Left-handed child. Psychological characteristics - Psychologist. If the child is left-handed, what should I do? Features of raising left-handed children

People believe that left-handedness is a developmental disorder, a mystery unsolved by scientists. Today, 15% of people are left-handed, but we still regard writing with the left hand as an amazing phenomenon. Scientists have found that dominance of one hand is established during pregnancy, and the brain of a left-handed person works differently than that of a right-handed person.

If earlier they tried to retrain such children, even punishing them, nowadays objects are made for left-handed people, and a special methodology has been developed at school. The world community has paid attention to the problems of left-handers, and now officially their Day is August 13th.

What is the cause of left-handedness

Scientists have established a peculiarity in the structure of the brain, but there is no final answer to the definition of left-handedness. Only 25% of this feature is inherited.

A left-handed person will be born if future mom experienced anxiety during pregnancy or gave birth at an older age. Fetal weight does not affect left-handedness. This is a healthy, normal child, but the main thing is that he has the right hemisphere of his brain.

Left-handedness is caused by injury to the left hemisphere during childbirth or environmental factors after birth. Often left-handed children are mentally retarded or one of twins who have reduced living space in the womb.

These facts lead scientists to believe that left-handedness develops when the development of the brain is impaired.

With careful observation, the child's dominant hand is determined at six months. More precisely, in the second year of life, and at 3-6 years old, the baby confidently uses whichever hand is better. If retrained, parents should be prepared for the child’s irritability and hysterics.

A simple method will help you determine your dominant hand: ask your child to do something with one hand. As a rule, left-handed children are restless, speech formation occurs slowly and spasmodically. They are unable to pronounce sounds correctly, but speech therapy classes easily solve this problem.

There are children who can use both hands equally, called ambidextrous. In these children, the hemispheres of the brain work symmetrically. Questions asked by the child will help distinguish left-handers from right-handers. According to research, "Why?" asked by right-handers, and “Why?” left-handed.

Left-handed people are often artistic, musical and creative people. Children are distinguished by success, development and innovative thinking. But at the same time, these are children with increased sensitivity and a vulnerable character. They are sensitive and impressionable. They want to win in games, but get upset when they lose.

Left-handed people's brains use the other half to complete tasks. For example, in both parts speech center. Such symmetry and plasticity can easily be adjusted to perception in a different mode.

Therefore, there are many left-handers in politics (Napoleon, C. the Great, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, B. Clinton, Reagan, Bush).

Left-handers have mathematical abilities, hearing, and a passion for the classics. Orientation is more difficult.

Left-handed people include brilliant people: composers Beethoven and Bach, mathematician Einstein, scientists Leonardo da Vinci, I.P. Pavlov.

The greatest women Joan of Arc, Queen Victoria, dozens of modern actors, musicians and athletes are also left-handed.

They are often characterized by a bright artistic taste, a sense of harmony and color. This was proven by the artists Michelangelo, Rubens, Rodin, Picasso.

If taught, they will early years play a musical instrument. These are great inventors and dreamers with original ideas.

It has been proven that retraining the normal feature of left-handedness disrupts the equilibrium state of the child’s psyche. The way left-handedness is perceived by parents is how the child will grow up - confident and adjusted to life or a mentally unbalanced person.

Possible consequences of retraining left-handed people:

enuresis;
disturbance of motor actions and perception of emotions;
disturbed sleep;
fatigue, headaches;
nervous tic;
problems with appetite, digestion and weight loss;
stuttering;
long adaptation period;
impaired attention and memory.

This should also include the risk of showing weakness in later life.

Features of education

The main thing in raising a little left-hander is not to focus the attention of surrounding adults and peers on his features. Warn the kindergarten teachers, the teacher at the learning center, and the teacher at school so that the child is not singled out, pitied, or irritated when reading and writing slowly.

Left-handed children simply need support and solving problems together with an adult. Don't blame him for laziness. Anger, shouting, lectures and comments will lead nowhere.

Don't isolate your child individual lessons or in a special group. It is important to learn to communicate and learn on par with right-handed children.

For little left-handers, special programs and methods have been developed that are known to teachers and educators.

Such children arrange their notebooks and write incorrectly capital letters with a reverse or forward tilt, they hold the pen differently, they need light on the right, and when writing they need to sit on the left side of the desk. At first, he writes the letters E, Z, V, R in the other direction.

