[neilep (OP)]

Hello

My daughter who is now 27 months old is without a doubt using her left hand 99.99%of the time for throwing balls etc....is it safe to say that this is a 'reasonable' indicator that she is left handed ?...I have passed things to her on her right side and she either picks them up with her left hand  (90%) or picks them up with  her right(10%) and then passes the object to her left for throwing....she always uses her left hand for throwing.

Your non ambiguous answers or comments of an equivocal nature will be greatly appreciated and rewarded by a smile on my face []

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[Corbeille]

Handedness will kick in at about 2 and a half years. It sounds like she is definitely a lefty. Before that age a child can change from left to right to left etc before forming a preference.  She will have some advantages over righ-handers at certain sports, e.g. tennis, where the opponent is not used to playing against many lefties. Also it's a great advantage in playing boogie-woogie piano which needs a steady left to walk the bass line. So get the Jools Holland CDs out now[]



 Nah pop no style, a strictly roots!

[bezoar]

My parents consistently passed things to me on the right, and placed things in my right hand to make me right handed when I was doing the same things your daughter is.  Well, I'm now right handed, fairly ambidextrous, but have a lot of confusion with left and right.  When I was in school and they said your right hand is the hand you write with, I still had a hard time figuring it out, because I don't have a real clear dominance with either hand.  Let her be a southpaw, and don't confuse her. I have two daughters, one right and one left handed.  Go figure.

[neilep (OP)]

Thansk Mike, Thanks Nance.....

Please don't misunderstand me....my attempts at passing her the ball/toy to her right side was just to determine which hand she preferred....I have no intention of 'handedness-washing' her mind either way......what will be will be....and thank you so very much for your answers....you are lovely people and I love you very much !!!!


'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[chris]

Great question Neil.

I think there is some evidence, based on ultrasound scans of developing babies, that thumb-sucking in utero can be used to predict future left or right handers. In other words, even at a very early stage of development children already show a preference for one hand.

I believe we dicussed this very topic in one of our interviews with Chris McManus (author or Right Hand Left Hand) - here are the links :

 http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/Shows/2002.07.21.htm - This one is the show with children's handedness discussed, I think.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/shows/2003.11.16.htm - This one is a more general chat about many aspects of handedness.

And here's a link to a review of Chris's book, Right Hand Left Hand, which won him the Aventis Book Prize 2003. It's brilliant.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/books/psychology.htm

Chris



"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx