Left Hander- how to correct?

[JHJC]

so how? just leave it?

[heutistmeintag]

JHJC:

My twins boys, coming to 20 mths always use their left hand.. we spend soooo much time correcting them, finally the elder one started to response to us.. But the younger one just insist on doing everything left hand. How? any suggestion? i am running out of ideas.

My wife and my son are left handers. So, I leave my wife to coach him handwriting, drawing etc. When it comes to racquet games, it's quite a challenge for me and my wife to coach. My son finds it hard to understand my instructions from a right handed perspective and my wife has poor racquet skills, so I told my son to imagine looking into the mirror when I was demonstrating. Sometimes, I get one of my left handed frens to guide him a little.

Are you or is your spouse a left hander? If yes, the left handed parent could coach them the left handed skills. I would believe a left hander would usually have left master eye, so I am not sure if there will be a problem coordinating left master eye with right master hand. :? For that matter, how about left master leg?

Interestingly, I have a close fren who is a left hander and whose parents forced him to learn using his right eye/hand/leg. He learnt using his right side but would secretly trained using his left too. Imagine our shock when we see him being able to write or play squash/badminton/tennis with either hands, or kicking a football with either legs. :celebrate:

So, one question for you to ponder is how far would you go correcting their nature and tendency to use their left sides?

[wanchia]

You can tie up the left hand for a week and see what happens. Or you can do something worthwhile instead of worrying about silly things.

[JHJC]

heutistmeintag

thanks for the feedback, you know exactly where i am coming from.
Actually i remembered i got corrected myself. I used to do everything left hand and mum was always watching me!hahaha, thus i am not too sure if i shld do that to my children.

wanchia,
try not to be so rude in this forum, we are all exchanging views, your comment is not appreciated.

[jedamum]

heutistmeintag:

Interestingly, I have a close fren who is a left hander and whose parents forced him to learn using his right eye/hand/leg. He learnt using his right side but would secretly trained using his left too. Imagine our shock when we see him being able to write or play squash/badminton/tennis with either hands, or kicking a football with either legs. :celebrate:

Is my FIL your friend?
I heard that he is born a leftie but forced to use right.
He writes and eats with his right, but when he handles tools (for home repair work; needing more force and precision), he uses his left.

[hquek]

Obama is a left-hander.


My kids are prone lefties, but DH will scold them into being righties - it worked for son1.

It’s funny to see son2 (3 y/o) trying to use scissors with his right hand - just looks very unnatural (in contrast, he looks to be perfectly comfortable using LH to wield scissors).

[MLR]

Its a natural thing, so personally i think just leave it.


My sister is a leftie, when she was young, my father and grandfather would smack/cane her whenever she uses her left hand . She develop the habit of using right hand for easier tasks, but when it comes to precision stuff like cutting and chinese writing, she still uses her left hand. It was terrible ordeal for her , she would cried whenever she was doing chinese homework, cos my father would be sitting next to her watching. She needed like an extra hour just to write a page. She hates chinese and whenever she had chinese test and exam she would be having asthma attacks, diarrhoea. Mom felt that it was a psychological issue, but back then like 25 over yrs ago, no one would bring their kids to see doctors about such thing.

Agree that the world is develop for right handers, but as left handers you learn extra lessons adapting. Which i think its a good life skills training. Understand that as parent you would want your child to be more like everyone else when it comes to physical aspects, but its because of people that is different that creativity and innovation comes about when they are finding ways to change things around so that they can have a wonderful life.

Think positive and there are so many great people out there who are left handers that are changing lives and shaping the world.
[quote]Actually i remembered i got corrected myself. I used to do everything left hand and mum was always watching me!hahaha, thus i am not too sure if i shld do that to my children. [/quote]Based on your personal experience, you can guide your child along. Young as they may be, DH and I believe that we should also respect their views/ways.

Just my own personal view.

[mintcc]

JHJC:

My twins boys, coming to 20 mths always use their left hand.. we spend soooo much time correcting them, finally the elder one started to response to us.. But the younger one just insist on doing everything left hand. How? any suggestion? i am running out of ideas.

Agree with those who who say leave it. The only skill that I can think of that really benefited from correction is using chop stick... other wise when eating on a round table will \"langar\" with the person siting on your left.

I was a left handle \"victim\" of parental correction when I was young. So now I write in right hand and use chopstick with right hand, but don't do either very well compare to the stuff which were not corrected like using sissors and playing sports. But if possible try to encourage use of both hands. I had a cousin who was left handed and end up being able to write well with both hands...definetly an asset during exams.

[schellen]

I know a group of creative people who are all left-handed. If your children are left-handed, what’s wrong with that? You are stifling their natural tendencies. It’s like telling a crab to walk straight.


My dad was one of those unfortunate cases who was forced to use his right hand. Now that the pressure is off and he doesn’t live with his mother anymore, he uses both hands for for different "actions" like eating and writing.

One thing to note in school though: Please inform the form teacher when he/she is arranging the class seating plan. If your child sits next to a right-hander, they may have "elbow accidents" while doing work. All the teacher needs to do is just swap their positions and the problem is solved. Another teacher the child may have to inform is probably the P.E. teacher.

[kiasu_pig]

i am a left-hander too. My personal opinion is, it’s indeed very troublesome to be a left-hander - e.g. driving, opening can using opener etc - and the unfortunate incidents of elbows "fighting" at dinning tables … My mum had tried correcting me when young, but gave up eventually.