When reading, a left-handed child tries to cover the entire text; he has difficulty reading syllables. Reads slowly until he can read words.

In the course of the studies, it was found that in primary school Left-handed children have low or average academic performance, but with effort in high school they are already ahead of other children in the class.

Mastering life and everyday skills is easier when breaking them down into simple sequential parts, gradually connecting them. It is easier to teach with visual images, sequential drawings, and videos.

IN sports, where hand actions are important, left-handers have advantages by using a change of tactics in fights.

Left-handed people, perceiving a complete appearance, do not stop at the details. For example, the sculpted figurine is simple, but the character is clearly expressed. In the last century it was argued that left-handedness gives Creative skills. Today, scientists have proven that the inclinations of creativity that require development are inherent in every person.

Note to parents

Four "NOT":

DO NOT retrain;
DO NOT focus on left-handedness;
DO NOT compare to right-handers;
DO NOT bore yourself with activities in several creative circles.

What to do:

Celebrate progress in classes and achievements;
Explain the pros and cons of using one or another hand;
Develop fine and gross motor skills;
Find and develop talent;
Teach life skills;
Come up with ways to encourage;
Do not make excessive demands;
Set up a cozy desk;
Be attentive, friendly and sympathetic parents.

The main thing is to raise a person who is firm and confident in his actions and behavior. Teach orientation in life.

Items have appeared in stores that are convenient for left-handed people to work with. For example, for schoolchildren, a notebook that opens from the other side or a pen with a thick end, a ruler with a reverse scale, scissors, a special copybook, a sharpener.

For adults, a guitar, keyboard, mouse, corkscrew and other things needed by left-handed people have been created.

Conclusion

Left-handed individuals decorate and diversify the world, filling it with creativity and joy. Modernity, understanding the characteristics of left-handedness, suggests that human society is becoming more wise.

Left-handed people are of mixed interest to others. Some are sure that such a person is a unique, creative person. Others consider this feature a flaw and, if it is found in a child, they try to get rid of it by retraining. Is left-handedness considered a deviation, what are its causes and symptoms? Is it necessary to retrain a left-handed person and what problems he may encounter in life. About all this in this article.

Features of a left-hander

In right-handed children, the left hemisphere of the brain is more developed, which is responsible for analytical, logical thinking, speech, writing, and reading. Left-handers, on the contrary, have a developed right, which is responsible for emotionality, intuition, creativity, and impressionability. Both hemispheres of the brain control body movements, but doing so crosswise. The left hemisphere is responsible for the right side of the body, the right hemisphere for the left.

Around the world, 90% of people are right-handed, 9% are left-handed, the rest are ambidextrous (both hands are dominant). Since 1976, August 13 has been celebrated everywhere as International Left-Handers Day. His goal is to attract discrimination against them in the world.

Left-handedness is not a pathology or a disease. Such children have many psychological characteristics, but this is only the result of the peculiar activity of the brain. A left-handed child is a creative person, he is sensitive and emotional. He cannot always control his emotions. Such children begin to talk later and have difficulty orienting themselves in space. But, at the same time, left-handed children are often very gifted, with extraordinary imagination and developed imaginative thinking. Lefties are artistic with a strong personality. As a rule, they care little about the material side of life, but they treat creativity with special trepidation. Creativity is their strong point; there is never a dull moment with such people. At the same time, left-handed children need special attention due to emotional instability and learning difficulties. It is very important to talk with them, encourage them, and help develop their strengths. With the right approach, such a child can achieve serious success in life.

If there is a left-handed child in the family, it is very important to purchase all the necessary equipment for him: a table, writing and drawing supplies, paper scissors. This will help him adapt faster and easier.

Causes of left-handedness

It is believed that left-handedness develops during intrauterine development, natal (childbirth) and postnatal periods. There are some factors influencing the development of left-handedness:

Chronic diseases of the mother during pregnancy (kidneys, the cardiovascular system, autoimmune syndrome).
Alcohol abuse, smoking during pregnancy.
Complications during pregnancy (fetal hypoxia, Rh factor conflict, fetoplacental insufficiency).
Birth injuries.
Damage to the left hemisphere, cerebral palsy, mechanical injuries of the limbs.
Heredity. The probability of having a left-handed baby in a family is 17% if one of the parents has this feature, 46% if both.

