United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello everyone,
Does anyone know if it is possible to determine which hand would have been dominant(SP) prior to injury? My son's PT has suggested that he may have left-handed prior to injury but now he is right-handed. Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This may be unrelated, but he also has a vertically split toenail on his left big toe. He has had it as long as I can remember and I was wondering if anyone else has something like that on the injured side?
Thanks!

I was told that a catscan or an MRI would tell which hand is dominant. Apparently, if the left side of your brain is larger you are right handed and visa-versa. My son never had either of these tests done so I don't know for a fact but he has always reached for things since he is little with his right hand and once he realized he couldn't do it, he would switch to the left. He will be six in February and is left handed.

A therapist long ago once told us that to determine dominance have your child take an object like a kaliedescope (I have no idea how to spell that!) or even a toilet paper tube and ask them to look through it. The eye they bring the object to to look through reflects the dominant side.

HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, I'm not convinced this is an appropriate test for our kids, because hand use (in getting the object up to the eye) might dictate which eye is used rather than instinct.

When we did this test with my son he used his right eye, but I don't believe the test was accurate in his case. He is extremely left leg dominant, and there are other clues that he is left hand dominant (but forced to be right handed due to his injury). He seems motivated to use his left arm first, and if that doesn't work he will use his right arm.

This was really interesting after his mod quad, because before the mod quad he could not reach his left arm high enough to turn door handles, for example, even though he constantly tried. After the surgery he could lift his arm, and right away he started reaching for and using door handles with his left arm. He was very satisfied about this!

Now that he is in second grade we are also noticing some things about his handwriting and letter formation that indicate left hand dominance. Lefties run in both sides of Ian's family, and I had a long talk with my dad (a lefty) about how he writes letters and numbers and amazingly Ian does exactly the same type of things.

It is kind of sad to think that Ian has been hindered in this way, but on the other hand he has been instinctively motivated to "use both hands" and for this I am grateful.

Not sure any of this helps, but wanted to share.

Bridget

Thank you both for your replys they were very helpful!
Sincerley,
Stephanie B.