Hand Dominance
Is my child ambidextrous? Keep swapping hands?
Hand dominance refers to the consistent favouring of one hand over the other for the skilled part of an activity. For example, when writing or drawing the preferred hand holds and uses the pencil whilst the other hand supports the paper. Hand dominance is usually established by the age of five.
How is dominance determined?
The brain is divided into a right and left cerebral hemisphere that are specialized to perform different tasks, but also work together to produce the best results in physical and mental tasks.
Being able to use a tool with the same hand consistently and in a precise way, can indicate that the hemispheres of the brain have become specialized for a specific function. The more a child uses a specific hand for a task, the more efficient the child will become. With dominancy, hand preference and movements will become spontaneous and automated. As a child becomes more efficient in holding a pencil with a preferred hand, it allows the brain to pay more attention to thinking what to write instead of how to write.
Don’t forget about the other hand – the non-dominant hand still plays an important role in tasks. The movements by the supportive hand can be demanding and require good control. The supportive hand provides stability in the task, holding paper or a ruler.
Children who switch hands or don’t have a strongly specialized left or right hand for a specific task, may struggle to carry out fine motor tasks that require automatic, learned movements, such as cutting neatly on a line with scissors, or writing with a pencil.
Tips to develop hand dominance:
Position toys/utensils in the centre of your child’s body.
Encourage your child to complete the task with the same hand as the task was started.
Play “show me game”- e.g. show me how you brush your hair (your child will perform the task automatically without having to actually pick up a tool). You can continue with instructions such as; show me how you brush your teeth, hold your pencil…
Play Simon says
Opening containers
Painting/drawing
Throwing at targets
