Left Handed?

Since Ella first began reaching for things, she has used her left hand. I have watched this with resignation, reminding myself and others that babies usually don't display hand dominance until around 8 months or later. The more she uses her hands, the more I think she will be left handed. She holds the spoon in her left hand, reaches with her left hand, sucks on her left hand, etc. The picture at the top of this blog shows her eating with her left hand. Last night I had a realization when she was Johnny Jumping (did you know that was a verb?) - she always kicks with her left foot. At this point, I don't think I can deny that she's left handed.

When talking about this with other people, I invariably always say, "How am I going to raise a left handed child?" (I'm right handed, myself.) I invariably always get the answer, "Just like you raise a right handed child." Hmm.

Understand that I don't have any issue with the fact that she is left handed. There's nothing wrong with that. My concern is that I won't know how to teach her to do things because I'm right handed.

Me being me, I decided to Google it (another verb) and found that my concern is legitimate, and I am not the only right handed parent with this concern. There is a whole left handed world on the Internet that I didn't know about. I found tips for demonstrating how to do things, guides for teaching them to write, stores full of left handed products (even pens!), and information about challenges they face in this predominately right handed world. I was pleased to realize that I've already been accomodating her to some extent by standing in front of her to show her how to do things (courtesy of signing), rather than sitting beside her. Upon thinking about it, I also realized that a lot of the time when she's frustrated with what I'm trying to show her, it's because I'm sitting beside her and she's trying to imitate me with the wrong hand. Hmm.

It's very interesting to know that there are things I can do differently to help her learn, and when it's time to teach her to write she will definitely be getting a left handed workbook to show her how to form the letters in all her left handed glory.

Speaking of hands, this morning she started holding something in each hand at the same time. Until now, when she was holding one thing she would take something else with the other hand, then put down the first thing and switch the second thing to the holding hand. (Guess which one that was? The left.) This probably seems trivial to some, but I find myself more amazed at her fine motor development than her gross motor skills. Every couple of days she seems to be doing something new with those little hands.