handedness

[hope16]

Carol,
Speaking from experiance, it will affect your child only minorly. My mind it right handed but my body has been forced into lefthandedness. THe only thing that I really notice sofar at 16 years old is that it tend to write just a little bit slower than other kids, and some times when I write I cant remember how to write certain letters. But that passes quickley. When I was in kindergarden though I had to have special cards that tought me to write things the right was like my name which is Amy I would write as ymA, but that too passed now I only have to normal forget a letter that every one has.
Good luck to you.
Amy

[Kathleen M]

This is something I would really like to know the answer to!

I am robpi - I come from a very large family - we have many left handed people and an equal number of right handed members.

I had T1 injury so I had Horner's syndrome - so how can anyone tell by my eyes? The pupil dilates slower and also the focus is different... that leaves out the eye test.

The entire side of the body is impacted... my entire right side is smaller and weaker... so that leaves out the feet issue... my left leg is stronger...

I was forced to write right handed in school. I wrote slower and transposed letters and often copying from the blackboard left out a word in a sentence or a letter in a word... my Mom taught me to count the words in the sentences. That slowed me down. When I began to type I discovered that my spelling improved...

I have small motor coordination in both hands out of necessity. I write and draw right handed... I can put on my make-up and contact lenses with my left hand... when my arms are tired painting I switch hands and can paint with either hand... I can write on a black board left handed but not on paper left handed... so I will never know which hand was supposed to be the dominate one... because the test do not take in to account that a bpi child has the entire side of the body impacted by this injury...

OK... that’s just my opinion and also my experience. But after 63 years of trying to figure out which one of my hands should have been the dominant I decided to accept the fact that I am totally ambidextrous. I started writing with my left hand but because I was injured they assumed I only did that because of the injury. When I went to school it was considered best if all children were right handed… switching hands alone can cause educational problems. Add the injury to a dominate hand and what happens? If the messages to move our arms is scrambled how can we transmit information between our brain and hand in proper sequence… sorry I just questioned this recently. Being a poor speller inhibited me greatly in school and was a major issue for me and now I realize it was because of this injury.

Due to the need for therapy I was pushed to use my right arm - each hand has always had assigned tasks. I can only iron with my right obpi hand... stir with the left hand... peel with the right... this prevented me from just letting my arm hang out and be lazy... I am sure now that was a difficult task for my mother... I will be forever grateful for her ability to nag me to death and keep me moving. I truly admire all of the parents here and realize the strength, energy and courage it takes to keep the kids moving forward.

Kath

[Cara]

I had posted on this sometime back. My daughter has LOBPI. We have a lot of lefties inour family as well as ambidexterous (SP) The test that seems to be least impacted by ablity due to injury is to have your child hold soething like a paper towel tube to their eye. The eye they choose to look through is suppose to be their dominant side. I see my little one doe this over and over and it is always up to her left eye. She als steps first with her left foot and tries very hard to use her left hand.

Their are activites you can do to help your child become more "whole brained". I am a teacher and in my masters program we discussed a great deal about the latest in brain research. By doing crossing over activities it will help the child that cannot use their dominant side normally.

[terri0320]

My daughter has a ROBPI. She is now 18 months old. She very rarely uses her right arm. We try to make her use it as much as possible. But She mostly uses her left. She puts blocks together with the left, eats with her left. She actually uses her left hand all the time unless we make her use her right. I think it will be very difficult when she starts to write if she ends up left handed because we are all right handed. My mother was the only one that was left handed. I am afraid that we will not be able to help her when she begins to write and may have trouble. I know it wasn't that bad helping my son, but he is right handed.

[Francine_Litz]

terri - OT will work wonders for this. Your're just going to have to work at strengthening the left hand. Maia has Lobpi and is left handed and so we are strengthening the right hand. She's 27 months delayed in the right hand (as per OT tests). So all summer we have been doing a right hand strengthening intensive.... She writes with a pencil grip and writes on a slant board. I've gotten her a jiggle pen (battery run massagy motor kind of pen) and thick crayons and all sorts of things. One OT is using the "handwriting without tears" set. I have a diffrent set I am using. We do it daily. She's also in Art classes learning how to draw and paint with righty so she gets 1 1/2 hours of input each day.

Doesn't mean her brain is so happy about it -but maybe one day she'll be able to use her left arm the way it was intended and she'll be ambidextrous. Every time Maia's left hand is strong enough - she uses it the way a dominant hand should be used. And then she goes back to righty - it's almost been the first sign of a growth spurt.

anyway.... what I'm trying to say is "don't worry" ! It'll al work out.

big hugs,
francine

[claudia]

Just a note about "Handwriting without Tears." It is a fabulous way to learn handwriting. It is fun and has great results. We are ordering it for Juliana, but will be having her older brother (whose handwriting is just awful) do it with her.
I think it is a good idea for all kids to use "HWT" and many school districts use it. Remember, there are those teachers who are really into handwriting (my son had one)-so it is better to be prepared.

claudia