10 Curiosities About Left-handed Children

In a society where most things are meant for right-handed people, as the parents of left-handed children, it’s your job to help them.

Gone are the days when left-handed children were forced to learn to write with their right hand, due to a prejudice about using the left. However, prejudices aside, some peculiarities of left-handers are truly unique.

In a society where most things, in every sphere, are meant for right-handed people, as parents of left-handed children, it is your job to help them as much as possible to bring out and stimulate their laterality.

If your child is left-handed, no doubt you will need to pay more attention to his learning and development. Both at school and during extra-curricular activities, it is easy for the right side to be stimulated more than the left.

With this in mind, it’s your job to make sure your little ones make the best use of their dominant side. Having patience as they learn to write is equally critical to their growth.

Fortunately, as we have said, the time when left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in schools is now over.

In fact, nowadays it is easy to hear phrases like “Are you left handed? Wow that’s great!”. Not to mention the endless roster of professional artists and athletes who stand out for their left-handed skills.

The opinion of scientists

Going deeper into the matter, we realize that scientists have not yet determined the real causes why your children at some point become left-handed.

According to many, it is a consequence of the evolutionary process of the nervous system, others say it is due to hereditary factors, an excess of testosterone and even the stress of childbirth.

Everyone agrees on one thing: being left-handed is a neurological issue, it has to do with the brain and depends on the ‘laterality’ of your children.

What you need to know

The human brain is made up of two hemispheres: the right one, which directs the movements of the left side of our body and the left one, which regulates the movements of the right side.

In left-handed people, the dominant hemisphere is the right one, which makes your children cope better with the left side of their body, unlike what happens in right-handed people.

10 curiosities about left-handed children

One thing is certain: all of us at least once in our life have asked ourselves the reason for this phenomenon. Below we list some curiosities about left-handed children.

1. According to statistics, between 10 and 13% of the world population is left-handed. This percentage has remained constant since prehistoric times. However, many argue that due to the social pressure it would take for everyone to be right-handed, many parents ignore their children’s left-handedness and urge them to use their right hand.
2. In some sports, such as boxing, football, and tennis, left-handers have an extra edge. According to some studies, this is due to the fact that left-handers have a better view of the surrounding space.
3. The percentage of left-handed children is higher than that of girls, with 11% of boys versus 9% of girls. The causes of this phenomenon are still unknown.
4. Left-handed children have a greater creative capacity, as their right hemisphere, which is the one linked to creativity, inspiration and artistic skills, is more stimulated and is more active.
5. Numerous cases have been discovered of pairs of twins in which one of the two is left-handed, however, there are few cases in which both are left-handed.
6. Most left-handed children tend to draw caricatures, figures, or people looking to the right.
7. 80% of left-handed children have a left-handed family member.
8. Some scientific studies reveal that dyslexia and stuttering are more frequent in left-handers, due to the fact that as a child they were forced to use their right hand.
9. Some scholars have found that left-handers make connections between the left and right sides of the brain happen more quickly, which makes them more mentally agile and allows them to think faster.
10. According to research carried out by the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, it is more difficult for left-handed children to deal with and process negative emotions.

The role of parents with left-handed children

What is certain is that your little ones should not put up with the jokes of those who consider them ‘weird’, just because they write with their left hand.

Rather, it is your job as parents to stimulate and adapt to them, so that they feel comfortable, free to use their left hand.

Try not to make the usual socio-cultural mistake, which leads you to want to force your children to be right-handed, rather help them develop their laterality and grow in harmony.