The Left-Handed Child

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 30, 1916

The Left-Handed Child

A MOTHER having a boy eleven years of age who is left-handed, inquires whether he ought to be trained to use his right hand. Probably not. Nature apparently intended that left-handed children should continue to use the left hand. Ambidextrous children do not, speaking generally, develop so satisfactorily or reach so high a standard mentally as children who use principally one hand, either right or left.

A right-handed child has the left hemisphere of the brain developed better than the right hemisphere. Just the reverse is true with the left-handed child. Now, it appears that it is better for an individual to have one hemisphere of the brain very well developed than to have both hemispheres only moderately developed. That is to say, a right-handed individual will accomplish more if he continues to be right-handed than if he cultivates ambidexterity. The same is true of the left-handed child.

Of course, left-handed children are handicapped in some of the situations of daily life. Tools are generally made to be used with the right hand. The dining table is laid on the supposition that diners will use the right hand. Our system of writing is based on right-handedness, and the left-hander is at some disadvantage in this respect. But a boy who has reached the age of eleven, and who is markedly left-handed, probably never could gain such a mastery of the right hand as would enable him to be at ease or be efficient in its use. The attempt to teach him to write with his right hand, would probably cause degeneration of his handwriting. He never could develop a high degree of skill with his right hand, and his left hand would actually lose its skill.—Selected.