Signs

The formation of the leading hand is completed in a child at the age of 4-5 years. Until this period, it is acceptable to use both hands. At this stage of development, the dominance of the cerebral hemisphere is not determined. After 5 years, the main sign of left-handedness is performing household activities with the left hand (brushing teeth, eating, drawing, writing, stacking cubes, construction toys, combing, etc.).

Diagnostics

It is not difficult to diagnose this feature. Usually, parents themselves determine that their baby is left-handed by observing his actions.

There are tasks that allow you to diagnose left-handedness:

Drawing. They put a sheet of paper and a pencil in front of the baby and ask him to draw whatever he wants. Then they offer to draw the same thing, but with the other hand. Then the quality of the completed drawings is compared.
Opening the box. Place any toy in the box, close the lid and ask the child to take it out. If the left hand predominates, then, accordingly, the box will open with it. For more reliable data, the rear ones should be repeated several times.
Ball game. Mom and child throw a ball to each other using only one hand. Observe which hand he throws and catches the ball with.
Cutting. The child is asked to cut out any picture from a postcard or magazine, while the activity of the left and right hands is observed.
Mosaic or puzzles. The child is asked to put together a picture from simple fragments designed for his age. When performing a task, it is clearly visible which hand he uses more actively. It is with his leading hand that he will take the fragments and put them in the right place.

During tasks for left-handedness, the child should not know about this. This will ensure the purity of the experiment.

Possible problems at school, life

The whole world is designed for right-handed people, so left-handed people have a hard time. According to statistics, such children experience difficulties adapting to school and communicating.

Typical problems:

It is difficult to remember the direction of the clock hands.
It is difficult to navigate in space (right-left). When crossing the road, a right-handed person will first look left and then right. For a left-handed person, it’s the other way around: first he will look to the right, and only then to the left. Therefore, it is important for parents to take these nuances into account when teaching their child the rules traffic.
Often, when drawing, a child cannot correctly distribute the space of the sheet, parts of the drawing “float” on each other, the reason is the peculiarities of visual perception.
Left-handed people have difficulty perceiving and remembering the configuration of letters and numbers. His reading and writing technique suffers. He may confuse letters and numbers that are similar in shape, may write unnecessary elements, and has difficulty distinguishing and highlighting geometric shapes.
Mirror writing of letters and numbers, mirror reading, drawing, perception of three-dimensional objects. When writing, a left-handed child writes the text in such a way that it can be read by holding it up to a mirror. The same applies to drawing.

But despite all this, left-handed people often show phenomenal ability to adapt.

If after 10 years of age mirror perception persists, the child needs special classes that correct this deficiency.

Do I need to retrain

There is no point in trying to retrain a left-handed child to be right-handed. Small eyes, hair color, dark skin, freckles, because no one is trying to change these features of appearance. Also with left-handedness - this is a peculiarity of a child, nothing more.

As a rule, retraining left-handers leads to undesirable consequences. The baby becomes capricious, irritable, his sleep is disturbed, his appetite disappears, headaches and increased fatigue appear. In some situations, complications such as stuttering, nervous tics, enuresis (urinary incontinence), and neurosis may develop.

tie, untie knots on a rope;
collect firewood, mosaics;
assemble, disassemble a construction set, for example, Lego;
twist, twirl the pencil in your hand.

Since 1985, the Ministry of Health has adopted a resolution banning the retraining of left-handers to right-handers. It is also prohibited to reduce their grades at school for handwriting.

So, if your child is left-handed, know that he is very vulnerable and sensitive. Excessive loads are destructive for him, he is prone to self-criticism and feelings of guilt. This is a special child who needs more attention. You must accept him as he is. Remember that left-handedness is just a feature of the body, not a defect or pathology, it is normal.

Views: 2814 .

"Left-handers use their left hand for almost all needs: from cooking to any delicate work. In this case, the hand with which they write is not an indicator. I tell you this as a left-hander. And this article is especially for left-handers and their parents.

To explain everything about left-handers, many books have been written that reveal some secrets (one of them is the book of the French researcher Pierre-Michel Bertrand “Mirror People. The History of Left-Handers”), but many people still do not understand what it means to be left-handed, whether it is necessary they understand this and why people who use their left hand as their dominant hand remain practically helpless in a right-handed world.

