What is a good way to test whether your child is right or left handed?

Question

My son is 6 and for the life of me I think he is left handed. But he has been doing all of his school work with his right hand. I think that we are just forcing him to use it because we don't know any better.

Answer 1

Pretty simple. Don't force him to do anything and don't bother asking him to try. He will do what feels natural to him. And there are people out there, me included, that do everything EXCEPT write with their left hands. I dribble, eat, pretty much everything but write with my left hand. I write with my right. Don't know why, just works better. He'll make that decision on his own without even realizing it. Just be patient and watch what he does. If he has problems writing you can ask him to try switching hands, but if he writes fine I'd leave it alone.

Answer 2

Uh, HAVE you been trying to force him? How?

Handedness (for those of us who don't "swing both ways") isn't something that can be casually changed.

In fact, you can't really change that about a person; they will always instinctively use their dominant hand.

(My Dad was left-handed; he told me once that, when he was young -- born in 1919 -- many parents, though not his, tried to force their kids to be right-handed. They'd tie their left hand and require them to use eating utensils with their left; beat them; all kinds of sick things. At most, it would make the child clumsy with both hands, as they'd try to use their right, yet never really learn anything with their dominant hand. But it doesn't actually change the child. It's inborn.)

Your son sounds at least partly ambi-dextrous.

If you've been trying to encourage one hand over the other, stop.

Let him do as he will.

There's no real reason to care, as he'll end up using what's comfortable.

Answer 3

He could also be ambidextrous. My brother writes with his left hand but does everything else with either hand. A true leftie eats and does most stuff with his left hand. If that is the case, then try teaching him to write with his left hand. Won't hurt him and once he knows how, he can do whichever is more comfortable.

Answer 4

watch him in his daily activities ,when he turns on a light ,when he brushes his teeth , when he eats ,which hand dose he use most frequently to do these things , children tend to do what is natural for the most part and tend not to put any thought to rutine tasks ,this is the area that will revel the truth the quickest
a nother trick to help along ,when you give him breakfast rather than setig the spoon beside the bowl set it infront of the bowl ,at a young age they will pick up a spoon on the left with the left and vice versa but with the spoon in infront so they actualy have to reach around the bowl they will take it with the dominant hand

Answer 5

Set the crayons on the table and see which hand the child uses. Most children will favor one or the other. Don't hand it to him, just leave it on the table and see what he does. If you really think he's left handed and just using his right hand because he thinks he's supposed to ask him to write his name with both hands and then ask him which he thought was easier. Tell him he can use whichever hand he prefers.

Answer 6

IF your son is grabbing everything with his left hand then more than likely he is left handed vice versa for the right hand. Normally the hand he eats with is the hand he should write with. We just fiqured out that my 2 yr old nephew is left handed

Answer 7

to answer the question - give your child a tube and see which eye they look through it with. Apparently, whichever eye they use also corresponds to the hand they are strongest with for writing.

Otherwise, just let him decide for himself which hand is best, although constant switching can delay forming the correct skills with one, in which case a choice should be made, but ask your son's teacher for help with this.

Answer 8

If he writes with his right hand, then he's right handed. Put an object in front of him and see what hand he grabs it with. Honestly, it doesn't really matter which hand he uses as long as the work gets finished.

Answer 9

I'm left handed and I wanted my daughter to be left handed too. Well...she's not.
I would even put crayons in her left hand when she first started coloring hoping that I could make her use her left hand. Obviously, that didn't work.
I'm not sure you can "force" a kid to favor one hand over the other. I guess if you're really strict about it then maybe, but I don't get the impression that you've done that.
Let him do things with whatever hand he chooses. He'll decide on his own. Who knows...he could be ambidextrous.

Answer 10

If the right hand is what he is using, and he's doing fine, just leave things alone. He may do other things with the other hand being dominant.
I'm right handed, but I play hockey left-handed. Go figure!