My 5 month old son recently discovered what he's got that makes him a boy. Now we play "let go of that so mommy can fasten your diaper!" a million times a day. I noticed he always is grabbing his goods with his left hand (although he uses his right hand to grab toys, my hair, glasses, etc). How early does handedness show up? My hubby and I are both righties, but both his grandpas are lefties. Just wondering!
Hi Amy-
It is WAY too early for 'handedness'...
In MY experience...with men...they ALL appear to be ambidextrous in 'that' regard eventually...lol...
Best Luck!
michele/cat
Interesting.... it usually doesn't show up that early.
Here's one thing a teacher told me at a preschool screening LONG ago....
Once they are at an age where they can build a simple tower of blocks, line up several blocks (space them out a bit) across in front of the child, then ask them to build a tower.
Notice how they pick them up..... usually kids at the preschool age haven't set much of a "handedness" ... but if they continue picking up the blocks with one hand, crossing over in front of their body, then most likely they are using a dominant hand. At that age, they will usually pick blocks up with whichever hand is closest to the blocks. (Did that make sense?
Also, if they suck their thumb, they will usually suck the NON-DOMINANT hand... leaving their dominant hand free to pick things up or hold things. For example, DD#2 is left-handed... and she sucked her right thumb all the time.
My four year old still goes back and forth...my six year old is for sure a righty now...it can take a while..
I use both
Well, there are a lot of lefties out there that think they are righties. Three of my four kids fall into that category as do I. Usually the earliest you can tell is when they start self-feeding. The hand they reach with is their dominant hand. Most parents, me included start making them use the right hand to avoid the dreaded left hand scissors of doom!!! By my fourth I grew bored of this abuse and let her be a lefty. Interesting enough she cuts with her right hand do no need to use special scissors. :)
If you really want to figure out what you were born to be check your eye dominance. Whichever eye is dominant tends to be the same as hand dominance. In my case it was apparent in sports where I would assume the left hand position where the activity had a left of right option. Some examples would be batting and cartwheels.
My son is 2 1/2 and he still uses both hands to do things. For example sometimes he colors with his left hand sometimes he colors with his right hand.
Catwalk is funny! Thanks for the laugh!
my son is 11 and uses both hands. my husband is left handed and I am right handed
My oldest is a lefty and he started using his left hand as soon as he started reaching for things probably around 5 months. Everyone said that it's too early to tell but he's the only one of mine that did that with his left hand. My others reached for things with their right hands and they're all right handed.
Usually by age 2 you know for sure. Up until then, they can be pretty ambidextrous. A leftie would be fun!
I agree with Catwalk, most men I've known use their left hand for "that" even though they are right handed... Don't know why...