Why is the child left-handed? Or what are the reasons for the appearance of left-handed children

Such reasons may be:

Compensation. If the left hemisphere of the brain is damaged, the right hemisphere takes over its functions. You probably know that the hemispheres of our brain perform different tasks and they function crosswise. That is, the right is responsible for left side, left - for right.

Long-term injury to the right hand (more than 6 months).

Geschwind's theory that the fetal brain in the womb is exposed to high doses of testosterone and slows the growth of the left hemisphere.

Ultrasound and its effect on the fetal brain. This is just a theory and it continues to be studied to find a pattern.

Evolutionary theory of asymmetry V.A. Geodakyan, which states that left-handedness and right-handedness are not a pathology, but a phenomenon of adaptation in response to the creation of extreme conditions for the embryo.

The “left-handed gene”, which was discovered in 2008 by British scientists. According to this theory, the gene for right-handedness is inherited, and the gene for left-handedness is random.

And in 2012, a researcher from Canada found that left-handers are born in late marriages (after 30 years).

How can you accurately determine whether a child is left-handed or right-handed?

There are many tests for parents to determine their child's dominant hand. Psychologists say that the dominant hand can be determined even in newborns. The “fencer's pose” helps in the interpretation - this is the body position that a child occupies in the first month of life, lying on his back (for a left-handed child it looks like this: the right hand is pressed to the body, and the left is extended forward).

Psychologists have also noticed that the leading hand can be determined by the direction in which the child turns his head in the first days of life.

For older children, there are other diagnostic methods. But at the same time, you must sit opposite the child and place all the things that you will offer him for testing strictly in the center. And don't rush your child.

Invite him to comb his hair and place the comb in front of him. Pay attention to which hand he reaches for the object. Observe in which hand the child holds writing utensils, with which hand he performs tasks aimed at engaging fine motor skills(makes a chain of paper clips, cuts with scissors, unscrews and tightens caps, etc.). If here everything is quite vague, then the task can be complicated with the help of a small hint - pour beads or peas into a glass and invite him to take them out one by one with a spoon. In this case, the child will definitely use his dominant hand.

As a left-handed person with great experience, I will tell you that personally, when I take a fork in my right hand, I would rather stab the person sitting on my right than be able to stab what’s on my plate.

There are many tests for determining “left-/right-handedness” and they can be found on the Internet with all the explanations.

For you to understand what’s going on, you need to know the psychological characteristics of left-handed children and understand the peculiarities of their development, and not sound the alarm, sound the alarm and tell the child that he is wrong.

As stated earlier in the article: the right hemisphere of our brain is responsible for the left side, the left for the right. And, in fact, the right hemisphere itself is responsible for imaginative thinking and visual perception, while the left is for speech, writing, analytical and logical thinking. Body movement is also cross-coordinated.

Doctor of Science, Vigen Geodakyan, noted that the left hemisphere, which serves for semantic perception and logical/abstract thinking, self-awareness and positive emotions, when switched off, leads to depression. While the right, responsible for intuition, situational thinking, spatial-visual functions and negative emotions, in the same situation led to euphoria. Conducting experiments, turning off one hemisphere and then the other, they noted that identical objects were perceived differently. And when they conducted group studies, right-handers behaved as more optimists than left-handers.

So from all of the above, it turns out that right-hemisphere, left-handed children are very emotional and creative people.

Practical psychology gives us the characteristics of a left-handed child:

Stubborn for a long time.

They often have perfect pitch and good musical abilities, but at the same time they can be “delayed” in the reproduction of individual sounds.

They often “slip” while learning writing, mathematics and reading.

They can be capricious, whiny, prone to anger and irritability. But even right-handed people often behave no better!

Even small left-handed people may complain of pain in the right hand, sleep disturbances, loss of appetite and fatigue.

Left-handed child at school and at home

And yet, left-handed people have a certain peculiarity. And this manifests itself when such a child comes to school (to understand: about 17% of the planet’s population is left-handed) and picks up a pen. All teachers unanimously trumpet that the child is holding the pen incorrectly. And it’s even worse when a left-handed person comes to school and already knows how to write. Then he is shown “how to hold a pen correctly”, not caring at all that his brain is not able to digest it (personally, I am a “defective left-hander”: my parents retaught me to write with my right hand, despite the fact that my mother is also left-handed ... retrained at one time by her father).

