Left Hand Dominant

[chantaal]

Greetings all!

Has anyone had any issues regarding their child/children's left hand dominance?

How do you deal with this?

I just get upset and say loudly, "It's OKAY."

The situation is not so serious though, in my case. Adults and Thai family members of mine/ ours think my daughter should be "trained" to use her right hand. She goes to a Thai school. However, she said her teacher commented on her left-handedness, but not negatively. (She was asked if she could write with her right hand, the teacher tried to get her to write with her right hand, then gave up.)

I am interested to know others' thoughts and experiences.

Regards,

[Carib]

My thoughts: If your daughter is lefthanded, so be it. Donot make a problem out of it, or let anybody else do that.

If she is better, and feels better doing things lefthanded i absolutely wouldnot see any reason to change her nature.

Some people have a dominant eye, they can sometimes feel that, especially when they are tired. Now i have never heard that if you have a left dominant eye that one should try to make the right eye the dominant one. But with hands we seem to think different.. maybe because it shows?? It is all in te mind ( of other people) .

Regards

[mr_hippo]

Greetings all!

Has anyone had any issues regarding their child/children's left hand dominance?

How do you deal with this?

I just get upset and say loudly, "It's OKAY."

The situation is not so serious though, in my case. Adults and Thai family members of mine/ ours think my daughter should be "trained" to use her right hand. She goes to a Thai school. However, she said her teacher commented on her left-handedness, but not negatively. (She was asked if she could write with her right hand, the teacher tried to get her to write with her right hand, then gave up.)

I am interested to know others' thoughts and experiences.

Regards,

NO,NO,NO!!! Do not even think about it. I was left-handed and, as a kid, it was beaten out of me and I do mean beaten. It left me with a terrible stutter that took years to disappear. A classmate of mine, Colin N., had his left arm broken 'accidently' so he was forced to use his right hand. I last saw him about 20 years ago and he still stutters very badly. I am not trying to say that there is always a relationshop between changing your child's handiness with stuttering but my youngest sister (6 years younger) was 'allowed' to be left-handed and had no speech priblems!

Two of my daughters are left-handed.

[Beacher]

Wow!!! I'm absolutely amazed that people (i.e. parents and teachers) see left-handedness as a problem.

I remember my mother who is well in her 70's (and left-handed) telling us that when she was in school, one of her teachers would actually tie her left hand to the desk thereby forcing her to use her right hand. This didn't work, and I really honestly thought that concerns about left-handedness were something from the past -- from the dark ages.

[bina]

thai issaan husband is left handed and never had issues with being left handed in his school...

bina

[mizzi39]

It is amazing to me as well that this would be such an issue. I am left handed and never had a problem. I am sure that it was inherited from my father who was also left handed and was forced to write with his right hand when he was a student at a parochial school, but this is going back 60 odd years and he is still left hand dominant.

I have about 10 lefty Thai students in my M1-M2 class and I do not believe that an issue has ever been made over them being left handed.

[Boo]

I just get upset and say loudly, "It's OKAY."

Why do you get upset? Who are you getting upset at, your child or the silly people trying to make an issue over the child being left handed?

My son is showing left hand dominance & it has never crossed my mind that this might be a problem, I suggest you do the same & make it clear to anyone else who may make an issue over it that they will get an earful if they do

[cmsally]

My belief is that something is different in your brain structure that makes you left handed. I am left handed and my son is left handed.

I can't believe in this day and age people have a "problem" with it.

It is just an innate instinct that one side of you is better at some tasks than others. I am left handed but right footed, that is just the way it is. If you take this ability away or try to change it, then you will just make your child "not so good as they could have been" basically.

And if you come across someone that tries to change it make it quite clear that you have a problem. A snide remark that only uneducated and backward people think like this should work.

Sorry rant over, my great aunt who was left handed was forced as a child to swap. She was incredibly brilliant, smart , talented but was prone to emotional extremes. She committed suicide in her late 20's and the family always thought that being forced to go against her instincts of left handedness were a major contribution.

[jumnien]

Unfortunately, your daughter will find it more difficult to find women's left-handed clubs and virtually impossible to find a left-handed catcher's mitt if she decides to play baseball in Thailand. Otherwise, she shouldn't encounter any difficulties.

[soihok]

My dauhgter (photo as avavtar) is also leading with her left hand.

She is Autistic and it is of no concern to us which hand she uses first.

I just want her to be able to play with other kids......but its not happening.She is 6 and has a heap of problems.

My Mum is left handed and she has taught children all her professional life.

It really does ,nt matter does it?

[Heng]

It's not exactly a non-issue (is it not PC around here to say that we live in a right handed world?... not just catcher's mitts, but a good amount of sports equipment, music instruments, school desks that you sit at to learn just about everything...), but I wouldn't call it a "problem."

[chantaal]

Dear All, Thank you for the replies!

My mother is Thai and was trained to use her right hand. She is now ambidextrous. She said she did not like the experience though.

I have had family members in America describe similar problems, in people they know or are related to-- such as stuttering, or emotional imbalance-- as a result of being forced to use the right hand instead of the naturally dominant left hand.

Boo, I would never be upset at my daughter for that! ??? (like, what?)

I get upset at adults who remark negatively when they see her using her left hand for writing, drawing, etc. And shake their heads and stuff. AND it doesn't matter what I say, they have a problem with it, and my allowing her to continue. That bothers me and I don't know how to respond without being disrespectful (like to an aunt or someone, you know?).

Anyway, all these responses and support are nice!

Take care,