United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I've been told I would have been a lefty anyway, but I always thought it was strange, because my parents, grandparents and everyone else is right handed, but then I learned that my uncle should've been left handed but was forced right. That means that provavly the gene is there. I do almost everything left handed, and I have to force myself almost to do much with the right (injured) hand.

kath...here's the test where you use your eye....hold your arm straight out in front of you (non bpi arm lol) and pick a spot on the wall like a mark or fly splat (if unlike me you're a good housekeeper this may take a while) hold up a finger or thumb so it covers the spot.....i can still see the spot kind of through my thumb but as long as its in the middle it doesn't matter. Now close your eyes one at a time. When you close your eye on the non dominant side the spot should stay under the thumb, when you close the eye on the dominant side it should move markedly. It works for me...BUT....i did find an article about the fact that a very few people have different eye dominance than hand/body dominance (i lost it when my puter got a virus) it went on to say such people for some reason make exceptional baseball players....it may be rubbish but who knows? brains ae funny things :0)

Jen,

I really liked that eye test. I immediately gave it to my son, who I wrote about before. He's ambidexterous and has always been learning disabled. The funny thing was, the first time he did it, his thumb moved when he closed the right eye. The next time he did it, his thumb moved with the left eye closed.
By the way, he is lousey at sports, especially at baseball! LOL! The brain IS a strange thing!

-Stephanie

I tried that test and it didn't work out correctly for me... it showed that my left should be my dominate but I am right handed... and I am not BPI. I think to some degree I do different things with both sides... like in high school when jumping hurdles (for the track team) my left was the lead leg... what's up with that?
Kristie

Hi all,

I was so pleased to see that someone had raised this issue. This has been a hot issue with my daughters therapists lately.

She is 4 years old with right side erbs palsy. We believe that she is meant to be RH dominant but she is very ambidextrous. We are currently keeping a tally of which hand she uses first when presented with an object in the middle. So far it is 2/3 right hand.

To date, we have been letting her choose when writing. She often swaps between hands. Concerns have been raised about this as to whether she will be able to fully develop her writing skills if she is always swapping. Some say we should force her to be left handed.

Other theories say that you shouldn't swap dominance because this can cause spacial confusion.

I have had advice that says dominance of the upper body can be different to the lower body. ie. you can be right handed but left footed.

Our current plan is to work on strengthening the muscles in her right hand and continue to let her choose. I want to make the right hand more of a viable option before making any decisions. We have some time left before she starts school.

The O/T says that she would rather adapt the task than swap her domainance. ie. provide a copmuter or other alternative to assist with writing.

It is important to note that my daughter's injury is not as severe as some.

I'd be pleased to hear from anyone else that has been given similar or other advice.

Thanks,
Kelly.