Often left-handed children at school become the object of ridicule from their peers and condemnation from teachers. They try to diligently ignore their left-handedness, providing them with right-handed conditions during classes. Is it good or bad? On the one hand it's good. The child does not break away from the group. On the other hand, this is undoubtedly a problem (in teaching, in particular). Because left-handers need certain conditions to solve difficulties with organizing their studies: a seat (light on the right, board on the right), no space restrictions on the left. You can position the notebook so that the upper left corner is located opposite the chest, and the right corner is tilted to the right.

What not to do?

Gone are the days of the Dark Middle Ages, when right-handed inquisitors considered left-handed women to be witches and burned them at the stake; the time of the conservative Soviet Union has passed, when they argued that left-handed people are a disgrace to the nation, a trend of the West, etc.

Do not try to retrain your child to be right-handed.

Do not oppose him to other children and do not raise the bar for your child, citing his “specialness”.

Remember how fragile the psychology of left-handed children is (at least until the formation of the psyche is complete). In addition, many famous and talented people were left-handed.

Modern parents often come for consultations with psychologists and ask for advice and recommendations on what is the best thing to do and whether it is worth retraining the child or not? After all, this phenomenon has its pros and cons.

If your boy or girl was born left-handed, then your main task is to intelligently raise your child, taking into account the peculiarities of learning, and not to wean him from using what he came into this world with. Knowing the characteristics of such a person and his main features, one can find out the specifics of training and what conditions need to be provided.

Such children should engage in activities that promote the development of motor skills of both hands (modeling, embroidery, knitting, weaving macramé, etc.) and activities that contribute to the training of both the right and left hemispheres.

Great people are left-handed

In music: Niccolo Paganini, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frederic Chopin and others.

Writers/philosophers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Lewis Carroll, Leo Tolstoy, Herbert Wells and others.

Artists: Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Albrecht Durer, etc.

Scientists: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Ivan Pavlov.

Politicians/military: Guy Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Mahatma Gandhi and others.

Judging by such an impressive list, everything is not so bad for left-handers... Do we need to change anything? "

left-handed child,

Most people in Everyday life uses the right hand, and only a small part of individuals can be called left-handed, since they perform the main actions with their left hand. This phenomenon has not been fully studied by scientists, and new research raises even more questions and speculation. Parents need to take into account that if the child is left-handed, developmental features make it difficult for him to adapt to the world of right-handers.

Causes of left-handedness

The reasons that during the formation of the brain the right hemisphere develops more than the left and takes on a dominant role may be different. It is with this brain structure that a person becomes left-handed. In medicine, the factors that influence this are:

Heredity. Most often, it is precisely this that determines the organization of the brain that leads to left-handedness.
Impact of complicated pregnancy. Improper lifestyle of the expectant mother and her exposure to bad habits may cause a redistribution of functions in the hemispheres.
Birth injury. Fetal hypoxia that occurs during childbirth can also restructure the brain.
Head injury. It has an effect if it affects the left hemisphere of the brain, which previously played a leading role.

Sometimes a child becomes left-handed if there are already left-handed people in the family. A boy or girl copies the habits and behavior of adults and begins to use his left hand more.

By the way, the concepts of left-handedness and left-handedness differ from each other, although sometimes they are replaced with each other. A left-hander not only uses his left hand for his actions, his left leg, ear and eye are also leading.

The image below shows photographs of three world-famous left-handers. Did you recognize everyone?

How to recognize a left-handed person

Parents can early age The child notices that he uses his left hand more readily than his right. But a final conclusion about his left-handedness can only be made after entering school. A consultation with a neuropsychologist is required if the child is confused about the definitions of time and space, has difficulty speaking, or tries to write with his left hand.

The main signs that a child is left-handed become obvious at the age of 5-7 years. During this period, the child may use his left hand more actively than his right. But sometimes this is due to heterochronicity (unevenness) of brain development. By the age of 12, when connections between the hemispheres are fully established, everything may change. That is why such children need to be closely monitored as they grow up.

Doing a test for left-handedness yourself is quite simple. You need to invite the baby to jump on one leg, listen to a secret in his ear, give a hand for a handshake, look through a telescope. If in these situations the child uses the left side of the body or the left paired organ, we can say that he is most likely left-handed. Parents are not recommended to retrain such children, otherwise the baby may be at risk of enuresis, nervous tics, stuttering, and problems with digestion and speech.

