August 13 was International Lefthanders Day. This day would have come and gone without me giving it a second thought but for this: I have no idea whether my preschooler is left-handed or right!
Sonny is almost 4 years old but his hand dominance is still very sketchy, at least to me. I spend all my waking hours with him – well, except for the brief 3 hour period when he is at school, that is – so, I should know by now, but I still don’t.
Hubby and I are both right-handed and I can’t remember anyone in our family who is left-handed. So, I thought sonny would, naturally, be one too. But then around the age of 2 years or so, he started showing signs of left-handedness (albeit so very slightly) which made us wonder whether he was going to be a lefty. For example, he would use his left hand for picking up toys or when eating.
But 2 years was still very young to really know it for sure and we did not give it much thought. Th grouping did not matter at that age.
Then when he started pre-nursery, barely past his 3rd birthday, we could no longer avoid categorizing him. At school, he was supposed to be scribbling and coloring. And during our very first Parent Teacher Meeting, her class teacher asked the inevitable.
“He needs more practice holding crayons and pencils. Do you know which hand he prefers?” She wanted to know.
“I..I am not sure, but I think it’s his left.” I stammered. I still wasn’t sure, of course; he used both hands interchangeably at home.
She sounded relieved. “I think so too! Let’s go with that and practice writing more and more with his left hand.” She said.
And so we did. For his pre-nursery session, sonny scribbled on with his left hand. Of course, he hated writing just like all kids his age (I am guessing) and he barely did any coloring and letter tracing during that year. I had to hold his left hand with my left hand (quite awkwardly too) and help him finish his homework every single day. He still remained ambidextrous (using both hands equally well) for all other activities.
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My oldest would use his left and right hand equally until about 4. At that time he would write more with his right hand (not sure how much of that was encouragement from us doing it or how much he would have gone the other way) but to this day, he still uses his left hand for a lot of other things. There are so many random things you never think of before you have kids but all of a sudden come out from nowhere as you’re trying to raise them!!
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