Make Things Easier for Your Left-Handed Child
Lefties Must Adapt to a Right-Handed World
Nov 5, 2008
Many left-handed people have made important contributions in the arts, sciences, and sports, although left-handed children must make many adjustments to live in a world in which approximately 90% of the people are right handed.
Lefties Do Things Differently
With a little help lefties can do everything right-handers can do. They may need help learning to do things like writing, holding a pencil, and tying their shoes. Right handed people write with the pen moving away from their body, but left-handers write with the pen moving toward their body. They may make smudges on their paper if they aren’t taught to slant their paper in a way that is right for them. Today’s parents and teachers know that they shouldn’t try to change their child’s handedness, but lefties do need help with tasks that require them to do things differently than most people.
Tools Designed for Right-Handed People
One problem for left-handed children is that many of the tools that they use every day are made for people who use their right hands most of the time. Scissors, furniture, doors, tools, and musical instruments are a few of the things that are made for right handed people. Lefties must either learn to use those tools or have tools specially designed for them. Many lefties learn to use the right-handed objects, but today they can find many products made especially for them.
Left-Handed Children and Right Brain Dominance
As reported by Cherie Norton of The (London) Independent, according to St. Lawrence University professor Dr. Alan Searleman, left-handers are often more gifted than right-handed people, and there are proportionately more lefty artists, musicians, writers, and astronauts. All of these fields are considered to require the kind of creativity generally associated with right brain dominance. Other scientists who have studied the brain and its relation to human traits believe that the right side of the brain is dominant in most left-handed people. That means that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, just the opposite of right-handed people, whose left brain is dominant.
Southpaw Advantage in Sports
Southpaws, a slang word for left-handers that may have originated from left-handed baseball players, may have one big advantage against their right-handed friends. Sometimes right-handed players get a big surprise when they play sports against southpaws, according a February 17, 2005 article titled "The Left Handed Advantage" written by Amanda Onion for ABC News. The article reported the findings of French scientists Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond.
According to Faurie and Raymond, left-handed players have an advantage in sports because the majority of players are right-handed. Left-handers are used to playing mostly other right-handed players, but right-handers aren’t quite as used to playing southpaws. The left-handers have the advantage of surprise because they have plenty of practice playing their opposites, so they know what to expect from their right-handed opponents.
How Parents Can Help Lefties
If you have a child who is left-handed, here are some things that you can do to make life a little easier for both of you.
- Let your child choose her place at the table.
- Find out which left-handed tools or instruments she needs.
- Use the Internet to help her find the tools or instruments that she needs
- Speak with her teacher if she has special needs
- Remind her that most left handed people grow up to be successful, and many have been famous people have been left handed.
Famous Left-Handers
Many famous people, including artists, musicians, architects, inventors, astronauts, and writers are left-handed, according to a list compiled by Lawrie Weiser, owner of The Sinister Shop, an online store that sells books and tools especially for left-handed kids and grown-ups.
Buzz Aldrin, who along with Neil Armstrong was one of the first two men on the moon, is left-handed. So were baseball’s Babe Ruth, and actress Marilyn Monroe. Some scientists believe that’s because the right side of the brain controls emotions and creativity. It is true that people used to believe many superstitions about left-handed people, but today it is known that most left-handers grow to be successful adults.
Successful Lefties
The small minority of left-handed people has not only survived by adapting through the centuries; most of them thrive in a right-handed world. They do things a little differently, but with your help they will adapt to a world that is mostly made for right-handed people. Remember that many famous people, especially artists, inventors, and great leaders throughout history have been left-handed. Your child may even be a president!