The video below clearly shows the characteristics of left-handers, right-handers and ambidextrous people:

Features of the development of a left-handed child

The development of children with a dominant right hemisphere has its own characteristics. Attempts to forcibly change left-handedness can lead to disruption of brain function, slow down and disrupt the development of the baby. Parents should not focus on its features. Let the child feel like other people. This will form his adequate self-esteem.

You should not give such children an excessive academic load by assigning them to special classes with in-depth study of subjects. The peculiarity of these children is their increased vulnerability and emotionality. Their psyche cannot tolerate excessive stress and harsh educational measures in the form of shouting or punishment. You will also have to come to terms with the uneven handwriting of a left-handed schoolchild; in his case, it is impossible to achieve perfect calligraphy. When a child writes with his left hand, the writing speed is not very high.

Such a child needs to be prepared for school using games that develop visual memory and coordination of movements.
Any game actions must be divided into stages so that they are performed consciously.
Organize correctly for a left-handed person workplace with lighting on the right. Observe the normal position of the forearms and the comfortable position of the notebook while writing.
For better assimilation of information by such a child, it is recommended to use illustrations and visual aids.
You cannot compare a left-hander with other students, emphasizing his shortcomings. It is necessary to show tolerance and understanding towards him.

If a left-handed child is a boy, the peculiarities of his development can be smoothed out by playing sports in which both limbs are involved. Ski racing, basketball, and swimming will be useful for him. Such children will be helped by any exercises to develop fine motor skills, then it will be easier for them to cope with writing even with their left hand. When a left-handed child is a girl, her developmental characteristics encourage her to learn to play the piano, knitting, and sculpting.

The famous pediatrician Komarovsky, citing extensive practice, argues that the dominance of the left hand over the right does not in any way prevent the child from developing normally and subsequently having success in the professional and personal sphere. Often such children are even more talented and have creative abilities that should be revealed with the help of their parents.

If the child is left-handed, Komarovsky suggests considering the developmental features as a variant of the norm, while paying a little more attention to the children. Today, left-handers account for approximately 5% of the active adult population. More often such people are found in the artistic environment, in the world of sports. There are many of them among those who are engaged in physical labor (up to 7.5%).

Famous left-handed personalities included Charlie Chaplin, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Joan of Arc. Often left-handed people are characterized by high talent in various areas and innovative thinking.

Left-handedness- this is one of the options for the development of the body, associated with the characteristics of the brain. In left-handed people, interhemispheric interaction and hemispheric specialization are not primarily formed.

Each hemisphere of the brain has its own role.

Left hemisphere called rational-logical. It controls logical, analytical, abstract thinking. processes information sequentially, progressively, going through everything possible options. The left hemisphere is mainly responsible for the right side of the body: it receives information from the right eye, ear, right arm, and leg. Right hemisphere called emotional. It is responsible for imaginative thinking, perception of art, imagination. The right hemisphere processes information simultaneously, instantly perceiving a holistic image; our ability for emotional perception, synthetic thinking, intuition, and visual-spatial functions rely on it. The right hemisphere serves the left side of the body.

Usually, by the age of 4-5 years, children develop leading hand, eye, ear. The leading left hand (ear, eye) indicates the activity of the right hemisphere. Until this point, children can pick up objects, hold a spoon, draw, cut out, etc. first with one hand, then with the other. Their hemisphere dominance has not yet been established. It is important at this time not to insist that the child perform actions with one hand; when dominance is established, this will happen naturally.

Left-handedness and left-handedness

The study of the characteristics of left-handers is complicated by the fact that left-handers are not at all a homogeneous group.

Left-handedness detects only the leading hand, whereas left-handedness- a complex characteristic that reflects greater activity of the right hemisphere of the brain (in contrast to right-handers, in whom the left hemisphere dominates). Thus, if your child prefers to do everything with his left hand, then you can confidently say that he is left-handed. However, whether he is left-handed in general can be judged only after identifying his leading eye, leading leg and leading ear(observation that the child uses more often).

When studying at school, of course, the most important characteristic is the leading hand, since the child will have to master writing.

Causes of left-handedness

There are various reasons for left-handedness, on which the development of certain qualities in a child may depend.

