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Elizabeth
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| Posted: April 03 2006 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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Nicholas (5) still isn't showing clear signs of hand dominance. This led me on a little rabbit trail where I just touched the tip of the iceberg I'm sure on the issue of mixed dominance. I read this page, which I found interesting from my own perspective. I'm sure that if I had a right ear, I'd be right dominant but since I don't, I'm a little  . But back to my kids: I have several lefties and most of them are obviously all-the-way-left dominant. But my special blessing (13) could easily be mixed dominant. Hmmm... And this quirky little 5yo: I still don't know how to figure out what hand to put his pencil in . Anybody else done some research on this?
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Rebecca
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| Posted: April 03 2006 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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My Christopher (6) has a similiar situation. He did not seem to prefer either hand to write with. My father in law (who is ambidextrous), said to watch which hand he brushes his teeth with. Another suggestion was to hold an object straight out in front of him and see which hand he reaches for it with. (Something he really likes!)
That still does not mean he wants to write with that hand but it is a good place to start. 
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Rachel May
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Until I started school with the twins last year, they switched hands back and forth most of the time, especially with forks. We didn't do big time writing practice, but there was a lot of drawing and I always just let them pick which hand they wanted to use. My 3 yo still hasn't settled to a hand either.
After reading that article, I'm going to go figure out their foot, eye and ear dominance to see if I can get a clue.
I remember my ped telling me that at 18 mo you would KNOW which hand was dominant. Ha! That was the limit of my research, but thanks for yours! 
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 03 2006 at 3:25pm | IP Logged
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Interesting..only one of my kids is mixed dominant. She writes right, eats left, bats left, is very "left-handed" at violin, is left-foot dominant, left ear and right eye. I have not noticed any real problems with any of this...
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LisaR
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| Posted: April 03 2006 at 6:30pm | IP Logged
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this has been driving me crazy for years! I eat and write right, but sports are left. I always hold my babies on my right hip so that my left hand is free for tasks. I unscrew jars and such in the kitchen with Left, but cut with right.
Dh is Right, but all 4 of our boys show Left dominant. They ALL write with left- but here is an interesting twist: Paul, last year at age 8 1/2, announced at dinner one night that he thought he might like to eat with his other hand. Well from that moment on he has eaten Right! Thomas, our budding soccer player, is fascinating to watch because depending on what position he plays- he is dominant with the more helpful foot.
I take it from this website that I need to somehow establish a dominance?
All of the boys have really poor fine motor skills- but they have more than made up for it with their gross motor abilities and are very agile. They seem to take a long tome to "get comfortable" with writing and handling utensil properly....we have never encouraged or even spoke to them about them being left handed or "different"...
I have read all sorts of things ranging from that it has something to do with what happens in utero- to it depends how you held your children as infants??
Maybe I can now blame all of my problems on the fact that i am mixed dominance!
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humanaevitae
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This issue is very interesting to me as my 1yo ds has to wear an eye patch on his left eye for half his awake hours. He will have to do this for 10 years. Unfortunately his left is his dominant eye as his right eye (his unpatched eye) has many vision issues. He does seem to prefer his left hand even though it is often not in his field of vision.
I have been wondering which hand I should encourage him to eat with, write with,etc...
Nicole
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Helen
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 8:47am | IP Logged
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Lack of hand dominance can also indicate poor "crossing the midline" abilities.
Crossing the midline is one of those occupational therapy words. But, it is important in sports ability, writing ability and even reading.
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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I have dc that do have trouble using both sides of the body together - and one of those was tested by the eye therapist for hand dominance - and came up equal with both hands. He does write with the right hand, and over time has drifted to right hand - probably because that was mostly where I handed stuff being right handed myself. However, we were told that if he broke his right hand, he'd adjust very, very quickly to the left.
It is not the eye-hand dominance that is the issue, imho, it is the vision development issues that are. We have dc who have different dominance's that are fine once vision is corrected. Amblyopia runs in our family and it seems that most of our children have gotten some related vision problems. The eye muscles themselves are weak and have to be strengthened for our children to then be able to catch up in vision skills.
One thing that we have decided is that beginning this child in music (piano/organ) is our next priority - with a very patient teacher. This should help the cross-body and using the hands together - a sort of therapy. By the way soccer, martial arts, and gymnastics also are good ways to develop cross body skills or coordinating both sides plus left/right. These were some areas our therapist recommended for reinforcing therapy.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: hand dominance and other issues
