is there any indication that left-handed children decide on their handedness later than right-handed children-- say, because they're around so many righties that it takes a bit for them to catch on that it doesn't work for them, or some other factor?

what do you guys think?

christina

 

[The4OfUs]

I have a very small sample size (2 children

). Our son is a lefty, and has favored his left hand almost from when he first started reaching for things; family members, even friends and strangers would comment, "wow, he's a lefty already!" by the time he was 6 months old, and it never seemes to be in question, he 99.9% of the time went with his left hand. He's 5 now. DH's mom and brother are lefty, and his sister is virtually ambidextrous (DH is kind of ambi he does a few things as well or better lefty but most righty), so we weren't surprised at having a lefty, but were surprised at how soon he showed an almost exclusive preference. DD took a little longer to show favor, but by the time she was 1 it was pretty clear she favored her right hand, and uses her right almost exclusively at this point.

FWIW, as a baby/toddler, we'd always put things down in the middle for him and let him decide how to pick them up, we never encouraged either hand (because we knew there were other lefties in the family and didn't want to influence him - it was a conscious decision we made), so maybe that's part of the reason - maybe righties who don't have lefties in the family already kind of subconsciously tend to hand thigns to the right? Or something? Not that I think it's a bad thing, just a potential observation.

 

[JBaxter]

DS1 ALWAYS a rightie. DS2 ALWAYS a leftie. DS3 used both and didnt choose till he was nearly 5 and still does alot of things with both hands but has started writing solely with his right hand. My lefty didnt take any longer to write then my rightie but my undecided did take a little longer.

 

[flapjack]

I have two lefties and one rightie, and it was pretty obvious from early on with all of them. My guess is that DS3 is LHed too, but it's too soon to be sure.

 

[MusicianDad]

Every child is different no matter the handedness. There are lefties that are lefties right from the start and righties that don't settle on their hand until first or second grade. And some people are born ambidexterous...

 

[Alyantavid]

I've been wondering about this too. My 7 year old has always been right handed. My almost 3 year old started out using almost only his left. Now he uses either or, it doesn't seem to matter what he does with what hand.

 

[sbgrace]

My lefty was pretty settled early. His brother is right handed and did a lot of both for a long time. We suspected he was right handed but it took a while to completely settle there. He's left footed. So he may be a bit ambidexterous and that's why it took him a while to settle. He can still cut with his left hand as well as right. Who knows. But he's right handed.

 

[Mandynee22]

DD is a rightie (and she's 9 so I'm pretty sure it won't change). She used both hands until she was like 18 months.
DS will be three in Sept and is a rightie for the most part... EXCEPT when he hits a baseball, then he's a leftie usually, a rightie a little of the time. I don't think it's because he has any kind of left handed tendancy though. I think it's because DP hits leftie (he's got an eye problem in one eye and was taught that way so he could see the ball) and he's imitating him. He pitches with different hands too... so I had to buy a rightie and a leftie glove for him

 

[mommajb]

My first 3 are righties and I never questioned it. My 3 yo writes with her left hand on the left side of the paper and her right on the right side as she so eloquently explained to me. She also does both cartwheels equally (not-so-well).

I had been suggesting she stick with her right hand until my mom told me that her dad and 3 brothers are lefties. FWIW my mom, her mom , and her 3 sisters are righties. I hadn't realized there were any lefties that closely related to us. Now I try to just ignore it on the basis that she will figure it out on her own eventually.

:

 

[Hayeser]

I'm pretty sure my 2 yr old is a lefty. She's been dominate with that hand for a LONG time.