Genetic left-handedness.

left-handedness is 10 to 12 times more common in families in which at least one of the parents is left-handed

"Compensatory" left-handedness associated with any damage to the brain, most often the left hemisphere in the case of any injury or illness at an early stage of the child’s development
"Forced" left-handedness. The choice of the dominant hand in such left-handers is usually associated with an injury to the right hand, but can also be the result of imitation of family or friends.
pseudo-left-handedness In children, the dominant hemisphere in relation to the hand does not form. Then pseudo-left-handedness is observed or, what happens more often, approximately equal use of both hands.

Features of left-handers

Left-handed people demonstrate, on the one hand, higher creative abilities (the rigidity of established connections can contribute to more standard thinking), and on the other hand, they demonstrate a slower formation of skills in activities that require the interaction of both hemispheres compared to right-handed people.

Study of the emotional sphere: right-handed people show greater sensitivity to positive emotions, while left-handed people and ambidextrous people are characterized by a predominance of negative emotions, i.e. they are more pessimistic. Research conducted at the University of Michigan (according to I. Makaryev) revealed that left-handers have a predominance of such temperament indicators as such as anger (emotional incontinence), fear (timidity), low mood, comfort, conscientiousness, timidity, aesthetic sensitivity, sensuality, increased level anxiety.

According to a number of psychologists, Left-handed people have particular difficulties adapting to school. According to some authors, the percentage various kinds left-handed children with learning disabilities are at least 2.5 times higher than the average for right-handed children.

Common problems a left-handed child has persistent difficulties in remembering the direction of the clock hands, determining “left”, “right”, sometimes “above”, “below”.

In a left-handed world, you can read or write a letter or number with equal probability in any direction (both horizontal and vertical). Accordingly, this extends to more complex actions: reading, writing, counting, remembering, interpreting a plot picture can be started from any side (including from bottom to top). When drawing, for example, a child is not able to adequately distribute the space of the sheet of paper lying in front of him: his drawings creep on top of each other, although there is enough free space around him. The fact is that the starting point for mastering these skills is visual perception.

Impaired or insufficient development of visual-spatial perception, visual memory and hand-eye coordination, often found in left-handed people, lead to the following difficulties:

perception and memorization of complex letter configurations when reading and a correspondingly slow pace;
formation of a visual image of letters and numbers (violation of the correlation of elements, the child confuses letters and numbers with similar configurations, writes extra elements or does not complete elements of letters and numbers);
selection and distinction geometric shapes, replacement of similar shapes (circle - oval, square - rhombus - rectangle);
copying;
unstable handwriting (uneven strokes, large, stretched, differently angled letters);
mirror writing of letters, numbers, graphic elements;
very slow pace of writing.

With the phenomenon mirror movements Most parents of little left-handers are probably familiar with this. For some it manifests itself as mirror letter(the child begins to write with the letter that ends the word, then writes the penultimate one, etc., so if you put a mirror to the written word, you will see it in a mirror image traditional way written word), but there are also mirror reading, mirror drawing, mirror perception.

If, after 10 years, manifestations of mirror perception persist, then it is recommended to conduct a thorough analysis of the type of mirror movements, their causes, and organize special classes that correct deficiencies in spatial perception, coordination, attention, and self-testing skills.

Along with mirror writing, children often observe mirror drawing. Inversion is especially characteristic when drawing: top and bottom, vertical and horizontal, right and left change places, and the child does not feel the wrongness.

Left-handers also face enormous difficulties when determining the time on a dial. They not only mirror one or both arrows, but also make metric errors- determine the time with a difference of 10-15 minutes (this also applies to the clockwise direction).

Typically, most left-handed people experience distortions and delays in speech development(oral and written), reading, counting, constructive processes, emotions.

It is important that all these disproportions increase with unqualified retraining of children.

Almost all left-handed children have colossal, almost mystical voluntary control over your mental activity. In many cases, they achieve the desired results in a roundabout way, sometimes finding the most unimaginable external or internal means. Moreover, each time this process is simply unpredictable.

A left-handed child seems to invent his own way of mastering the world of right-handed people every time. At the same time, he has to “pass everything over his head.” And neuropsychologists know that the human brain is an amazingly perfect and subtle instrument, but it also has a finite amount of energy in each specific case. The more energy required for higher mental processes(thinking, speech, counting), the greater the likelihood of “robbing” the basal structures of the psyche (emotional, somatic and others).

It is precisely this mechanism that is often observed in left-handers. If any child requires attention in this sense, then a left-handed child demands three times more attention.

