Right-handers have left-brain dominance which controls the areas of speech, language, writing, logic, mathematics, and science. It is thought of as the linear thinking mode.
In most cases being left-handed is a matter of heredity... it must be passed down to you by your parents genes, however there is some evidence to show that people with neurological differences tend to be left-handed. People with Down syndrome would fit into that category.
It would be easy here to tap into personality stereotypes and suggest that maybe the 21st chromosome has something to do with right-brain dominance but instead I am going to go with personal observation. I have three children with Down syndrome, all biologically unrelated, and guess what? They all favor their left hand. The oldest is 5 and the youngest is 2, so none have completely settled on which hand it will be but for now they lean left.
Teaching a baby with Down syndrome to eat with utensils can be difficult if the baby is a budding lefty trying to use righty tools. My one daughter refused to self-feed using a spoon or fork and continuously ditched the utensils to use her bare hands. It was frustrating for both of us until I realized that she wanted to, and would, use utensils in her left hand to feed herself.
If you have a lefty, you may want to pick up a set of left-handed utensils for your budding eater. These EasieEaters curved utensils go for about $15 on Amazon.
If you are not sure yet which hand your sweetie prefers, you can get a set of Benders that your baby can practice with. I like these because you can bend them side to side or even up to suit your child’s current skills, though I find them to be only really useful with foods that stick to them because of their small bowl size.Your Turn
Take the poll in the sidebar. Is your child with Down syndrome a lefty, righty or ambidexterous? Let’s find out if there is any truth to the left-handed rumor.
My husband is strictly right handed. I'm ambidexterous and our daughter Beth, who is 27 years old and has Down Syndrome, is strictly right handed.
ReplyDeleteWow that is so interesting!!I'm left handed , and my mom is left handed. Four of my kids are right handed. But! Em(who has Ds) is showing a huge favor to her left hand, although I can't call her a South paw just yet because she does switch off to her right.
ReplyDeleteWe have two kids, so far, out of six who are definitely left-handed. I mostly feel like Finn hasn't decided yet. Sometimes I'm sure he's a leftie, and then he'll start favoring his right hand. It still seems to be up in the air.
ReplyDeleteMy 12 year old daughter wit DS is clearly right-handed, even though I am left-handed. I don't think having Down Syndrome really determines that type of thing. It always seems to be random. For instance, my son (who does not have a disability)is right handed, while both myself and my ex-husband are lefties. As someone who has been left handed all my life, I think people make being left-handed more difficult than it really is. I never felt weird or different in way.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like I pushed Ella either way but even at almost 3 she is clearly left handed.
ReplyDeleteI read an article last year that throws all this on its head. It shows a small amount of evidence that suggests that brains of people with DS operate completely differently- left brain doesn't always control right body and vice versa. I will see if I can find the article.
ReplyDeleteYvette is ambidextrous she has DS and is 32 years old ...i was left handed until i went to school and in the 1950's you were forced to write right handed i can now do certain tasks only left handed and other things only right handed..
ReplyDeleteI honestly think our kids are different and unique. There are a lot of genetic information that is hereditary that it is not exchange because of the extra chromosome. My little neighbor is right handed and my boy is left hand, they both have Trisomy 21. It happens that my father in law, my grandpa and one of my uncle are left handed. My baby is also showing preference for the left hand. It is still too premature to tell my youngest one will be left handed, but he prefers his left hand as Tommy did when his was a baby. In my son case is hereditary!
ReplyDeleteMy son Jelani is 9 years old, a very special 9 year old (I'm a bit biased ;-) because he was born a micropreemie at 26 wks and weighed in at ONE 1b 6 oz! He is now a whopping 46 lbs and is left hand dominant. Oh and he also happens to have Down syndrome, PDDNOS (has a few Autistic traits) and Alopecia(hair loss.) When he was around 5 years old he began favoring his left hand and now he is definitely a full fledged lefty! His Father and paternal Grandmother are also left handed :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm always confused about what ambidexterous actually means. I eat and write with my left hand. I use scissors, throw a ball, bat, do pretty much everything else, with my right hand. Does that mean ambidexterous? Or would I have to do everything with both hands equally well to be ambidexterous?
ReplyDeleteMy toddler with Ds, however, feeds himself equally well with both hands but I chose "mostly left" because he seems to favor it when coloring, turning pages, and picking up toys. He can throwing a ball equally well with either hand. So honestly, I might have voted wrong...lol.
Either way, there is no way to know if his preference for his left is from me or having Ds or both. :)
Holly,
DeleteThanks for the info. I almost added ambidexterous because for the purposes of this poll it would count as left-handed. The reason why is that ambi is also an atypical brain lateralization. Knowing this might give us ideas on how our children learn and operate :-)
my son Brocky who has DS is clearly left handed. I was amazed to read this as noone else in our family is left handed.... thank you for this insight. Anna
ReplyDeleteSo helpful. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm really amazed at how close the lefty and righties are!! Awesome post! I can't wait to see what you come up with, based on the results!
ReplyDeleteI voted ambidextrous for my oldest daughter with Ds as she clearly uses both hands well for a variety of tasks. I have two other daughters with Ds who are right-handed, though I couldn't vote for all three.
ReplyDeleteEveryone in our family is Right handed - including my 6-year-old with Down syndrome :)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is 6 and she is definitely a lefty- but so are my parents...so that is where I think she got it from! I am ambidextrous- but favor my right hand- but I have the traits of a right brained\left handed person....very interesting...you never know!
ReplyDeleteI have 6 year old identical twins both with Down Syndrome and the funny thing with my guys is that one is right handed and the other left handed.
ReplyDeleteWe have 2 daughters with DS - our bio daughter is left handed and our adopted daughter uses both.
ReplyDeleteMy little lady with DS just turned two......not entirely sure yet....I'm a lefty so I was hoping she'd be like her mommy......but she uses a fork pretty well w/ her right......so if i had to guess I'd say right handed...but time will tell! :)
ReplyDelete