How Did You Know Your Little One Was a Lefty?

My oldest is left handed and he started using his left hand for things when he was 5 months old. My other 4 are right handed and they never used their left hands for anything.

She could use both. I know I can write with both hands and throw pottery with both. Neither one is the "dominate" hand.

My 14 month old son is definitely a lefty, and we could tell from when he started to pick up toys around 6 months probably. At 14 months he self feeds, throws balls, and colors all with his left hand. My husband, older son, and I are all right handed, and the closest relative that's left handed is his uncle who is somewhat ambidextrous.

An easy test is this- hand your little one a small toy, now hand her another. If she passes the toy from her left hand to her right to pick up the new toy with her left, then she is a lefty and vice versa (they typically use the dominant hand to grab and the other to hold). Or, have her hold a ball in each hand and ask her to throw one to you, which hand did she use? Do either of these a few times and see if you see a pattern. Four kids and we have one lefty. He does just about everything left handed but bats right. It is fun trying to figure out what they will be, isn't it?

My daughter is 3.5 and we still can't tell, I am starting to wonder if she will be ambidextrous.

2 right handed-parents here, each with a left-handed sibling.
4 kids
2 right-handed
1 left-handed, knew when she was 2, only used her left for eating.
1 ambi: eats and writes with his right, plays all sports with his left. Even kicks with his left foot .

We know our 3 year old is a lefty because when we play ball with her she favors her left hand to throw and left leg to kick. She draws with both hands sometimes but mostly with her left.

what a cute question!
i babysit a little guy, he is 3 now. started here at 2, and in one day i could tell he was a lefty, beause of how he prefered how to put his clothes on, like what leg first, and arm up first, and how he reached for the tough stuff,always left. i asked the mom, who is a mom of 8, he is the last one =). and yep he is the only lefty. so it was clear right away for him, and i get a kick out of it. its kinda cute. =)
happy betting!

I once read somewhere that you're born either right-handed or ambidextrous. So if your daughter shows signs of being able to use her left hand as well as her right, you might be able to encourage her to use both equally. My middle child is "left-handed", that is, she writes with her left hand. BUT, she holds her tennis racket in her RIGHT hand and throws with her RIGHT hand. She DID show preference for her left hand pretty much from the start, though. First time she picked up a crayon to color, it was her left. She must have been right around a year old or so...

Most kids develop a preference by age 2....though my husband is ambidextrous -- he eats lefty and writes lefty but can do it equally well righty and plays some sports left/some right/some both. I think at 19 mos my kids were still using their hands interchangeably but by around 26 mos, they had developed a preference for their right hands with eating.

I'm not really sure when I knew for sure my daughter was a lefty. I just remember when she started playing soccer before kindergarten I had to keep reminding the coach that she was left handed. So I obviously knew before that. I would guess at 3 or 4 when they worked with her on prewriting skills in preschool. My 18 month old uses both hands so we can't tell yet but her sister sure encourages her to be lefty like her!

I am so surprised by the number of people who knew before their child was 3. I'm pretty sure that it is very common to not know until they're 4 or 5. I know my neice went to prek at 4 almost 5, and her teacher spent most of the year placing a pencil at the center of her desk and watching to see which hand she would pick it up with. By the end of the school year, they knew she was a righty.

Give it time. It is so common at this age for the child to not have developed a preference yet.

My daughter was probably 2 1/2 half when I knew she was a lefty. We are having a hard time learning to write as I am a righty. She is doing much better though. She would use both hands but I could tell at 2 that she was more comfortable using her left hand. If I would put something in her right hand she would put it in her left hand. It will be fun to see which way she goes.

My son is ambidextrous kind of. He just no longer writes with is left hand.

He strictly used his left hand as an infant, his toddler years both hands equally, grade school he writes with his right. Sports is where you see it the most, he uses both hands and feet equally well but seems to favor his left hand and foot.

My son is 3 three and still uses both hands for eating and writing. I can see that he has more control over his pencil/crayon with his left hand than his right. That makes me think he's going to be a lefty. He also seems to be more comfortable when using his left. I am left handed and my husband and older son are right handed. The jury is still out on whether he's a lefty or not (I want him to be :-) ). Your daughter is young, you have some time to go before you know for sure if she's a lefty or righty. It's a lot of anticipation.