Is it worth retraining left-handed children?

To prevent even such doubts, I would like to remind you once again that we are talking not only about the leading hand, but about a certain organization of the brain. By retraining left-handedness, we are unsuccessfully trying to remake the biological nature of the child.

It should be understood that by forcing a child to write with his right hand, we are not able to change the leading hemisphere.

That's why the consequences of retraining can be: disturbances in the tempo and rhythm of speech (according to statistics, every third child with a stutter is a retrained left-hander), serious changes in the emotional state of the child (he can become hot-tempered, capricious, irritable, sleep restlessly, eat poorly). Later, even more serious disorders appear: frequent headaches, constant lethargy. As a result, neurotic reactions develop, for example, nervous tics, enuresis, or the functional state of the neuropsychic sphere is disrupted, i.e. neurosis develops, for example, writer's cramp.

Retrained left-handers may have various neurological manifestations: disturbances in appetite and sleep, fears, enuresis (urinary incontinence), tics, stuttering, indigestion, irritability, sudden changes in mood, motion sickness in transport.

We studied separately manifestations of neuroses in left-handed children:

Asthenic neurosis. Symptoms of this type of neurosis include the following: increased fatigue, exhaustion nervous system, a sharp decrease in performance. Physically, children can work actively only in the first two lessons, and then it is very difficult to awaken their attention, but then motor disinhibition occurs. Preparing lessons at home usually takes a long time, and the results are unsatisfactory. Written assignments are especially difficult to complete. The handwriting is unstable (letters of different sizes, different inclinations, the line is not followed, many additional strokes, corrections).
Obsessive-compulsive neurosis. This type of neurosis manifests itself in families where parents are anxious about left-handedness and believe that it can serve as an obstacle in later life. If parents force their children to perform all actions with their right hand, they usually obey and try, even though it turns out poorly. Parents very often see this as disobedience, caprice, stubbornness and punish. Such children develop an anxious expectation of failure, and in the future - intrusive thoughts about his inferiority. Such children are quite often worried about school fears of failure and written work.
Neurotic enuresis. In most cases, only nocturnal enuresis, but it can also appear during the day. Enuresis causes feelings of guilt and fear of punishment. Performance decreases even more, the child cannot concentrate, and a vicious circle is formed.
Neurotic tics. Tics include: blinking, lip licking, forehead wrinkling, nose twitching. Such phenomena rarely cause excitement and concern among parents. The child does not control these movements. Tics are not directly related to performing tasks with the right hand, but intensify when the child is tired or nervous.

Help

It is necessary to help a left-handed person organize his workplace, change the tilt of the notebook when writing, change the position of the forearms, grasp the pen correctly, make sure that the light falls from the right;
Left-handers should not be required to write right-handedly; it would be more appropriate for them to write straight. The actions of a teacher who lowers a left-handed child’s handwriting grade are unlawful. Exist guidelines Ministry of Health (from 1985), which talks about the prohibition of retraining left-handers and the need to reduce the requirements for the calligraphic side of the handwriting of left-handed children. It is acceptable to write letters vertically or tilted to the left.
It is strictly contraindicated to require a left-handed child to write continuously.
Any motor actions must be broken down into elements, explained step by step; each element must be performed consciously.
It is advisable to perform special exercises and play games with the child that develop visual perception and hand-eye coordination.
Never show a negative attitude towards left-handedness, use the characteristics of such a child in the classroom to instill respect in children individual characteristics each person, tolerance towards the manifestation of properties that are not characteristic of the majority.

During training For left-handed children, sensory sensations (visual, tactile) are important. Therefore, for better understanding and memorization educational material use pictures and visual aids.

For left-handers, it is very difficult to work in large groups with strict regulations and strict obedience. Therefore, you should think very carefully before sending a left-handed child to kindergarten, military school and college.

Left-handers are very vulnerable and sensitive, protect your child from unnecessary stress, praise him more often even for small achievements.

Parents I would like to give advice: do not tell your child that his left hand is bad. A left-handed person should never feel your negative attitude. Do not compare your baby with others (right-handed and left-handed), do not expect the same success from him as other children. If you really want to compare, then compare him only with yourself: “Today you did a better job than yesterday, well done!” Remember that he is a very unusual and extraordinary little person.

Center for Psychological Consultations.