A parent of a 6-year-old girl stops by your child development center to ask what types of activities and modifications you will make to ensure your center is "lefty" friendly. The mother explains that she became very frustrated with the previous center where her child was enrolled because the staff seemed to cater only to right-handed children. How will you respond to this concerned mother? What

Question

are three things you can do to ensure you are attending to children's handedness?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Only 10% of the population is left-handed and boys are more likely than girls to be left-handed. You could tell the child's mother that you will not try to change her daughter's left-handedness. You may point out that one strength of left-handed individuals is less specialization in brain function. Some things you could do to attend to left-handed children include: purchase scissors and other equipment for left-handed children; switch the settings on a computer mouse or cursor to be more left-hand friendly; seat left-handed children with other left-handed children so they have more elbow room; be careful where you sit and give demonstrations so they can see your hand movements. You can ask left-handed adults, family members, and peers to provide demonstrations when appropriate so left-handed children have left-handed models demonstrating tasks.