My 22 month old son is a lefty!

I'm a lefty. Dunno what my daughter is yet... I'm hoping she is a lefty too.

Fun lefty facts:
-15% of men are lefties, 5% of women
- lefties are more likely to be smart, creative and homosexual
- lefties have a slightly shorter life expectancy - I think like 1 yr or something

(I can't remember where I read this stuff, it was years ago)

Anyway, it's fun being a lefty. And learning stuff is no big deal IMO. I think I was a late shoe-tie-er, because the teacher did it backward and I couldn't translate. But now I don't really think about being a lefty.

I don't think you need to do anything special with your son. Just don't force him to sit on his left hand and use his right like they used to do when my mama was a child, and you should be fine!

My DS uses both about equal right now...

Just out of curiosity -- does your son have short enough hair that you can tell the direction of the whorl of his hair? They say more often than not if their hair whorl goes counter-clockwise, they have a greater chance of being a lefty or ambidexterous. Only something like 8% of people have counter-clockwise whorls! My stepson and my DS both have counter-clockwise whorls. TBH, I have no idea if my stepson is a lefty : but DS may be, who knows? Pretty interesting stuff!

I am a lefty but sadly neither of my kids are. It's a right-handed world and we lefties just get used to it I think. I know that I do some things right-handed like bat, golf but I can do it the other way quite well. I don't remember much but I know I had a heck of a time in school with penmanship. Those pictures they had with the arrows never were comfortable. Well duh I don't know why it didn't occur to those teachers that it was very unnatural to move my hand in the same direction as them. I also slanted the opposite way wonder why. My son was on a t-ball team this year and one kid was having a particularly hard time. They kept telling him to put his mitt on his left hand. Problem was his parents knew he was leftie and bought him a left-handed glove but it never dawned on them that the coaches didn't know this. I finally realized and pointed out that he might be leftie. The parents were like yeah and I was thinking duh. He did so much better after that

I wouldn't think about it too much I mean it's no big deal but if he seems to be struggling with something try to visualize it in your mind if it's because he's trying to do it backwards for him. Tying his shoes is a good example. Scissors hurt if they are right-handed. Bowling balls hurt if the holes are right-handed. On the flip side I use a 10 key right-handed as well as my computer mouse. This means I am pretty efficient when writing things down because I can do both at once. So you don't need to cater to him but be aware of it and just realize it may take him a little longer to get it because he's working through something he doesn't even realize is there. He'll accomodate but it will happen accidentally after a few tries.

I'm a lefty. But don't be surprised if your ds switches hands. Hand preferences don't really settle until the age of 4 or 5. In the meantime they can go back and forth. DD has gone through stages at 21 months of being right handed for everything for a week and then being left handed.

As a lefty, if your son is left handed, please buy him good left handed scissors when the time comes. I struggled for years with scissors and finally was able to use them well when I bought a good pair of left handed ones. And also you'll have an added advantage when teaching him new things, assuming you're right handed. If you are, all you have to do is sit across from him and have him mirror your actions. My grandmother still kicks herself for not thinking of this when trying to teach me needlepoint and to tie my shoes. I would also try to encourage him to not contort his wrist and hand to write so his hand is curved above what he is writing. I always wince when I see left handed people do this. Writing straight across with those big pencils or erasable ink pens will cause smudges on his pinky but at least he won't be in danger of spraining his wrist. And last, but not least, in a good many sports lefties have an automatic advantage at least until someone learns how to pitch, play tennis or fence against a lefty. So use that to encourage him to not get discouraged in sports when they assume he's right handed.

Quote:
Also part of it is lefties who were forced to be righties being more clumsy as a result.

Although on one message board I was on I remember one mother being almost hysterical about the prospect of her dc being a lefty something to do with it being a potential sign for mental illness of some sort. The link wasn't very strong from what I read especially since they still don't know what causes left handedness. Of course since I"m a lefty I might just be insane by poo-pooing this.

My DD is a lefty. Has preferred her left hand since birth. My DH is left handed too, so we weren't surprised. I have a lefthanded brother too.

DD eats left handed, if you put a crayon, fork etc. in her right hand she will switch it to her left hand before using it.
Dh says he never had any problems in school with being left handed.

My dd is a lefty. We've known since she was 9-10months old. Right now she's eating yogurt w/her left hand