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Home › Articles › Parenting Preschoolers › Left-handed Children

Left-handed Children

When Toddlers Favor Their Left Hands

By Carma Haley Shoemaker

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"The problem most left-handers encounter is that the world is configured for right-handed people," says Pieper. "And teaching a left-handed child can be a difficult task, especially if the parent is not left-handed. A child can become quite frustrated when attempting to imitate a parent or sibling who is not left-handed and may even give up on the task all together."

Learning to Teach a Lefty
What can a parent do? Pieper says it's easy -- learn to teach. "Parents who are right-handed often try to do things in the opposite of what they know when teaching their children," she says. "While the concept is good, this method is hard on both the parent and the child as it never seems to work how it should. In order to have the child see the hand movements in the proper direction, sit opposite the child rather than next to him or behind him. A left-handed child is just the mirror image of a right-handed one. So be your child's mirror."

Sue Shackles, a mother from Buckley, Wash., first noticed something different when her daughter, Sophie, was an infant. "It became more apparent as she got older -- she is left-handed," she says. "The biggest problem was when I tried to teach her to manipulate items. You can't sit next to a leftie as a right-handed mom and show them how to do something, because to them, it's Greek. Tying shoelaces was exceptionally difficult. The solution, which worked best for us, was to sit across from her, and have her copy my movements as though we were using mirror imagery. When I moved my left hand, she moved her right. You can utilize this for almost every problem -- how to hold a fork, or a pencil, etc."

Myths of Lefties
While there are many myths related to left-handed children, here are the most popular.

Lefties are More Apt for Creative Genius
: A really interesting question is whether there is any connection between left-handed people and creative genius. As one of the most common myths of left-handed people, Pieper states coincidence rather then consequence.

"Some of history's most creative minds have been left-handed," says Pieper. "Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Ludwig van Beethoven, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were all left-handed according to history. But just as we can name all these wonderfully talented left-handers, we can also name just as many right-handers. There are no concrete facts to prove or disprove any relation between being left-handed and being exceptionally in any field. However, even if it isn't fact that left-handedness gives rise to creative genius, left-handed children and parents can take comfort to know that they are in good company."

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