r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/Gimme_The_Loot • 2d ago

Question - Research required Will constantly handing child utensils in left hand impact which hand is dominant?

The way I feed my daughter I, right handed, am facing her so when I try to get her to use the utensil I would typically offer it to her left hand, as I wouldnt want to reach across the plate.

My wife questioned if this could have any impact on hand dominance, ex make her left hand dominant even if not "left handed" due that hand getting preference in this formative years.

Based on my general knowledge on the topic my understanding, and basic googling, suggests that it's how we're wired, not something conditioned into her, but I also don't want to cause any potential issues. For example if she is naturally right handed is having her constantly using the left going to cause any issues?

My general question is will her overall hand dominance be something which naturally develops or will our actions have any impact on it along the way?

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u/vstupzdarma 2d ago

With the caveat that I don’t fully understand this at all, there’s some research that handedness is genetic. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335639064_Handedness_language_areas_and_neuropsychiatric_diseases_Insights_from_brain_imaging_and_genetics

And a weird anecdote - my dad had a stroke and I remember the tech and doctor asking after brain imaging if he was left handed. Today he’s right hand dominant, but it turns out he was left handed as a child until going to catholic school in the “use your right hand or I hit you with this ruler” era. Something about his MRIs still indicated to the medical team that he was naturally left handed. 🤷 which does seem to imply that your wife’s question is reasonable, though I think getting hit with a ruler by a grumpy nun is probably more behavior modifying than a parent giving a spoon

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u/No_Pomegranate1167 2d ago

My children started to show their left handedness with their BLW start around the 6th month. Because I'm right handed, I always put the utensils on the wrong side. Older kid picked them up with their right hand to put them in their left hand. Younger baby is starting to show the same preference. My husband is left handed, so it's no surprise.

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u/rsemauck 1d ago

Yes anecdotal too but my son showed his left handedness already before 1. He clearly had a preference for his left hand at a young age and that's confirmed now at 3.5 years old when starting to write letters. Neither me nor my wife are left handed but both one of his grandfather is left handed and the other one was fully ambidextrous.

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u/PoorDimitri 2d ago

Hijacking because I don't have a link.

My parents both passed stuff exclusively to my sister and I's right hands, and we are both left handed as adults lol.

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u/Barleynwoody 1d ago

My two daughters are lefties. I thought I had caused my first to be left handed because I’d put her utensils near her left hand 😅. Neither me nor my husband are left handed. My SIL is though…

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u/Aear 2d ago

Language areas in the brain are different for right and left handed people. The former has fewer but bigger areas on the left hemisphere, the latter has more smaller areas on both hemispheres. It doesn't matter for everyday use but for stroke patients you want to know which functions may have been impacted.

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u/randomthingsso 1d ago

I had a left-hand preference as a baby that my grandparents forced out of me, and I'm now right-hand dominant. I do feel there is a mismatch in my brain in a way I can't explain. And just to wind my grandparents up, all the grandchildren after me were all left-handed.

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u/ExpectingHobbits 2h ago

I do feel there is a mismatch in my brain in a way I can't explain.

I was left-handed until I started school, when I was forcefully trained to be right-handed. This led to cross-dominance - I use my left hand for some tasks, my right for others, and neither ever feels quite right. Perhaps you have a similar issue with mixed-handedness?

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u/MuffinTopDeluxe 2d ago

My dad was left handed, my brother is left handed, my husband is left handed, my son is left handed. I am actually left hand dominant because of a stroke I had as a toddler but still write with my right. Lots of left handedness going on in my immediate family, but my daughter is right handed and she showed that dominance early.

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u/fasterthanfood 1d ago

I’m naturally right-handed, but I broke my right arm in the first week of 1st grade, so I used my left hand as I was forming a lot of my handwriting habits. (I think we did a lot of the kinds of writing practice that’s now done in kindergarten.) Although I’ve used my right hand ever since, people sometimes see my handwriting and ask if I’m left-handed.

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u/Sellae 1d ago

Here is something from Royal Children’s Hospital occupational therapy about hand dominance:

https://www.rch.org.au/uploadedfiles/main/content/ot/infosheet_b.pdf

Best practice at this age is to offer her things in front of her right at her midline and let her choose. You will start to see which hand she prefers. It’s pretty hard to accidentally change someone’s hand dominance!

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u/Gimme_The_Loot 1d ago

Very helpful, thanks for sharing!

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u/Murmurmira 1d ago

Fork belongs in the left hand for right-handed people, so you're doing it right with the fork xD

Anecdotally I've always done the same as you and my kids just immediately pass the utensils to their right hand unprompted and never taught by anyone 

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