It takes a while to really figure it out. Some are true lefties (like my daughter), some are true righties (like me, i can't even talk on the phone on my other ear), then there are the mixtures. Some righties are left footed (my husband and son). My oldest son is 1/2 leftie 1/2 rightie: writes and plays guitar with his left but baseball and golf with his right. (all those activities require equipment based on right or left). As he got older he worked hard and being equally strong on both sides for sports (ideal for lacrosse) and was recruited to play for the Ivy leaque because of this dexterity. If you encourage (exercise) both sides equally she may be strong on both sides very helpful (a secret weapon) fo an athlete.
P.S. you never know if you have an athlete on your hands, i certainly didn't!

My husband is also a lefty. I thought for sure our one daughter would be one as she did many things lefty. But she'd always go back and forth. She was a better baseball hitter as a lefty. But she turned out to be a righty. Just have to wait and see.... maybe she'll be ambidextrous.

My oldest is a lefty (he is 5). He used both hands for a long time, but favored the left. He was a true lefty by age 3. My second son just turned 3 and is definitely a right-y. Our youngest is too young to know.

Both of my daughters are left handed (we think!). They're almost four and usually choose to use their left hands. Practically everyone in our family is left handed so we expected that they would be too.

At the Montessori school they go to, the lead teacher told us that the best way to test whether a young child is right handed or left handed is to throw a small ball to them and see which hand the child uses to reach for the ball, even if they can't catch it. You might try that...

My 5yo would use his left 98% of the time. Once he started throwning ball with more control on left then right we knew, at age 3 when he was in preschool he wrote with both and his left was always neater..for a new writer that confirmed it for us(obviously). She may go back and forth for a while but it sound like she is a lefty to me.

My son did everything left handed, until he started school. I am a lefty and a lot of my family members are. The school had no influence (or none that I know of), he just switched.

True hand dominance is not established until after age 3 (sometimes later depending on development, exposure, etc). Most kids will switch it up a lot initially as they explore or have no preference. Being ambidextrous is actually exceptional since they use both sides of the brain equally which is rare but very special. Hand dominance is influenced by brain dominance (which side of the brain you use more). It is actually quite fascinating the specific skills developed based on brain dominance.

i watched a documentary that said it was determined while in the womb...you could actually see what hand they would suck...not sure if its right...but my daughter always did things with her right hand...she uses both but when going to write or color always used her right hand from 1 year and up...I'm a lefty her dad is a righty

My daughter used both hand until she was around 4 (when school started) and just stuck to using her left hand the most. Just let her decide, maybe give her a coloring book that she can scribble in and see if she starts deciding on a preference. She might be one of the lucky few that can use both.

I am a lefty and so is my son. My daughter is a righty.

As I child I remember picking up my pen/pencil with my right hand and putting it in my left hand. I do EVERYTHING right handed except write and I believe it is because my aunt was a lefty and she taught me to write. I write like a right handed person but use my left hand.

My son favored his left hand early on but he does some things right handed (not as much as me).

My daughter is 4yrs old and she can/will do things with both but she has always picked crayons, pencils, paintbrushes, etc up with her right hand for coloring or writing.

My oldest is 8 and we knew he was left handed from the time he was 9 months. It may seem early, but he ONLY did things with his left hand. We actually took him to physical therapy! lol.
He grabbed with his left, picked up with his left, ate with his left. Everything. He is still VERY left hand dominant and left foot as well.
My second son is also left handed. But, it's not as serious as my first. He will use his right hand also, but he eats, writes, and picks up with his left. He, however, is right footed.
My daughter, who knows?? She's young. (11 weeks). But I find myself giving her everything to her left hand! I guess I am just so used to it..lol.
L.
Right handed mom and right handed dad!

This may sound so simple, but I think it is a huge insight in to their "writing" brain:

IF you are working with her on drawing shapes yet, then you can see which way she draws her circles (using either hand). If she goes counter-clockwise then, she will have no problems writing with her right hand. If she draws clockwise, then she probably needs to be a lefty writer.

Hope that make sense.
R.

my 4 year plays guitar, bats and throws with his left hand....writes withhis right.....so we are still waiting and watching to see if he can go both ways!!..yes i know this is a double meaning...you can laugh.

Our son was a lefty until the pre-school made him right with his right hand. We even discussed with them letting him choose which hand he prefered. So now he does everything and I mean EVERYTHING left handed, but write. You can also tell by how he hold the pencil and how the writing looks that he should not be using his right hand.

Only time will tell just let your daughter pick which SHE prefers and until she does just let her use both.